I wonder whether director Travis Mathews regrets referring to the movie now known as Interior, Leather Bar as a ‘homo-sex-art-film’, as that’s all anyone seems to refer to it as now. The film is due to premiere at Sundance next month, and now the trailer for the meta-movie has arrived.

The Sundance synopsis says about the film, ‘To avoid an X rating, it was rumored that 40 minutes of gay S&M footage was cut from the controversial 1980 film, Cruising. Filmmakers James Franco and Travis Mathews re-imagine what was in the lost footage.’

However it’s not just about the 40-minutes themselves, as it self-reflexively looks at its own making and exactly what the point of the film is. The trailer is definitely intriguing, although it does look like the sort of film that will live on the edge between being a fascinating exploration of film, sexuality and the power of ideas, and something rather pretentious and in danger of disappearing up its own ass.

We’ll have to wait and see where it lives on this spectrum, but it’s certainly one to look out for – and hopefully it’ll also give us an insight into why James Franco is so fascinated by all things gay. [Read more…]