‘I WANTED TO MAKE A - FILM THAT USED SEX IN A POSITIVE WAY'
Reai sex ine
John Cameron Mitchell, director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the upcoming Shortbus, explains the joy of copulation to Miles Fielder.
ew York (‘in rom-com Short/ms is John Cameron Mitchell‘s (writer. director and star of the stage musical and subsequent Sundance Film Festival favourite Her/wig and the Angry lllt'h) new film. It might sound a rather conventional follow- up to his riotous story of a transsexual rock star who. following a failed operation. is left with a one~inch nub of cock. but aside from being a genuinely romantic. funny and truthful film about the variously dysfunctional relationships between half a dozen New Yorkers. Shortbus is also full of eye-opening explicit and non-simulated sex between same and different sex couples. triples and groups. ‘1 wanted to make a film that used sex in a positive way.‘ says Mitchell. who flew into the UK in October for the premiere of the movie at the London Film
Festival. ‘Around the time of the stage version of
Hfdlt‘fg and the Angry [lie/i [off-Broadway in 1998] 1 had seen some films coming out of Iiurope. such as Catherine Breillat's I’ur (lirl. that were sexually frank.
There seemed to be a renaissance of that kind of
filmmaking. which I hadn't seen since the 70s. But these films were without exception negative about sex. so .S‘liorrhus began as a formal exercise in showing sex in a film in a way I hadn't seen.”
In one scene two guys blow each other while a third yodels the US national anthem up one of their asses. It's a very raunchy. very funny and finally very tender scene. ‘There are just so many interesting things that happen during sex.‘ Mitchell says. ‘It’s hilarious. it's moving. it’s boring. it's all those kinds of things that everything else in your life is. It‘s just more intense and
revealing. Personally. I feel patronised when 1 see a serious. adult film about relationships and the sex begins and they dissolve to the end. If 1 can handle it in life. why can’t I handle it in film‘."
Knowing he‘d never get Hollywood stars to appear in the film (‘They don’t have sex on film.‘ says Mitchell. ‘Stars are concerned about how they are perceived by the media.‘). Mitchell organised open casting sessions via a website on which he posted his mission statement. This led to rehearsals with 40 or so professional and non—professional actors. and then to improvisational workshops with a shortlist of eight during which the characters and their relationships were created. By the time Mitchell began filming. 9/ll had happened. and the fallout from it influenced the film.
‘9/ 1 1 affected everyone in New York. America and the world.’ Mitchell says. ‘Fear of terrorism inspired certain people to stoke all kinds of fears. So you'll have a hysterical congressman in America saying that gay marriage is as dangerous as terrorism. But for other people. 9/1 I focused their minds on their jobs. lives. relationships and what it means to be in America. Bush's actions after 9/1 I certainly made people think about all this. That fed into the lilm.‘
ls Mitchell concerned about Bushwhacked conservative America's reaction to Short/His“? ‘We haven‘t had any resistance.‘ he says with a smile. ‘And the Republicans are busy at the moment. so we‘re under the radar.‘
Shortbus, Filmhouse, Edinburgh, from Fri 1 Dec. See review, overleaf.
GAY BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS
’s iAii“ P E 0 P LE
Butt Book Jop van Bennekom (Taschen/ It's five years since the pink pamphlet Butt first came out of Amsterdam. Defining a literate. visceral. edgy aesthetic — eschewing the waxed. gyiii-bufted and airbrushed models of glossy mainstream gay mags — it defined a subCuIIure. lnterViews are candid. With Jake Shears talking about past lovers and Michael Stipe disCUSSing his sexuality. Rufus Wainwright. Stephin Merritt. Viktor & Rolf. and contributing editor Wolfgang Tillinans also appear.
Rainbow City Ellen Gallord 8 Ken Wilson (Word Power; Companion book to the recent LGBT social history exhibition at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh. the first of its kind in Scotland. The Remember When proiect brought over 150 people. from 18 to 80. together to share and record their gay experiences and memories. PersOnal recollections are set beSide changing laws and attitudes towards homosexuality and queerness over the last 60 years. through oral iiiterViews. photographs and memorabilia. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins Rupert Everett (Little. Brown; The actor. Hollywood film star and Friend of Madonna rec0unts his life and career. with high drama and low blows cheek- by—iowl. Everett was in Berlin when the wall fell, in Moscow when communism collapsed. and in Manhattan when the Twin Towers were atacked. Sprinkled Wliil the glitter of celebrity names like Andy Warhol. Julia Roberts. Donatella Versace and Elizabeth Taylor. his experiences are reflected through a very British prism of charm and eccentriCity.
Star People Paul Burston (Time Warner) Glamorous. trashy fiction to escape the festive free/e. from the writer of TV's Shameless. who looks to Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls for inspiration. Matt Walsh makes it to the top of the Hollywood food chain: he's the A- est of the A—list. scooping SZOm a film. and able to get away With anything — even murder. Quite literally. Except he has a secret. He's gay.
Lit) Nos H [)m: 7000 THE LIST 59