Sample Research Paper On Depicting The Queers: How

With the end of the Hollywood production code and the introduction of the rating system, western filmmakers are being encouraged to depict homosexual relationships in their films. Despite the censorship of such films by the state administrations, there are some Chinese filmmakers who persist in representing homosexual love. In this paper we will use three films produced in the eastern and western worlds to analyze the homosexual representation of love in the new millennium. The chosen films are Lan Yu(2001) directed by Stanley Kwan, Brokeback Mountain(2005) directed by Ang Lee and A Single Man(2009) directed by Tom Ford. The first two movies concern gay romance, begin with desire, and tend to use homosexuality as a symbol to question the social or family norms and issues that exist in our society. The third film, A Single Man, primarily focuses on a personal and private relationship. We argue that the shifting of the focus of gay romance films from desire to love could reflect the cultural acceptance of LGBT, but the loss of symbolization could also pose a problem.
Although all the three movies depict gay romance, their role, setting and background are different. Lan Yu is a Chinese gay romance based on a true story. It shows how the sexual relationship between a successful middle-age businessman, Handong Chen and a college student, Yu Lan grew into a commitment towards the end of the 1980s, which is considered to be an ideological revolutionary era in China. Brokeback Mountain is a movie about the romance between Ennis, a ranch hand and Jack, a rodeo cowboy. Their relationship of 19 years started from their herding jobs, and persisted through their youth, marriages, children and other stages of life. A Single Man is a movie centering on George Falconer and his agony over the loss of his partner Jim Ackerly, who dies in a car accident eight months before the day the story commences. The film records the people and events that George encounters up until the evening he plans to commit suicide.
In the former two movies, Lan Yu and Brokeback Mountain, at least one of the main characters intends to keep their relationship inside the closet. By not showing their relationship as stable one, these two movies depict gay romance as a non-normative relationship thereby implying that such a romance is not approved by the public. This way, the two movies focus more on the desire side of gay romance.
According to Berlant, desire is a state of attachment that is externally projected onto a person or an object. The desiring person is isolated from the thing he or she desires, and the need for the desired object is aggressive (6). In both Lan Yu and Brokeback Mountain, the gay lovers meet secretly and temporarily. A majority of the scenes in Lan Yu have been shot inside the private apartment of Handong and his villa given as a gift to Yu. These indoor scenes indicate that the relationship between Handong and Yu is kept secret. Also, Yu usually leaves Handong’s apartment the morning after their meeting, and Handong and Yu barely live in the villa. Although the two plan to spend their lives together, their meetings are temporary and do not form a significant part of their individual lives. In Brokeback Mountain, the love between Ennis and Jack is ignited when they work together as sheep herders. Their jobs are a short-time summer jobs, post which they part and lose contact for four years. Even though they meet again later, their annual meet, carried out in the name of fishing together- the excuse the two provide to their respective families- lasts just a week. As a result, their time together is limited and their meeting location is secluded inside mountains where no one can find them.
In both the movies, as a consequence of their secret meetings held in isolation from the society, the needs of the lovers increase and evolve into a uni-directional desire to consume more of their lovers’ time. For example, Yu is looking forward to live his entire life with Handong by decorating the villa, and Jack suggests to Ennis that the two could start and manage a small ranch together after the latter divorces his wife. In this manner, the gay lovers in both the films want to transform their temporary relationships into long-term and more stable ones.
But, when their fantasy regarding a future life together is rejected by their partners, their desire to spend a lifetime with the latter becomes more aggressive, which then turns into a combat and struggle between the couples. So, Yu and Handong quarrel, and Handong confesses to Yu that he has decided to marry a woman. Similarly, Jack and Ennis squabble, and Jack complains that he can only see his true love for several days even as he is bearing lovesickness. The two pairs of gay lovers thus, stand on opposite sides, and their need for each other becomes impulsive and invading, which echoes well with Berlant’s definition of desire. This also reaffirms that Lan Yu and Brokeback Mountain depict gay romance more from the perspective of a desire-driven relationship.
On the other hand, in A Single Man, the gay lovers, George and Jim, share a life like couples, which corresponds to the social, conventional definition of love. Therefore, this relationship is different from the affair-like relationships depicted in the other two gay romance movies, and emphasizes on homosexuality more from the perspective of love between the individuals involved. Berlant interprets love as a bidirectional intimacy that is constructed by both the lovers (6). According to the current social convention, love between couples is mostly represented via the bond of properties, family and posterity (7). This understanding of love is shown well in A Single Man. For example, George fondly recollects he and Jim reading books together in the living room of a the house that they have lived in for 16 years, which meets the conventional criteria of couple-hood via the bond of properties.
In another scene, George and Jim are tucked up on the sofa at the opposite sides of a room and are surrounded by their two dogs. In this scene, it is the symmetry of their positioning that indicates their couple-hood. Moreover, the warm lighting, surrounding book shelves, gentle background music, and high salutation all create a deep sense of family intimacy. The two dogs that surround the gay lovers act as substitutes of George and Jim’s offsprings. This excerpt is an everyday life scene that can happen in both heterosexual and homosexual families. We can witness the director, Tom Ford’s intention to create a conventional family intimacy that follows the rules concerning couples, families, and reproduction, regardless of the homosexual identity of the main character. A Single Man also normatively depicts George and Jim’s love by using George’s flashbacks to fill up Jim’s physical absence. Berlant states that intimacy between lovers will have a fusion effect; it can expand lovers from their own selves, but also permits them to carry the identity of their partners (6).
Lan Yu and Brokeback Mountain are movies belonging to the drama genre- they mainly display events in the lives of gay lovers in a chronological order. However, A Single Man is more like a subjective point-of-view movie. Even though one of the main characters, Jim has died eight months before the day that the story begins, his partner George is constantly reminded of him by his photograph or some other familiar record and seeks to immerse himself in his lover’s memory. Despite the fact that Jim is physically absent from the main timeline of this film, George’s flashback about Jim keeps the illusional Jim an important part of the story and expands his identity to form his continued version. George’s flashback also tangles an already twisted film storyline. Thus, this two-as-one expansion emphasizes that this film is not about the desire and struggle to occupy significant portions of other’ lives; rather, it is about yearning and love.