A Different Kind Of Film

Chinese Roulette (1976), dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

The Third Generation (1979), dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Tenderness of the Wolves (1973), dir. Ulli Lommel

The Devil (1972), Andrzej Zulawski

In the Mood for Love (2000), dir. Wong Kar-wai

Fallen Angels (1995), dir. Wong Kar-wai

The White Balloon (1995), dir. Jafar Panahi 

The Hidden Half (2001), dir. Tahmineh Milani

Low Heights (2002), dir. Ebrahim Hatamikia

Invisible Adversaries (1977), dir. Valie Export

Menschenfrauen (1980), dir. Valie Export

The Practice of Love (1985), dir. Valie Export 

The Man with the Suitcase (1983), dir. Chantal Akerman

Portrait of a Young Girl in the Late ’60s, in Brussels (1994), dir. Chantal Akerman

U.S. Go Home (1994), dir. Claire Denis

It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988), dir. Richard Linklater

Stranger Than Paradise (1984), dir. Jim Jarmusch 

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), dir. Jim Jarmusch 

Wild Strawberries (1957), dir. Ingmar Bergman

Brink of Life (1958), dir. Ingmar Bergman 

Winter Light (1963), dir. Ingmar Bergman

Shame (1968), dir. Ingmar Bergman

The Passion of Anna (1969), dir. Ingmar Bergman 

The Mirror (1975), dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

Faces (1968), dir. John Cassavetes 

Husbands (1970), dir. John Cassavetes

Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), dir. John Cassavetes

Shadows (1959), dir. John Cassavetes

Duet for Cannibals (1969), dir. Susan Sontag

Wanda (1970), dir. Barbara Loden

One Hundred and One Nights (1995), dir. Agnes Varda 

Marianne und Juliane (1981), dir. Margarethe von Trotta

It’s about this dude Henry who’s an artist living in New York,

and he has to go back to his hometown in Montana to take care of his grandfather who just recently had a stroke and is wheelchair-bound.

Things are all fine and dandy until Henry finds out that his old best friend from high school, as well as object of his unrequited affections that he’s never really been able to let go of is also back in town. His name is Dean. He’s there with his two sons to recoup from a recent divorce from his wife. 

Henry is extremely frazzled by seeing his long-time crush after so many years, but they spend a lot of time together over the passing weeks and seem to fall into their old friendship very easily. Perhaps a little too easily….??? hmmm???

And with everything with Dean happening, Henry can’t be blamed that he’s entirely oblivious to Pike, the man who runs the local general goods store.

It’s obvious to us (and the whole damn town) that Pike’s been head over heels for Henry since high school, but is painfully shy. He can barely talk to Henry at all and it’s the cuTEST GODDAMN THING oh lord help me from this movie.

Throughout the movie, Pike can’t seem to help himself from wanting nothing more than to make Henry happy from afar. He’s supposed to be delivering food cooked by one of the older ladies in town to Henry and his grandfather’s house to eat every night, but Pike cooks his own, exceptionally better meals, and delivers those instead and tells no one.

Now, Henry does notice Pike, and something about him catches his attention. Even if he doesn’t understand why yet. He tries to invite him to stay for dinner almost every night in an attempt to get him to open up, but Pike only becomes more closed off when he notices what’s going on between Henry and Dean. 

I’ll stop there, as I don’t want to give the whole thing away, but I can’t leave this without talking about the town’s residents in this movie. This place is 100% one of those little towns where everyone knows each other as well as their business, you have nosy little old ladies, dudes who do nothing all day but sit on the porch of the corner store and smoke a pipe, and they all go to church on Sundays.

AND YET, not only is this movie void of any homophobia from any character, basically the whole freaking town is all up in this whole love triangle. They support Pike so much that there’s even scenes where they all play matchmaker with him and Henry. They root for them in the goofiest, most loveable way. 

SO BASICALLY, this is a silly romantic comedy, except gay. It’s all super  lighthearted comedy with tiny bits of drama thrown in. No one dies!!!! No one is killed or commits suicide and has a 100% happy ending!!! The three main guys are just normal guys!!! There’s not a stereotype to be found here!! anD ONE OF THEM IS NATIVE AMERICAN. No seriously guys it hurts me that not everybody knows about this movie. I discovered it when I was in middle school in our video store’s tiny little LGBTQ section, and must have rented it 20 times throughout the years before I finally bought it. I know this movie almost frame by frame I’ve watched it so many times because it’s just so disgustingly cute and always makes me happy. NOW, this movie isn’t perfect. It’s got some clunky acting, weird.. I guess artsy moments that don’t make sense, and crosses into the line of cheesy quite a few times, BUT, that’s really not important. This is treated exactly as if it were a het romantic comedy. Their being gay has nothing to do with the overall story, and is never brought up save for a small plotline where Henry is guilty with himself for never coming out to his grandfather. But overall, more LGBTQ movies need to be like this, it’s just way too rare.

GO WATCH IT YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID. Sadly, the only way I know to get ahold of it is to just buy the DVD. But it’s fairly cheap on Amazon! And even cheaper if you buy it used on there, but either way I promise it’s worth it to own. Like I said, I think I kept our video store in business from my renting it so many times.

Short Films by George Méliès

Le Manoir du Diable (1896) (considered the first horror film in history) Une nuit terrible (1896) Le Chateau Hanté (1897) Le Diable Au Couvent (1899) Évocation Spirite (1899) Le diable géant ou Le miracle de la madonne (1901) Le chaudron infernal (1903) Le cake-walk infernal (1903) Le monstre (1903) Le diable noir (1905) Les quatre cents farces du diable (1906)

Other Short Films

The Sealed Room (1909) Frankenstein (1910) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913) The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

Famous Classic Horror Films 

Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (1920) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) Nosferatu (1922) Häxan (1922) Orlacs Hände (1924) The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Vampyr (1932) House on Haunted Hill (1959) Plan 9 from Outer Space (1956) The Bat (1959) The Last Man on Earth (1964) Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Other Films

10s-30s

Der Golem (1915) // Der Golem - Wie er in die Welt Kam (1920) // Genuine (1920) // Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922) // The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) // Wolf Blood (1925) // The Cat and the Canary (1927) // Svengali (1931) // White Zombie (1932) // The Monster Walks (1933) // The Most Dangerous Game (1933) // Ghoul (1933) // The Vampire Bat (1933) // Maniac (1934) // The House of Mystery (1934) // The Beast of Borneo (1934) // The Ghost Walks (1934) // Phantom Ship (1935) // Revolt of the Zombies (1935) // Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936) // The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936) // The Rogues’ Tavern (1936) // 夜半歌聲 (Ye Ban Ge Sheng) (1937) // The Riders of the Whistling Skull (1937) // The Devil’s Daughter (1939) // The Face at the Window (1939) // Torture Ship (1939)

40s-50s

The Mummy’s Hand (1940) // The Devil Bat (1940) // The Ape (1940) // Doomed to Die (1940) // King of the Zombies (1940) // Invisible Ghost (1940) // Spooks Run Wild (1941) // The Ghost Train (1941) // The Mad Monster (1942) // Bowery at Midnight (1942) // The Corpse Vanishes (1942) // The Living Ghost (1942) // The Ape Man (1943) // Dead Men Walk (1943) // The Ghost and the Guest (1943) // The Monster Maker (1944) // Voodoo Man (1944) // One Body Too Many (1944) // The Flying Serpent (1946) // Devil Monster (1946) // Mesa of Lost Women (1953) // The Snow Creature (1954) // The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955) // Dementia (1955) // Indestructible Man (1956) // La maldición de la momia azteca (1957) // 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) // Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958) // La momia azteca contra el robot humano (1958) // Night of the Blood Beast (1958) // The Screaming Skull (1958) // I Bury the Living (1958) // The Devil’s Partner (1958) // Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) // A Bucket of Blood (1959) // Beast from Haunted Cave (1959) // The Killer Shrews (1959) // The Wasp Woman (1959) // The Manster (1959) // Terror is a Man (1959)

60s - 70s

Teenage Zombies (1960) // Horror Hotel (1960) // The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) // Atom Age Vampire (1960) // Ein Toter hing im Netz (1960) // 13 Ghosts (1960) // Tormented (1960) // Last Woman on Earth (1960) // The Naked Witch (1961) // The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961) // Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961) // Werewolf in a Girls’ Dormitory (1961) // Night Tide (1961) // The Devil’s Messenger (1961) // Bloodlust! (1961) // Eegah (1962) // Carnival Of Souls (1962) // The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1962) // The Devil’s Hand (1961) // Hands of a Stranger (1962) // The Dungeon of Harrow (1962) // Trauma (1962) // El barón del terror (1962) // Ring of Terror (1962) // Terror of the Bloodhunters (1962) // The Terror (1963) // Dementia 13 (1963) // Monstrosity: The Atomic Brain (1963) // À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma (1964) // Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) // The Strangler (1964) // The Faceless Monster (1965) // Il boia scarlatto (1965) // Creature of the Walking Dead (1965) // The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) // The Eye Creatures (1965) // The She Beast (1966) // Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966) // Manos - The Hands of Fate (1966) // Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966) // Night Fright (1967) // Creature of Destruction (1967) // Spider Baby or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1967) // In the Year 2889 (1967) // The Ghosts of Hanley House (1968) // It’s Alive! (1969) // How Awful About Allan (1970) // La figlia di Frankenstein (1971) // Blood Thirst (1971) // Snake People (1971) // Horror Express (1972) // Frankenstein ‘80 (1972)

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He’s the only full-blooded Indian actor to EVER be nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category.

The other two mentioned above are Ben Kingsly, who’s half Indian, and Merle Oberon, who denied her desi and mauri heritage her entire life and was never recognized as such until after her death. 

I want you ALL to recognize that in 89 years, with Bollywood being the biggest film industry on planet earth, a full-blooded Indian actor has NEVER BEEN NOMINATED FOR ACTING BEFORE. And really, that isn’t the Academy’s fault. Indian Actors are almost NEVER recognized in western media, and they’re almost never given roles. Just last weekend, Aziz Ansari became the first Indian person to ever host SNL. 

As someone with desi heritage who wants to work in the western film business one day, this is such a big fucking deal. I’m really excited about all the black talent nominated this year, but I really don’t want this huge, important milestone to get swept under the rug.