We all owe Donna Deitch a huge debt of gratitude for giving us Desert Hearts, and breaking the cycle of male filmmakers versions of what & who lesbians are. Thank you “Sapphic Underground” for this well presented piece on film history!! 🎥🎞️🎬🌈❤️
Such a brilliant film. It was definitely included in the movies I watched during my gay awakening. Along with stuff like A World Unseen, Can't think Straight, Debs and But I'm a Cheerleader.
Forgive me if you mentioned it elsewhere (I just discovered your excellent vids and haven't watched all of them yet) but you missed a fairly notable one--"Young Man With a Horn" (1950) Lauren Bacall leaves hubby Kirk Douglas (the titular musician of the title) for another woman. It is more than lightly implied. Kirk acts out and calls her 'sick' for changing her latest passion project and emotional interest from music to art. from him to her girlfriend who she is 'going away with.' "Calamity Jane" is an all-time favorite. Doris is so delightfully butch and when she sings "Secret Love" it's the icing on the subtextual cake. There was a reason I really loved this as a child, and her setting up house with another woman to the tune of "A Woman's Touch." Same with "Rebecca." And, as we now know, Du Maurier herself was closeted or bi. (I always loved that they named the unnamed 2nd Mrs. De Winter in The Carol Burnett show spoof of "Rebecca" as Daphne.) Or perhaps just Mrs. Danvers is the closeted one who is obsessed with Rebecca to the point of madness, I think that was even more the way that Anna Massey (and perhaps Diana Rigg as well) played it in the 2 tv adaptations. Saw "Olivia" in NY in Greenwich Village at an annual gay film fest with an audience of women who thoroughly enjoyed it, lots of laughter of appreciative recognition. One of the most memorable experiences I had watching a film in a cinema house. Another thing I find fascinating is that american director William Wyler (one of our best) felt the need to remake Lillian Hellman's 'controversial' play "The Children's Hour" which he had first filmed in a totally sanitized hetero version in 1936 as "These Three" (starring Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon.) It becomes a conventional triangle with Joel McCrea as the apex. The hidden lesbian in "The Children's Hour" for me has always been, more than poor Martha, the child Mary who starts the destructive rumor. She's very butch in the remake. A voyeur. And she reads 'dirty' books under the covers. I believe in either the play (or something I remember from Lillian Hellman's autobio) the book in question that leads her to 'suspect' what is really going on between her teachers is what she herself is fantasizing about as she reads Gautier's great classic of bisexuality concerning a cross-dressing female, the novel "Mademoiselle de Maupin" which, surprisingly, has yet to be filmed in a definitive version.
Hmm you are making me remember my teenage years and searching blindly for any snippets of lesbian love in the movies available on UK TV at the time, 1980's. My vivid imagination was strong though and no end of glamorous leading ladies to thirst after (even though I didn't quite know why at the time). Black Narcissus was a favourite with the nuns in a beautiful setting brimming over with suppressed longing, all in glorious technicolour. Then all of a sudden, 'Oranges are not the only fruit' and 'Portrait of a marriage' came along as BBC TV dramas and blew my young mind, in a good way, perhaps it was some sort of way to restore the balance of Section 28 and all of its tentacles.
Your 3 examples are excellent. Enjoyed all 3. Rumor Godden who wrote "Black Narcissus" (which is a film masterpiece) also wrote "In This House of Brede" which is, in essence, a love story set in a convent, even though couched in terms of mother/child.
💜🎬 Great video! I was wrong thinking that during the Hays Code era there wasn't any lesbian content on movies... Now IDK how i feel with fact that there where some..., but now I know for sure that lesbian vampire's stories are as old as the sandals Sappho used to wear 😌 Thanks for keep enlightening our lesbian brains!!
It's all in the Subtext. There if you can find it. Or have the right 'sensibility' to find it. I started seeing it everywhere (and not just wish-fulfillment) once I knew what to look for as an adolescent.
This was really informative. I’m going to go back and watch Rebecca. I watched that numerous times as a kid. I had no idea there was lesbian subtext in there. ty for pulling this video together. ❤
This reminds me of an HBO 2 part special back in the late 90s/early 2000s. It covered the way lgbtq filmmakers/actors had to work around this and during the Mccarthy hearings.
I thought your explanation of the Hays Code and its causes was well done. We also have the Hays code to thank for the “exploitation” genre. You mentioned 70s sexploitation movies, but small studios found a niche making exploitation films almost from the moment the big studios started enforcing the code. (See the 1936 movie Marihuana for drug use and a little nudity, for example.) Of course these pictures were officially morality tales, where dissolute characters met deservedly unhappy endings, but that’s not why audiences went to see them. I’m not aware of any early examples of exploitation films featuring homosexuality in general or lesbianism in particular, though.
In the book Rebecca, when Maxim is describing how evil Rebecca was, he he says something like, "...my God she wasn't even normal..." Daphne DuMaurier was herself a lesbian, or at least bi.
"The Legion of Decency" was still very much a thing where seeing films was concerned when I was in catholic school (for 12 very long yrs.) in the 60s and 70s. Films (including 'harmless' or innocuous ones) that had been 'rated' by them years before were still on the list so if you accidentally saw one on tv and believed their nonsense (indoctrination) you thought you were going to hell as sure as if you'd accidentally ingested meat on friday. (No longer a catholic, needless to say, clearly saw their hypocrisy long before we found out about the pedo scandals.)
No doubt this is a great video but going to watch the boys season 4 for queen Maeve. Our badass gay anti hero. But mostly because my cinema degree is well aware of the Hays Code and how writers then became very clever with innuendos and subtext.
We all owe Donna Deitch a huge debt of gratitude for giving us Desert Hearts, and breaking the cycle of male filmmakers versions of what & who lesbians are. Thank you “Sapphic Underground” for this well presented piece on film history!! 🎥🎞️🎬🌈❤️
Such a brilliant film. It was definitely included in the movies I watched during my gay awakening. Along with stuff like A World Unseen, Can't think Straight, Debs and But I'm a Cheerleader.
@@Void-Realm I’m there for all of those films!! 🙌🌈❤️
@@Void-Realm All good films.
Saw it when it premiered in NY. We were ecstatic about it. Finally, a romantic film with a happy ending and no suicides or a tree falling on someone.
Having my sexuality referred to as a sociopathic personality disturbance makes me feel a bit intimidating, not going to lie. 😅
Forgive me if you mentioned it elsewhere (I just discovered your excellent vids and haven't watched all of them yet) but you missed a fairly notable one--"Young Man With a Horn" (1950) Lauren Bacall leaves hubby Kirk Douglas (the titular musician of the title) for another woman. It is more than lightly implied. Kirk acts out and calls her 'sick' for changing her latest passion project and emotional interest from music to art. from him to her girlfriend who she is 'going away with.'
"Calamity Jane" is an all-time favorite. Doris is so delightfully butch and when she sings "Secret Love" it's the icing on the subtextual cake. There was a reason I really loved this as a child, and her setting up house with another woman to the tune of "A Woman's Touch."
Same with "Rebecca." And, as we now know, Du Maurier herself was closeted or bi. (I always loved that they named the unnamed 2nd Mrs. De Winter in The Carol Burnett show spoof of "Rebecca" as Daphne.) Or perhaps just Mrs. Danvers is the closeted one who is obsessed with Rebecca to the point of madness, I think that was even more the way that Anna Massey (and perhaps Diana Rigg as well) played it in the 2 tv adaptations.
Saw "Olivia" in NY in Greenwich Village at an annual gay film fest with an audience of women who thoroughly enjoyed it, lots of laughter of appreciative recognition. One of the most memorable experiences I had watching a film in a cinema house.
Another thing I find fascinating is that american director William Wyler (one of our best) felt the need to remake Lillian Hellman's 'controversial' play "The Children's Hour" which he had first filmed in a totally sanitized hetero version in 1936 as "These Three" (starring Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon.) It becomes a conventional triangle with Joel McCrea as the apex. The hidden lesbian in "The Children's Hour" for me has always been, more than poor Martha, the child Mary who starts the destructive rumor. She's very butch in the remake. A voyeur. And she reads 'dirty' books under the covers. I believe in either the play (or something I remember from Lillian Hellman's autobio) the book in question that leads her to 'suspect' what is really going on between her teachers is what she herself is fantasizing about as she reads Gautier's great classic of bisexuality concerning a cross-dressing female, the novel "Mademoiselle de Maupin" which, surprisingly, has yet to be filmed in a definitive version.
this was fascinating, thank you for doing/presenting this extensive research!!
Hmm you are making me remember my teenage years and searching blindly for any snippets of lesbian love in the movies available on UK TV at the time, 1980's. My vivid imagination was strong though and no end of glamorous leading ladies to thirst after (even though I didn't quite know why at the time). Black Narcissus was a favourite with the nuns in a beautiful setting brimming over with suppressed longing, all in glorious technicolour. Then all of a sudden, 'Oranges are not the only fruit' and 'Portrait of a marriage' came along as BBC TV dramas and blew my young mind, in a good way, perhaps it was some sort of way to restore the balance of Section 28 and all of its tentacles.
Your 3 examples are excellent. Enjoyed all 3. Rumor Godden who wrote "Black Narcissus" (which is a film masterpiece) also wrote "In This House of Brede" which is, in essence, a love story set in a convent, even though couched in terms of mother/child.
Thank you for highlighting the true history of sapphic Hollywood.
💜🎬 Great video! I was wrong thinking that during the Hays Code era there wasn't any lesbian content on movies... Now IDK how i feel with fact that there where some..., but now I know for sure that lesbian vampire's stories are as old as the sandals Sappho used to wear 😌
Thanks for keep enlightening our lesbian brains!!
It's all in the Subtext. There if you can find it. Or have the right 'sensibility' to find it. I started seeing it everywhere (and not just wish-fulfillment) once I knew what to look for as an adolescent.
Thank you so much for talking about olivia❤
This was really informative. I’m going to go back and watch Rebecca. I watched that numerous times as a kid. I had no idea there was lesbian subtext in there. ty for pulling this video together. ❤
This reminds me of an HBO 2 part special back in the late 90s/early 2000s. It covered the way lgbtq filmmakers/actors had to work around this and during the Mccarthy hearings.
I've never heard of this- interesting! Love your wall art also :)
I thought your explanation of the Hays Code and its causes was well done. We also have the Hays code to thank for the “exploitation” genre. You mentioned 70s sexploitation movies, but small studios found a niche making exploitation films almost from the moment the big studios started enforcing the code. (See the 1936 movie Marihuana for drug use and a little nudity, for example.) Of course these pictures were officially morality tales, where dissolute characters met deservedly unhappy endings, but that’s not why audiences went to see them. I’m not aware of any early examples of exploitation films featuring homosexuality in general or lesbianism in particular, though.
In the book Rebecca, when Maxim is describing how evil Rebecca was, he he says something like, "...my God she wasn't even normal..." Daphne DuMaurier was herself a lesbian, or at least bi.
"The Legion of Decency" was still very much a thing where seeing films was concerned when I was in catholic school (for 12 very long yrs.) in the 60s and 70s. Films (including 'harmless' or innocuous ones) that had been 'rated' by them years before were still on the list so if you accidentally saw one on tv and believed their nonsense (indoctrination) you thought you were going to hell as sure as if you'd accidentally ingested meat on friday. (No longer a catholic, needless to say, clearly saw their hypocrisy long before we found out about the pedo scandals.)
great video
Can you plzzzzzz make a review for the book Hearing Red by nicole maser plzzzzz
No doubt this is a great video but going to watch the boys season 4 for queen Maeve. Our badass gay anti hero. But mostly because my cinema degree is well aware of the Hays Code and how writers then became very clever with innuendos and subtext.
Unfortunately no Queen Maeve this season. I reckon we'll see her for the final season whenever that gets filmed.
@@Void-Realm 😳damn it. Thanks.
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I just realised I hate the word 'lesbianism' ..as if it's some sort of past-time activity and not the state of being. tf 😆
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