Queersighted: Breaking Taboos on the Criterion Channel

by Cláudio Alves

O FANTASMA (2000)

For the past few years, the Criterion Channel has highlighted taboo-breaking pictures in queer cinema with their series "Queersighted." For its fourth edition, programmer Michael Koresky invited film critic K. Austin Collins to select and discuss a series of works that look at film history through a decidedly queer lens. This year's installment features movies that go from 1930s Hollywood productions to 2000s Portuguese provocations. Controversial and wildly transgressive, these films run a gamut of genres and formalistic approaches, showcasing how it's possible to push the envelope both from within the Hays Code-abiding studio system and the vanguard of New German Cinema.

Before saying farewell to Pride Month 2021, join us in exploring ten films presented in this program...

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Vintage '81

We're having a little 1981 party for the first week of May so let's give the year some overall context before the Supporting Actress Smackdown hits on the weekend of May 8th. 

The year's two biggest blockbusters competed for Best Picture

Great Big Box Office Hits:
Raiders of the Lost Ark was the year's true behemoth, grossing twice as much as its nearest rival On Golden Pond. The Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire was a sleeper hit and that year's James Bond picture  For Your Eyes Only was also hugely popular (though that's no surprise with 007). But otherwise audiences were mostly drawn to comedies in 1981: Arthur (with Dudley Moore), Stripes (with Bill Murray) The Four Seasons (with Carol Burnett) and Cannonball Run (with Burt Reynolds) were all the rage.

Oscar favourites / theories and other cultural touchstones of 1981 after the jump...

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Would you rather?

We haven't looked at Instagram in ages. Let's play the game. Would you rather...

...go to the movies with Glen Powell?
...hike Topanga with Richard Madden?
...california dream' with Jennifer Tilly?
...get ready for summer with Beanie Feldstein?
...wrangle puppies with Olivia Newton-John?
...kiss a pig with Miles Heizer?
...get a headcast with Harry Shum Jr?
...read a new novel with Natalie Portman?
...or travel incognito with Octavia Spencer?

The photos are after the jump to help you decide...

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Hopelessly devoted to link

CBS Olivia Newton John, our beloved child hero, is battling cancer for the third time. It's stage four this time but she's determined to outlive the statistics.
MNPP Jake Picking cast as young Rock Hudson in Ryan Murphy's upcoming series Hollywood (which takes place in the 1940s). Exactly how many series does Murphy launch at any one time? No wonder people say The Politician is a mess.

After the jump LGBTQ horror, Angelina ❤️ Michelle, advances in de-aging technology, Animated Feature Oscar hopefuls, and more...

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You better link (link), link about what you're trying to do to me...

• NYT Aretha Franklin RIP. Wesley Morris on her power but did we "Respect" it?
• Variety Estonia has selected the single parent drama Take It Or Leave It for the Oscars
• TFE Our updated Oscar Foreign Submission charts 
• Boy Culture because Madonna is awesome she has released her 2018 Met Gala performance to her fans as a charity fundraiser for her orphans in Malawi. Each $25 will givea child food, schooling, and healthcare for a month

 

• Uproxx A little info on Mike Moh, who has been cast as Bruce Lee in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (for those of you wondering why Bruce Lee is a character in the movie -- he worked with Sharon Tate prior to her murder)
• Playbill two time Oscar nominee Janet McTeer talks about playing legendary pre-cinema stage actress Sarah Bernhardt in a new play on Broadway called Bernhardt/Hamlet
• Vanity Fair Ruth Wilson requested to leave The Affair but she's not at liberty to say why for some reason
• Variety The Alienist has been renewed for a second season, meaning it's no longer a limited series but it gets to keep its limited series Emmy nomination
• Gr8er Days we forgot to note last week here at TFE that Charlotte Rae of The Facts of Life fame passed away

And did you see that the cast of Grease (1978) reunited at an Academy event to talk about the movie for its 40th anniversary? (Is this where we mention that the film only got one Oscar nomination, which it lost, for Best Original Song "Hopelessly Devoted to You")  Here's John Travolta and Olivia talking about her being cast in the movie...