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The Celluloid Closet (1995)

Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A witty, touching study of Hollywood's (mostly on screen) treatment of homosexuality. Epstein and Friedman approach the question chronologically and by type, with astringent comments from an array of unusual suspects, including Gore Vidal (hilarious on how Stephen Boyd played up the gay subtext in Ben-Hur, while Heston obliviously rendered his Francis X Bushman impersonation), Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine, Armistead Maupin, Richard Dyer and Harvey Fierstein ('I'd rather have visibility than nothing'). There's no great radical agenda here, just an honest assessment of lives relegated to the shadows of the screen. The montage of homophobic slurs from mainstream contemporary movies is especially telling.

Author: TCh

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

Producer: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

Cast: Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine, Gore Vidal, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Fierstein, Armistead Maupin, Richard Dyer, Tony Curtis, Whoopi Goldberg, Antonio Fargas, Lily Tomlin full cast

Genre(s): Documentaries

Duration: 101 mins


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