Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones (DVD)

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The people behind The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones must have thought they had a major hit on their hands. While it’s common for sequels to be put into development before the first movie is released (in Hollywood terms, paying a screenwriter for a first draft of a script is comparatively cheap), but in this case they’d already started casting the likes of Sigourney Weaver in City Of Ashes. However when City Of Bones only grossed $90 million around the world, the likelihood of adaptations of Cassandra Clare’s other books seemed far less likely. [Read more…]

Maison Close – Series 1 (Blu-ray)

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What is it with the French and prostitution? Ever since the 19th Century (and perhaps before) Gallic art has had an odd preoccupation with ladies of the night, from Manet’s painting Olympia and Emile Zola’s novel Nana, through movies like Belle de Jour. And just in the last year there’s been the Juliette Binoche starrer Elles, as well as House Of Tolerance, which is set in a similar milieu as the TV series Maison Close.

The series charts the lives of the workers and owners in an upscale Parisian bordello called ‘Paradise’ in the 1870s. Over the eight episodes the lives, desires and tribulations of the women are uncovered. Some feel utterly trapped and degraded by the lives they’re pretty much forced to live (if they don’t please the men they risk being sold to a cheap flophouse), while others seem happier with the money and sense of empowerment they have in a male dominated society. [Read more…]