Mark Rappaport

 by tlagay

The classic gay film essay The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender is getting a rerelease!

From groundbreaking director Mark Rappaport, The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender is another witty and enlightening essay on the gay undercurrents of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Much like his notable film Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender is getting a newly restored re-release thanks to Kino Lorber.

Dan Butler (Frasier, Silence of the Lambs) acts as tour guide as he uncovers a squeamish fascination with gay eroticism and camp. The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender is a rich and funny meditation on American sexual identity, film history and culture. You will never look at Westerns the same way again.

At the time of the film’s release, Cineaste called it “One of the most unique, expressive and satisfyingly willful bodies of essay films extant.” Entertainment Weekly called it “A kaleidoscopic romp through the hidden gay undercurrents of movie history.”

Click here to pre-order your copy of The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender. This new edition is coming to DVD July 19th. Also included are three more recent films by Mark Rappaport: The Vanity Tables of Douglas Sirk, The Double Life of Paul Henreid and Martin und Hans.

 

 

 

in Gay Cinema / News
 by tlagay

The influential film essay Rock Hudson’s Home Movies is getting a special edition release

Originally released in 1992, Rock Hudson’s Home Movies is a provocatively entertaining and hugely influential film essay from director Mark Rappaport (From the Journals of Jean Seberg, The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender). It uses a collage of film clips from throughout Hudson’s career, and a winking performance by Eric Farr as a Hudson stand-in, to highlight the homosexual subtext in his work. Subversive, hilarious and profoundly enlightening, its use of video became a model for the future of film criticism as it mutated on YouTube, TikTok and beyond.

Kino Classics is also including some of Mark Rappaport‘s other brilliant investigations into film history in this new special edition. Included are Blue Streak (1971), an expansion of what a “blue movie” really means; John Garfield (2002), a concise portrait of the pugnacious actor, Sergei/Sir Gay (2017), an exploration of Sergei Eisenstein’s sublimated desires; and Conrad Veidt: My Life (2019), an in-depth examination of the anti-Fascist actor who was famous for playing a Nazi in Casablanca.

 

Check out the new cover and the original trailer for Rock Hudson’s Home Movies below and click here to pre-order your copy. The new special edition will be available on DVD beginning March 22nd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

in Gay Cinema / News
 by tlagay

Throwback Thursday: Rock Hudson’s Home Movies

Although it’s attitudes and perspective are somewhat dated, this strange pseudo-doc is often hilarious, highly original and still pretty convincing.

 

Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, originally released in 1992, offers up a revisionist interpretation of Rock Hudson’s film career and life – and seeks to discover the “real” Hudson through his “reel” persona. Was this Hollywood hunk completely out of touch with his secreted sexuality, or did he, throughout his entire career, offer subtle – or not so subtle – hints at his homosexuality?

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in Gay Cinema