The Celluloid Closet
1996 · 102 MIN · IMDB 7.8 · 7,685 VOTES · DIR. Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein
Overview
What "That's Entertainment" did for movie musicals, "The Celluloid Closet" does for Hollywood homosexuality, as this exuberant, eye-opening movie serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of the role of gay men and lesbians have had on the silver screen. Lily Tomlin narrates as Oscar-winning moviemaker Rob Epstein ("The Times of Harvey Milk" and "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt") and Jeffrey Friedman assemble fabulous footage from 120 films showing the changing face of cinema sexuality, from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s. Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, Harvey Fierstein and Gore Vidal are just a few of the many actors, writers and commentators who provide funny and insightful anecdotes.
Dialogue Timeline — 1,423 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:00:27 Tommy, hit it up. Let's have it.
00:05:23 she said they were nothing like life...
00:09:37 They were a cliché.
00:13:32 because of some undesirable ones.
00:17:55 I came to see if I could fasten it.
00:21:43 That's how it got by.
00:25:16 In '50s America masculinity ruled.
00:29:18 Heaven knows why, but he does. Anyway, he's Roman.
00:33:24 Go ahead. Try it.
00:37:37 Rock had a screening room in his house.
00:41:26 "What about oysters?" I said, "Well, I don't think so."
00:44:41 For Sebastian. He used us as bait.
00:48:47 I mean, I can't say it out loud. I've got to whisper it.
00:52:14 so everything was theoretical at that point.
00:55:43 I had heard about the waterfront.
01:00:16 It's the geriatrics Rockettes.
01:04:30 that really celebrated homosexuality, as far as I was concerned, was Cabaret.
01:08:14 Oh, well, that's perfect. Thank you.
01:11:44 You're a faggot, a dirty queer.
01:16:15 A straight cowboy town.
01:20:24 The screenwriter felt the whole thing should be in silhouetted long shot.
01:25:02 I don't care what your sexual history to that point had been.
01:29:27 He keeps records of all my hospital visits. It's nothing personal.
01:33:11 We're victims of the sexual revolution.