Watching this film, The Celluloid Closet, was difficult for me. I hadn’t seen the vast majority of titles that were discussed and if I had seen any, it was only one or two from the list. So, I had trouble understanding the context of many of the scenes that they showed.
However, it was able to point out aspects of movies that I had never noticed. It hadn’t really occurred to me before that the gay characters in earlier movies tended to be killed off and/or be the villain. As the film was discussing this consistency, I was sitting there wondering how I managed to not notice this in the old films. After all, it’s seen in so many of them.
Something else that I grabbed my attention in the movie was the way directors were able to make two films in one. One of the directors shown in The Celluloid Closet explained how scenes had to be manipulated in order to send both the message that the producers wanted, along with the more discreet gay/lesbian undertones. It was very impressive how they were able to slide these scenes past those who edited the films. Learning about this gave me an increased respect for the intellect and cunning of those directors and actors who managed to show double meanings in their scenes.
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