Ah, to have a been a young gay man in Paris, 1934. Or at least, a young woman playing a gay man playing a woman. (As played by a woman.)
For the last two weeks, we've been examining the charming 1982 musical Victor/Victoria on my weekly Twitch streams. Starring Julie Andrews and directed by her husband Blake Edwards, it's a real hoot. Julie plays a down-on-her-luck singer who meets a cunning theatrical producer, and the two of them realize that her talent just needs a gimmick: They'll tell everyone she's a man with a shockingly feminine voice, turning Paris upside-down as a drag superstar.
Of course, things get complicated when a quasi-mobster from Chicago wanders through town and falls in love -- but of course, to his chagrin, he thinks he's in love with a man.
It's a cute little gender-bender of a musical comedy, with a few passing gestures towards deeper ideas that are de-prioritized in favor of wackiness and glitz. I hadn't seen it in many years, and one of my first thoughts upon witnessing scenes in which characters attempt to pick apart the essential "maleness" or "femaleness" of a person, and to attempt to decode a person they find ambiguous was: "Oh my God, Julie Andrews is the originator of the 'It's Pat' gag." (Of course, she's not really; if anyone deserves credit, it's Reinhold Schünzel, on whose 1933 film this musical version is based.)
I was also struck by how nicely it fits alongside another movie that I'm researching: Kiss of the Spider Woman. Hector Babenco, who directed that film, said that he was trying to determine what, fundamentally, makes a person a man. And Manuel Puig, who wrote the novel on which the film is based, said that he considered the two main characters to actually be four characters: Each one is both a man and a woman. Aren't we all!
Anyway, now that we've concluded the watch-along of Victor/Victoria, we'll be starting a watch-along of the film with a commentary track by Julie and Blake, and I'm very excited for you to join us for that. That livestream starts this Sunday, September 21, at noon pacific/3pm eastern. And then the week after that, my video about Kiss of the Spider Woman goes live! What a busy time.
What's New This Week
New Patreon video about the many unusual roles of Raul Julia, before he was Gomez Addams.
You can still watch the recorded VOD of our Victor/Victoria livestreams.
On The Sewers of Paris, I'm chatting with the problematic gays of The Problematic Gaze podcast.
What's Coming Up
Kiss of the Spider Woman video coming Sunday, Sept 28! Then I've got a Frankenstein video in the works for October.
Coming up on The Sewers of Paris: Going deep on musical theater.
Stuff I've Been Enjoying Lately
The same year that Victor/Victoria came out, so did Querelle. I like them both, but I happen to think one is more pleasant to look at than the other. See if you can guess which one when you look at the trailer for Querelle!
Here's an early appearance by Angelina Jolie on Conan. A few weird things about it: It's so strange to see someone who is now at the top of mega-celebrity acting nervous about being on THIS show, of all shows. And what's that at the very end about Alfred's dress???
Here is a relaxing video of an opossum (not a possum!!!!!!) eating an ice cream cone.