Yearning to Breathe Free

John Cameron Mitchell and the huddled masses of Shortbus

A A A Comments By Scott Foundas Wednesday, Oct 11 2006

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“So does that mean,” I ask Mitchell, quoting the lyrics warbled by Justin Bond over the movie’s final images, “that we all get it in the end?”

“Somebody else said it best: Death ennobles life. When you know it’s going to end, you live it differently, and you should. In the face of that, in the face of 9/11 or the blackout or any other specter of mortality, I think most people are at their best. So yes, we all do get it in the end, and the happy interpretation of that is that good things are coming too. That might be false optimism, but optimism is never rational. And neither is sex.”

Of human bondage: Mitchell under lock and key (photo by Kevin Scanlon)

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And as for “The Star-Spangled Banner”?

“It doesn’t quite make me cry anymore,” he says, laughing. “But in Cannes, it was exciting to hear a French audience applauding the American national anthem for the first time in I don’t know how long.”

Shortbus is now playing in Los Angeles theaters.

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