‘The Celluloid Closet’ A History Of Gays In The Cinema

There is a particular six-letter word that, as a white male in particular, I can neither write in this newspaper nor utter out loud without risking public censure.

Justifiable public censure, I might add.

Without getting into a philosophical argument about the virtues of free speech vs. the harm caused by hate speech, let me just say that the word begins with an “n”, ends with an “r” and is a pejorative term for African-American.

Now, let’s talk about another six-letter word. One that many if not all of those to whom it is applied find hurtful and discriminatory.

Once again, justifiably so.

It, however, is a far more common part of everyday speech, especially speech that you hear from characters in the movies. For when it comes to the history of film, this particular six-letter word - it begins with “f”, ends with a “t” and is typically applied to gay men (and sometimes women) - is all too commonly used.

Yet the average filmgoer, so sensitive to the “n” word, likely isn’t fazed by the “f” word at all.

That’s one of the points that documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman stress in “The Celluloid Closet,” their study of the way that world cinema, but especially Hollywood, traditionally has treated - and still treats - the subject of homosexuality.

Using hundreds of clips from films as diverse as an early experimental print by Thomas Edison to big Hollywood movies such as “The Children’s Hour” and “Boys in the Band” to “Spartacus” and “Cabaret,” Epstein and Friedman follow the evolution of gay cinema manners.

It was, they point out, not uncommon for early movies to show intimacy, even love, between men. But that devolved into using gays for comic relief.

“Enter the Sissy,” says narrator Lily Tomlin, voicing words written by Armistead Maupin. “The Sissy made everyone feel more manly or more womanly by occupying the space in between. He didn’t seem to have a sexuality, so Hollywood allowed him to thrive.”

You’re familiar with the Sissy - the type of character played by Tony Randall, Edward Everett Horton and, most recently, Nathan Lane. All are examples of the character who makes many laugh but who offends others in the same way that stereotypes such as Steppin Fechit offend African-Americans.

There was a period early on in which homosexuality, if not portrayed completely in the open, at least avoided being the butt of jokes. Nobody laughed when Marlene Dietrich dressed like a man in “Morocco” (1930) or Greta Garbo playing a lesbian-like warrior in “Queen Christina” (1933).

But such overt portrayals were submerged in the era of self-censorship brought on by the Hays Code (1934) in response to such conservative groups as the Catholic church’s Legion of Decency.

Yet gay references didn’t disappear. They just went underground, mostly in the form of grim killers, vampires and other perverts of the worst sort (think of Peter Lorre in “The Maltese Falcon,” Mercedes McCambridge in “Johnny Guitar” or Catherine Deneuve in “The Hunger”).

As gay screenwriter/novelist Gore Vidal, who adapted the Tennessee Williams play “Suddenly, Las Summer,” says, “You got very good at projecting subtext without saying a word about what you were doing.”

And as “The Celluloid Closet” shows, a knowing audience picked up on this subtext. For some gay viewers, these films and their respective characters - whether portrayed as perverted or not - were the only screen representations of life as they knew it to be.

“Gay audiences (were) desperate to find something, screenwriter Arthur Laurents says.

It often was something to laugh at. It often was something to be feared. It seldom was something to be admired or even accepted.

But it was… something. And, over time, it led to such films as “Philadelphia,” Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning portrayal of a gay lawyer dying of AIDS but still fighting for his rights.

“The Celluloid Closet” won’t likely change anyone’s mind about the acceptability of homosexuality. Attitudes on that issue run deeply throughout the fabric of American society.

Either way, it is a incisive study of how society, through its most popular art, attempts to curb behavior that the mainstream considers uncomfortable - or even despicable. Further, it is a candid illustration of how those who engage in that behavior respond - with fear, with anger, with self-hatred and, sometimes, with dignity.

“Hollywood, that great maker of myths, taught straight people what to think about gay people,” Tomlin says, “and gay people to think about themselves.”

For better and for worse.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “The Celluloid Closet” ***-1/2 Location: Magic Lantern Cinemas Credits: Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, based on the book by Vito Russo Running time: 1:42 Rating: R