Satyricon (1970) Queer Film B-
Seeming longer than its 129-minute running time, and with no discernible plot, the movie becomes a bit of a chore. However, the images stay with you.
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Category: 70s
Something for Everyone (1970) Queer Film C-
Unfortunately, what should have been a gay romp and a fabulous showcase for its star, gay icon Angela Lansbury, falls flat after a promising opening chapter.
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Entertaining Mr Sloane (1970) Queer Film B-
Beryl Reed and Harry Andrews are both marvelous, especially at the finale when BOTH end up “married” to Mr Sloane who doth protest too much.
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Performance (1970) Queer Film B+
There will always be an argument as to who was the real auteur behind the camera. Roeg, one of the great cinematographers (The Masque of the Red Death, Petulia) who evolved into one of the great directors (Walkabout, Don’t Look Now), is the obvious candidate. Yet Donald Cammell—painter, provocateur, and Hollywood outsider—was the film’s conceptual engine.
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Women in Love (1970) Queer Film B-
Future gay activist Larry Kramer’s adaptation of D.H Lawrence’s 1920 novel was an enormous critical and commercial success, earning four Oscar Nominations:
Best Actress: Glenda Jackson (won)
Best Director: Ken Russell (nominated)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Larry Kramer (nominated),
Best Cinematography: Billy Williams (nominated).
There Was A Crooked Man (1970) Queer Film A-
Hume Cronyn and John Randolph are our happy and well-adjusted gay couple. Yes, they fight and bicker all the time. However, they are clearly madly in love with each other.
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Little Big Man (1970) Queer Film (A)
Using humor and irony to critique prejudice, injustice and the destruction of Native American communities, “Little Big Man” is, together with “Bonnie and Clyde”, Arthur Penn’s best film. It helped redefine the Western genre, paving the way for more nuanced depictions of Native Americans.
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The Boys in the Band (1970) Queer Film (A)
“The Boys in the Band” was a cultural milestone. As the AIDS epidemic approached, the lives of the actors involved was a collective tragedy.
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Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) Queer Film. Eleanor Perry. A+
Starring a luminous Carrie Snodgress, the last movie that director Frank Perry and his screenwriter wife Eleanor made together is their best.
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The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) Queer Film A-
Excellent work by Robert Stephens (his best screen performance) and Colin Blakely (Dr. Watson). Geneviève Page gives a gorgeous melancholy performance.
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The Conformist (1970) Queer Film. Nando, Vittorio and Bernardo’s Masterpiece. A+
Using Art Deco as a backdrop to the film’s narrative, the partnership of Bertolucci, Storaro and Scarfiotti changed the look of Cinema forever.
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Myra Breckinridge (1970) Queer Film C-
A failed adaptation of Gore Vidal’s novel, directed, by Michael Sarne, the film takes Vidal’s gender‑bending satire and, for the most part, mangles it, although the book was hardly a sacred text to begin with. With an unfortunate Mae West in a cameo as talent scout Leticia Van Allen, and a pre-fame Farah Fawcett making her movie debut. In the end, although Myra does not scandalize or destroy the patriarchy, she exposes and ridicules it, and Welch’s glamorous, tongue-in-cheek comedic performance is always fully committed to the original novel’s satire.
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The Anderson Tapes (1971) Queer Film (F)
Hamming it up and mincing all over the place, this is a cringe-worthy performance from Martin Balsam who is not referred to by his given name, just The Fag.
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Vanishing Point (1971) Queer Film (F)
In “Vanishing Point’s” most nauseating scene, Newman is briefly held captive by two exceptionally sleazy queers, played by Arthur Malet and Anthony James.
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The Music Lovers (1971) Queer Film (F)
The honeymoon sequence, set to the “1812 overture,” a delirious mix of sexual frustration and nationalistic bombast, may be for Russell freaks only!
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Death In Venice (1971) Queer Film (B)
Visconti’s best idea was changing Aschenbach’s profession from a writer to a composer opening up the movie to the Mahler Adagietto .
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The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971) Queer Film A-
“The Garden of the Finzi Continis” is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by gay Italian writer Giorgio Bassani who is played in the film by Helmut Berger.
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Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) Queer Film (A)
In “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, Murray Head plays a free-spirited bisexual who is having simultaneous relationships with Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch. Finch’s closing monologue, delivered directly to the camera—“I am happy, apart from missing him”—is one of the great grace notes in queer film history: tender, dignified, and devastating in its simplicity. It is also one of the finest pieces of acting ever captured on film.
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The Devils (1971) Queer Film B-
What Russell did to Glenda Jackson in The Music Lovers, he does to Vanessa Redgrave here. It’s not every director who can say that they have pushed not one, but two of the greatest actresses of their generation to the edge of humiliation – it’s debasement as an aesthetic. And Ann-Margret was next on his list!
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The Boyfriend (1971) Queer Film B-
Although not explicitly gay, the film is filled with camp theatrical energy, exaggerated male dancers, coded glances and mannerisms, a backstage world where gender roles blur, and gay actor Max Adrian as Lord Brockhurst, the wealthy, eccentric aristocrat who attends the film’s show-within-a-show, bringing his trademark queer-coded presence. The Boyfriend is unmistakably queer in tone, style, and sensibility, putting it very much in line with Russell’s other 1970s work.
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What’s the Matter with Helen? (1971) Queer Film B+
Curtis Harrington’s What’s the Matter with Helen? stands as one of the most refined entries in the psycho‑biddy—or hagsploitation—cycle, anchored by two powerhouse performances from Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds.
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Diamonds are Forever (1971) Queer Film (C)
In Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are the chief pleasures in a film that ranks among the most disposable entries in the Bond canon.
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Cabaret (1972) Queer Film A+
Cabaret emerges from a remarkable artistic lineage: the 1966 Broadway musical by Kander and Ebb, itself drawn from Christopher Isherwood’s semi‑autobiographical Berlin Stories (1945) and John Van Druten’s 1951 play I Am a Camera. Under Bob Fosse’s revolutionary direction and choreography—and with Minnelli’s incandescent performance—the film stands as one of the defining achievements of the New Hollywood era.
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Deliverence (1972) Queer Film A+
Beatty’s work is astonishingly brave for a debut role. He plays the aftermath of his sexual assault—shame, anger, and the need to reassert dignity—with a precision that keeps the film from slipping into caricature
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Pink Flamingos (1972) Queer Film. (C) High Camp at a Midnight Screening.
A sick-and-twisted black comedy and the first part of Water’s “Trash Trilogy”, which also includes “Female Trouble” and “Desperate Living.”
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The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) Queer Film A+
A landmark in both New Queer Cinema and the New German Cinema, Fassbinder’s examination of the dynamics of a lesbian love triangle was shot in der wunderkind’s apartment.
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Pete ‘n’ Tillie (1972) Queer Film C+
And then there Tillie’s other best friend Jimmy, the film’s token gay guy, played by René Auberjonois, who had one of the most memorable names in cinema.
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Play It As It Lays (1972) Queer Film C+
Unfortunately, despite a good performance by Weld, the film only comes alive when she is driving endlessly around LA’s spectacular freeways.
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That Certain Summer (1972) Queer Movie A-
That Certain Summer was the first network TV movie to depict a gay man as a loving parent rather than a deviant or tragic figure. Its restraint is its power, thanks to the expert direction of Lamont Johnson, who had a way with queer topics, and the acting of the three leads. With Hope Land as Nick’s mom.
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Everything You Always Wanted to Know.. What Happens During Ejaculation *A-
Woody is one of the competing sperm determined to penetrate that egg. Our boys have been in training for weeks. But wait! What if it’s homosexual encounter? There’s also a Black sperm! How did he get in the mix?
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