Glyn Davis
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099564
- eISBN:
- 9781526109767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099564.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
In 1992, Quentin Crisp appeared on cinema screens as Elizabeth I in Sally Potter’s Orlando; the following year, he provided the “Alternative Queen’s Message” on Channel 4 television on Christmas Day, ...
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In 1992, Quentin Crisp appeared on cinema screens as Elizabeth I in Sally Potter’s Orlando; the following year, he provided the “Alternative Queen’s Message” on Channel 4 television on Christmas Day, going head-to-head with Elizabeth II. This chapter will revisit this cultural moment, examining the significance of Crisp’s perfonnances of “queenliness”. The late 1980s/early 1990s heralded a shift away from the lesbian and gay politics of the 1970s and “80s towards a more confrontational queer activism. Orlando can be seen as an example of early queer cinema, given its play with gender and sexuality, and Potter’s casting of Tilda Swinton (a regular collaborator of Derek Jannan). Other queer films of the time also unsettle and complicate particular moments in history, and equally employ a pointedly artificial mise-en-scene (Jannan’s Edward II, Julien’s Looking for Langston, Kalin’s Swoon). How does Crisp’s appearance–as an embodiment of the flaming, camp homosexual–complicate the film’s politics of sexuality? Does it articulate a political “clearing of the ground”, with an older gay culture (Elizabeth) giving way to a fresh queer one (Orlando)? This chapter will consider the film as a provocative transition between particular forms of cultural production–bound up with changing attitudes towards the monarchy itself.Less
In 1992, Quentin Crisp appeared on cinema screens as Elizabeth I in Sally Potter’s Orlando; the following year, he provided the “Alternative Queen’s Message” on Channel 4 television on Christmas Day, going head-to-head with Elizabeth II. This chapter will revisit this cultural moment, examining the significance of Crisp’s perfonnances of “queenliness”. The late 1980s/early 1990s heralded a shift away from the lesbian and gay politics of the 1970s and “80s towards a more confrontational queer activism. Orlando can be seen as an example of early queer cinema, given its play with gender and sexuality, and Potter’s casting of Tilda Swinton (a regular collaborator of Derek Jannan). Other queer films of the time also unsettle and complicate particular moments in history, and equally employ a pointedly artificial mise-en-scene (Jannan’s Edward II, Julien’s Looking for Langston, Kalin’s Swoon). How does Crisp’s appearance–as an embodiment of the flaming, camp homosexual–complicate the film’s politics of sexuality? Does it articulate a political “clearing of the ground”, with an older gay culture (Elizabeth) giving way to a fresh queer one (Orlando)? This chapter will consider the film as a provocative transition between particular forms of cultural production–bound up with changing attitudes towards the monarchy itself.
Christopher Grobe
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479829170
- eISBN:
- 9781479839599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479829170.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This essay centers around two queer British men who came to New York to perform the story of their lives in a confessional mode: Quentin Crisp in 1979 with his show An Evening with Quentin Crisp, and ...
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This essay centers around two queer British men who came to New York to perform the story of their lives in a confessional mode: Quentin Crisp in 1979 with his show An Evening with Quentin Crisp, and Bette Bourne in 2010 with his performance A Life in Three Acts. Both shows posed as evenings of plain, immediate chat, but both, in fact, were complex, remediated things. This essay argues that such complex media schemes are, in fact, a crucial characteristic of confessional monologue, which has pervaded American theater since the 1980s.Less
This essay centers around two queer British men who came to New York to perform the story of their lives in a confessional mode: Quentin Crisp in 1979 with his show An Evening with Quentin Crisp, and Bette Bourne in 2010 with his performance A Life in Three Acts. Both shows posed as evenings of plain, immediate chat, but both, in fact, were complex, remediated things. This essay argues that such complex media schemes are, in fact, a crucial characteristic of confessional monologue, which has pervaded American theater since the 1980s.
