Initial Reactions to The Celluloid Closet

 First off I thought the movie was a banger. It mixed clips from old movies and clips from interviews really well, and I really liked hearing what directors, writers, and actors thought of the films they were in in retrospect. Even though some were oblivious to the queer coded undertones in films that were presented, most took pride in the ways they were able to subtly implement references to queerness while still standing by the strict restrictions of the time. It was really special to the positive ways in which queerness was implemented in films rather than when it was villainized. When I heard about how some people would watch entire movies just for a single subtle reference to queer representation, it really struck a tone with me. I feel that that somewhat lives on in today as I'll look out for queer representation in films that isn't just being used as a cash grab. Overall, watching the The Celluloid Closet was a very valuable experience as it gave me a very insightful history of queer representation in films.

Comments

  1. RBOctober 25, 2023 at 9:41 AM

    it's interesting how the perspective changes over time. In the "good old days" (before the internet) getting info about LGBTQ identity was very hard and censored as "pornography" so any reference of the existence of LGBTQ identity was affirming for folks. Nowadays people have access to as much info as they want to have about almost any thing so it would seem to make representation less important to individuals.

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