Gay Camberwell

by Roz

I’ve been off work this week, pottering around and recovering from a depressing Christmas with a hypochondriac mother. My pottering has entailed the consumption of a vast number of articles listing “the best” films of 2008, despite the fact that I rarely agree with them.  I still don’t understand the widespread enthusiasm for No Country for Old Men, and Persepolis seems to have been forgotten by almost everyone.  It would be nice if I could explain this away by pointing to my avante garde gay tastes, but it’s probably more to do with not liking films with big bangs.  

Not that this stops me from loving D.E.B.S., the first film we’ll be showing for Pink Screen Sundays, and which does have the odd bang.  I first heard of it very recently and I do wonder how it was marketed when it first came out (I'm usually the first to see a film with hot ladies).  Particularly after watching the official trailer on You Tube, when I put together the page for the website.  I would post a link*, but I fear deterring those who are in two minds about seeing the film from coming along: intriguingly, given it’s a smart, funny film with a lesbian romance at its heart, the trailer hides the romance almost completely and instead works hard to give the impression it’s a poor man’s Charlie’s Angels.  (As you will see, I dug out an unofficial trailer instead, which I think gives a slightly better idea of the film.  Although – being silent – you do miss the script.  Which is unfortunate…)  Did the producer of the official trailer hope to trick people – the Pope(?!) – into seeing the film?

The problem with being off work is that I really have no excuse for not doing those chores that I have been avoiding for months.  One of which was affixing (in a non-permanent fashion) tiles to the wall (to look artistic, you know).  The looting of Woolworths left me in a quandary as to where to find a suitable affixer.  Though tempted to seize on this as an excuse, I found myself paying my first visit to Cowling and Wilcox – south London’s largest art shop.  Surprisingly busy for NYE and yet with an assistant keen to engage on the merits of various sticky-backed pads and on the sense of guilt which comes with using such items on walls (neither of our mothers would approve), I found myself wishing I had an artistic bone in my body.  

The advantage of having set up Gay Camberwell, however, is that I can (almost) justify to myself – and Layla – spending time with friendly venue-owners.  Which is why I had to spend time on Sunday afternoon discussing what makes a film gay with the lovely Winston, owner of the Castle.  (And drinking wine.  But perhaps we could gloss over that…)  Thoughts from readers of this blog would be very welcome: our friend Chris, whose boyfriend cooked us a very beautiful curry on Tuesday night, was arguing strongly for Lawrence of Arabia as one of the greatest gay films.  It’s not one which I would have immediately thought of.  But then maybe it has too many bangs in it for me…

Happy new year! 

*For those who really can't resist seeing the original trailer, it's here:

Leave a Reply