Question: Do you know who's STING's song "Englishman in New York" written about? If you don't know - you'll know by the end of this blog.
In a recent presentation about gerontology and movies, I was asked whether I am familiar with popular films about the aging of the gay community. I must admit that I was not aware of any such movies, and I challenged the person who asked me to find such movies. And indeed, my excellent (past) doctoral student, Dr. Raphael Epller-Hattab, found a few. So I started watching them.
An Englishman in New York, is a 2009 biographical movie, directed by Richard Laxton. It portrays the life of the gay English writer Quentin Crisp, who moved to New York from England in the late 1970s, and became well known as a performer, and a kind of a celebrety in the gay community.
Crisp is played wonderfully by the well known British actor John Hurt. The movie covers more than two decades of Crip's life and actions - which were full of events and public actions, in a period when the gay-liberation movement was struggling not only with forming its foundations, but also with new and unknown crisis in the form of AIDS.
To my shame, I must admit that I did not know about Crisp. By now you understand that Sting's well known song "Englishman in New York" is about Crisp - a fact that I was also not aware of.
This is without doubt an excellent biographical movie, which very clearly allow the viewers to better understand not only the unique characteristics of Crisp, but also the important role he played in the forming years of the gay liberation movement.
However, the question remains: is it a good gerontological movie? Quentin Crisp moved to New York when he was in his sixties. He was already an "old" man at the time. Along the movie, in several scenes his relatively old age is contrasted with the young-oriented gay popular culture of the time, which was symbolized by young men. Ageist and a stereotypical responses to Crisp's independent - and sometimes non-conventional ideas - are evident along the film. Yet, Crisp himself, is mostly neutral to his age, until he himself feels as if he has been separated from his aging body: he falls into self ageism while trying to deny his personal aging.
As my first movie on the aging gay-community, I feel this is a good and important movie to start a debate about the way aging and old-age are constructed within the gay community. To the best of my knowledge, this is a topic which historically was not much talked about - and it seems that now is a relevant time to do so. This movie is certainly an excellent starting point.
(You can watch the full movie on YouTube)
UK
2009
Director: Richard Laxton
Full movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dYdHkMusM8
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