Playing Favorites

Queer and/or peculiar films that have mattered

Comments (0) By Chuck Wilson Wednesday, Jul 10 2002

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EDMUND WHITE (novelist, A Boy’s Own Story, The Married Man)

The first movie I ever saw that spoke to my condition was Rebel Without a Cause[1955; Nicholas Ray, director]. I was 14 or 15. Until then, it had never occurred to me that a movie could address me and my life. Earlier films had moved me (Two Years Before the Mast, because Alan Ladd was half-naked in it and severely beaten), but this was the first one that was about a gay boy who hangs out with a straight couple and is in love with them — which was exactly my case in high school. The aimless, apolitical rebelliousness of the ’50s and the covert homosexuality of Sal Mineo, which found an object of love in the covert homosexuality of James Dean — this was a life-changing experience for me.

MARY WORONOV (artist, writer, actress, Eating Raoul)

Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together [1997] is very urban and terribly romantic. But not romantic in the way they try to put a happy heterosexual ending on so many of these gay affairs. No, this was terribly true to life, and it was so powerful how the main character accepted his fate and just went on. Very beautiful and tragic.

Editorial assistance was provided by Amy Nicholson and Pandora Young.