Darkness, censorship and cinema (5. Homosexuality)
of Christophe Triollet
Publisher : Editions Lett Motif (May 24, 2019)
Language : French
Number of pages : 280 pages
The fifth opus of the collection Darkness, censorship and cinema examines arguably one of the most controversial subjects in cinema, one of the very last taboos to survive on screen: homosexuality.
Shown, evoked or simply suggested, homosexuality on screen never leaves anyone indifferent because it exacerbates our contradictions and what we believe to be. By circumventing the postulates, by claiming the right to be different, it refers to the idea of total freedom. It weakens our certainties and the precepts of our heterosexual societies. So how, under these conditions, can you talk about homosexuality in the cinema without risking provoking your opponents or offending your defenders? Fifteen authors will attempt to answer in this unpublished work.
Homosexuality brought to the screen therefore remains a subject of contention because it frightens society which, when it feels threatened, attacks, ridicules or censors. In the United States, when cinema hesitates, television plays with taboos by circumventing them with laughter and derision, like the approach chosen by the designers of the series. Modern Family of which Benjamin Campion speaks to us at length. In France, if we except a promising but still confidential auteur cinema, the mainstream cinema and the television which finances it easily sink into excess by feeding clichés intended to entertain a largely heterosexual family audience. The gay character of Will in the trilogy of Tuche (Olivier Baroux, 2011, 2016, 2018) or even the lesbian couple of What else have we done to God? (Philippe de Chauveron, 2019) are the recent and caricatural illustrations of a certain popular cinema that plays with big clogs.
This book aims to take you through the pangs of censorship of homosexuality in cinema and the permanence of the gazes it inspires. From the origins of the genre to the ever-current complexity of representing it, homosexuality is a singular subject that is mocked, promoted or used but which never remains tasteless in the hands of filmmakers.