Photograph: Allstar/FOX 2000 PICTURESĪfter a week of immersion in LGBT cinema, it’s clear that these remain the exceptions, strikingly rare in a scene still dominated by downbeat narratives. Earlier this year, Greg Berlanti’s unashamedly mainstream teen drama Love, Simon delivered a far more traditionally buoyant finale which dared to allow a same-sex couple the sort of glossy, applaud-worthy kiss that we’ve seen from our straight counterparts for years.Ī scene from Love, Simon. Francis Lee’s rural romance God’s Own Country earned its happy ending by first putting its central couple through the wringer, the closing minutes of sheer romance feeling like the result of grindingly hard work.
It ended on a grounded moment of hope, all the more moving for its refusal to force its characters into an all-too-soon cinematic clinch. In the first two note perfect acts of his show-stopping Oscar winner Moonlight, Barry Jenkins interspersed moments of levity in an often harrowing coming-of-age tale before a final act of giddy, heart-swelling romance. In 2015, Todd Haynes stayed true to Patricia Highsmith’s original text by suggesting the two women of Carol might actually share a future together. But all I’m asking for is just a little bit more gay joy. There’s great value and importance in sharing tough, grim, real stories and reminding many of the fatal consequences that can still meet being honest about one’s sexuality. I’m also not calling for LGBT cinema to act in an unrealistic echo chamber, pushing forward experiences of unbridled ecstasy with tidy, crowd-pleasing resolutions while many of those in the community face persecution and discrimination in the real world.
The same applies for films centered on LGBT characters, with the tear-jerking final minutes of Weekend as necessary and as perfectly realised as the finale of Brief Encounter.
I have an almost masochistic desire to re-watch unbearably sad films that others might steer clear of second time around. In fact, many of my favourite films have ended in devastating tragedy. This same topic I’m writing on now was the basis for a Guardian blogpost back in 2010 but how, in 2018, is it still such a recurrent issue?įirstly, I’d like to point out that I’m not a critic or viewer who requires a happy ending in all instances. Straight characters are allowed to exist without a constant reminder of the reality they might face away from the screen It’s known by some as the Bury Your Gays trope in a 2013 Guardian piece, James Rawson referred to it as the Sudden Gay Death Syndrome in discussion over the ending of A Single Man.īrokeback Mountain, Milk, Boys Don’t Cry, Philadelphia, The Children’s Hour, The Talented Mr Ripley, Behind the Candelabra, Keep the Lights On, Gia, Death in Venice, Monster, The Crying Game, Aimée & Jaguar, Holding the Man, The Danish Girl, Longtime Companion, Circumstance, The Normal Heart, Heavenly Creatures – LGBT characters are lucky to end up alive, let alone in any vague state of normalcy. For years, it’s become a given that gay characters end up drowning in misery, as predictable a trope as a virginal brunette outsmarting a masked killer, or a beautiful straight couple who were sworn enemies ending up in a passionate kiss after an airport reunion. Whether torn apart by death, homophobia or the dissolution of a relationship, the common thread was that LGBT characters were being torn apart by something. Within the international narrative strand, I’ve seen 10 films that offered a variety of perspectives and experiences, from Finland to Peru to South Africa, each with differing ages and sexualities represented, but almost all were united by one thing: a crushingly sad ending. As a juror taking part in NewFest, New York’s LGBT film festival, it’s been a fascinating, challenging week of cinema.