The trailer and poster for the documentary McKellen: Playing The Part have been released, which takes a close look at the life of the wonderful Ian McKellen. The film will premiere in the UK (and Scandinavia) on Sunday 27 May at 3pm at cinemas across the country, with the screening followed by a live Q&A with Ian McKellen, hosted by Graham Norton at London’s BFI Southbank. In Playing the Part, audiences will have the opportunity to celebrate one of Britain’s true acting icons on his birthday weekend.
Built around a 14 hour interview, Playing the Part uncovers McKellen’s story. From his upbringing living through the war, working through repertory and West End theatre becoming a pioneering stage star, coming out and being a leader in the campaign for equality, to his mainstream film breakouts as Magneto and Gandalf. His work and influence transcends generations, celebrated here in this fully authorised insight.
McKellen: Playing the Part features unprecedented access to private photo albums, a wealth of never-before-seen archive material, including diaries written when he was 12, and unseen behind the scenes of theatre shows and films, alongside his personal thoughts on a life long lived. The film also features dramatic recreations starring Luke Evans, Frances Barber, Adam Brown, Scott Chambers, Milo Parker and Edward Petherbridge.
Take a look at the trailer and poster below. More info about the cinemas that will be screening the event can be found at mckellenfilm.com. [Read more…]
Queer filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell made a big splash with his first film as a director, Hedwig & The Angry Inch, which was adapted from his own queer rock musical. He followed that with the sexually explicit Shortbus and the Nicole Kidman starrer Rabbit Hole. That was eight years ago though, and he’s only just returning with an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s short story and graphic novel, How to Talk to Girls at Parties.
Synopsis: ‘When Naima (Alia Shawkat, “Search Party”) and Sergio (Laia Costa, Victoria ) meet at a club, they hit it off instantly, connecting over their disdain for the dishonesty they have experienced in their respective romantic relationships. High on their fast chemistry, the two women concoct a romantic experiment: They plan to spend the next 24 hours together, having sex on the hour. Above all, they commit to perfect honesty with each other, a theoretical remedy to the deceit they believe to be an element of modern relationships. But their relationship in a vacuum doesn’t go as planned, and soon the weight of their commitment begins to close in, threatening the ideals of the daylong experiment and their chances for a romantic future tomorrow.
When it was first announced that Rupaul’s Drag Race alum Bianca Del Rio (aka Roy Haylock) was going to star in a movie – Hurricane Bianca – a lot of people assumed it was going to be a vanity project disaster. However the film turned out to be surprisingly fun and was successful enough that it’s getting a sequel.
Not too many years ago straight actors were being praised for being ‘brave’ for playing a single gay role, but then never playing an LGBT part ever again – partly because agents thought two gay roles would harm someone’s career. Now though we have people like Armie Hammer, who’s played several gay roles and is currently has two of them back to back, with the acclaimed Cale Me By Your Name and the Stanley Tucci written and directed biopic Final Portrait.
Robin Campillo’s movie has gained a lot of buzz since its Cannes debut. At the festival the movie won the Queer Palm for the best LGBT movie, the prestigious Fipresci award for the best film at the festival from the International Federation of Film Critics, and second biggest award at the fest, the Grand Prix. It was then chosen as France’s Oscar contender for the Besti Foreign Language Film Academy Award.
As its writer, director and star, The Happy Prince is undoubtedly a labour of love for Rupert Everett. The look at what happened to Oscar Wilde after his release from jail premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and it also screened at the Berlin Film Festival a couple of weeks ago. Sony Pictures Classics recently picked up distribution rights for North America and Latin America, and it will screen at the upcoming BFI: Flare London LGBT Film Festival.
We were a little ambivalent about 
The UK is very lucky to have the British Film Institute, which has long believed that one of the key parts of its mission is to collect moving images that document the breadth of British life. Best of all is that they have collected and commissioned solely what’s popular or morally mainstream, which means that they have been archiving LGBT content even before gay male sex was legalised, and have continued to broaden their collection.
At the moment Canada’s Eric Radford is rightly being applauded for being the first officially ‘out’ person to win a Winter Olympic Gold Medal (in the team figure skating). However, back in 1976 there was John Curry, who became European, World and Olympic champion in the same year he was outed by a German newspaper. I meant that while he may not have opted to for his sexuality to be made public, when he took home the Olympic Gold Medal, he became to first person to do so at a time it was known he was gay.