Clip from Celluloid Closet 2
Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Duration: 00:01:37; Aspect Ratio: 1.222:1; Hue: 302.289; Saturation: 0.031; Lightness: 0.151; Volume: 0.170; Cuts per Minute: 7.387; Words per Minute: 116.351
Summary: Celluloid Closet (1995) is a documentary film on representations of gays and lesbians and other alternative sexuality minorities in Hollywood mainstream cinema. It is directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffery Friedman. More information available at
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112651/
This clip looks at a moment in early Hollywood which allowed a space for androgynous and sexual women to exist on screen, even if only briefly. It is part of the Queering Bollywood database, an exhibition and demonstration of a collection of queer readings of Indian cinema. This open and collaborative database of articles, film clips, magazine stories, etc., has been compiled by Namita Malhotra, Lawrence Liang and many others at Alternative Law Forum and in Bangalore. For more, see
http://media.opencultures.net/queer/
They just thought she looked wonderful
queer
sexuality
Susie Bright, a writer, is being interviewed for the film Celluloid Closet. Her blog online is
http://susiebright.blogs.com/.
Susie Bright is also well known for editing collections of lesbian erotica. She also has a brief cameo appearance in the famous lesbian-themed film, Bound directed by the Warchawski Brothers, and appears as herself in television series, Six Feet Under. She is best known as a writer and editor of erotica. About herself she says this - "I write about sex, notoriously, and edit a fantastic anthology every year called The Best American Erotica. I am the "avatar of American erotica" according to snobs like the NYTimes."
Susie Bright: I saw Marliene Dietrich in Morocco when I was a teenager. I was just flipping the channels and saw her, and decided to settle in for an old movie.
And there's this scene where she comes into a nightclub and she's just stunning, in this tuxedo.
morocco
nightclub
old movie
susie bright
teenager
tuxedo
Marliene Dietrich in a tuxedo in the film Morocco, clipped for the documentary film Celluloid Closet. She talks to a woman in the nightclub and kisses her. Susie Bright talks about having seen this film as a child and the impact it had on her.
Marliene Dietrich: May I have this?
Susie Bright (voice over): And the camera lingers, it wasn't as if I was catching this out on the side of the screen. It was right in the centre.
She has a romance with Gary Cooper in this movie. But that romance just went right out of the window for me. I was like, who was that woman? What happened? I started writing a whole other script, for what was really going on.
kiss
lesbian
nightclub
tuxedo
Marliene Dietrich after walking around the nightclub in Morocco. Interview of person taken from Celluloid Closet.
A book that talks about lesbians, bisexuals and women loving women in Hollywood is "The Sewing Circle:Sappho's Leading Ladies" that talks about Marlienne Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, Mercedes among others.
http://www.amazon.com/Sewing-Circle-Sapphos-Leading-Ladies/dp/075820101X
The thing worked for everybody of every sex. And what is amazing is that I don't think they've done anything as deliciously sexual as that since.
They didn't pretend it was anything but what it was. She was doing it to turn on both the women, and the man. Which appealed to everybody.
As it should. It was so free.
androgynous
sexual
turn on
tuxedo
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