Thursday, June 18, 7:00 pm, Castro Theatre, ENGL18C
Thirty-four years ago, Quentin Crisp was introduced to a worldwide audience by the film The Naked Civil Servant, illuminating his life of openly flamboyant homosexuality. John Hurt, whom younger audiences will recognize as everyone from Mr. Ollivander, purveyor of magic wands to Harry Potter, to Chancellor Sutler, the über-villain of V for Vendetta, played Crisp in a breakthrough performance that earned him a BAFTA award for best actor. Hurt returns to the role, picking up Crisp's story where the first film left off, with the newly famous "civil servant" moving to New York City.
I remember seeing The Naked Civil Servant when it was broadcast on PBS in the 1970's, although I didn't yet identify with the central figure — probably best for my odds of surviving puberty in Dallas, Texas. The sequel, though, picks up shortly before the time I myself was living near New York City as a college student, just beginning my coming-out process. Where the first film dealt with Quentin Crisp as a gadfly in the London of the 1930's to early 1970's, bucking the ubiquitous pressure to conform to heterosexual norms, the sequel focuses more on his "fish out of water" experience among the post-Stonewall gay culture of New York. Someone as eccentric as Quentin Crisp is not fated to truly fit in anywhere, it seems.
John Hurt's performance is as breathtaking as his inauguration of the role, and indeed director Richard Laxton said he could not have imagined participating with anyone other than Hurt in the lead role. The supporting cast was fabulous as well, rounding out a worthy opening film for the Frameline festival. Definitely a MUST SEE.
I remember seeing The Naked Civil Servant when it was broadcast on PBS in the 1970's, although I didn't yet identify with the central figure — probably best for my odds of surviving puberty in Dallas, Texas. The sequel, though, picks up shortly before the time I myself was living near New York City as a college student, just beginning my coming-out process. Where the first film dealt with Quentin Crisp as a gadfly in the London of the 1930's to early 1970's, bucking the ubiquitous pressure to conform to heterosexual norms, the sequel focuses more on his "fish out of water" experience among the post-Stonewall gay culture of New York. Someone as eccentric as Quentin Crisp is not fated to truly fit in anywhere, it seems.John Hurt's performance is as breathtaking as his inauguration of the role, and indeed director Richard Laxton said he could not have imagined participating with anyone other than Hurt in the lead role. The supporting cast was fabulous as well, rounding out a worthy opening film for the Frameline festival. Definitely a MUST SEE.
An Englishman in New York, dir. Richard Laxton, USA, 2009, 74 minutes.
Technorati tags: An Englishman in New York, Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant, Frameline33, LGBT Film
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