Sapphic Slick Flicks
Forget the Buzzfeed style "X" Best Lesbian Movies to Watch" - they are doing it for clickbait to drive traffic to their site (I am an SEO). Why is my "Best Lesbian Movies to Watch" noteworthy?
Pish! I didn't go to an all-girls day school! Pish! None of my uni friends were lezzas. Pish! I didn't have a milk bottle serendipity meeting of eyes... Only in Milano, while working there, I met and created a pose of lovely gay boyfriends and with their sweet encouragement took my huge leap to enter, by myself, a lezza club (didn't help much as the stunning lesbians never approached me, as I was the straniero scozzese). So in the meantime, I looked to lesbian films to discover who I was. Some lesbian movies made me want to run in front of a double-decker bus, but, a few eventually tipped me over the edge.
Forgive my art house cinema snobbery (I worked at a slick cinema while studying), at first, I included only my fav slick lesbian movies. Then I became aware of the Hays Code (set of film industry guidelines for the self-censorship between 1934 to 1968 which claused "Any inference of sex perversion") and was then intrigued
......of the merits of some of these movies, I am still incredibly grateful for the filmmakers who made them and the to see over cinematic history how lesbians have been portrayed in film. Though this is not a definitive list of lesbian movies, I have included the good, the bad and the ugly (e.g. Chasing Amy - grrrrr and, yep, I omitted The Kids Are All Right!). Regardless, actresses who starred in them - some actresses declined roles because of religion and their husbands.
What pricked up my ears:
The Hays Code
In America, The Motion Picture Production Code (a.k.a The Hays Code, named after its creator Will H. Hays), first published in March 1930, introduced film censorship in the US through stating a series of guidelines to film producers. The Hays Code directly influenced the content of almost every American film made between 1930 and 1966, when the Motion Picture Association of America introduced a ratings system.
The Hays Code was based on three general principles:
- No movie shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
- Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
- Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
These were developed into a series of rules: Crimes Against The Law, Sex, Vulgarity, Obscenity, Profanity, Costume, Dances (i.e. suggestive movements), Religion, Locations (i.e. the bedroom), National Feelings, Titles and "Repellent Subjects" (extremely graphic violence).
Consequently the only way to circumvent the code was by painting homosexuals as villains and that they always paid for their crimes. In addition, original theatre plays and novels which were more out, were modified accordingly for movie versions.
The Sapphic Movie Early Stereotypes
Due to the Hays Code many of the movies featured obsessive older mannish woman who lechered over young femme woman and "Bull daggers" who were consequently doomed to punishment (Rebecca's housekeeper, All About Eve's fan, Walk on the Wild Side possessive Madame). Then there were the boarding school/ uni romances (The Wild Party, Mädchen in Uniform, Olivia...) perhaps reflecting at the time that male homosexuality was a crime and for many countries sapphic love was not a crime. Even international directors who did not need to adhere to the code... The Killing of Sister George seriously freaked me out, and I couldn't watch it all. And seriously lesbian vampire movies?
The Sapphic Movie Titillations
Again, I cringe at the thought of the lesbian vampire movie genre. Forgive me if I can your knickers in a twist but I do question some male directors as to why they made sapphic movies even if they were art house cimena heroes such as Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Ingmar Bergman's Persona, and other male directors like Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy.. and now I hear screams from you for Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is The Warmest Color. And why some male directors had to include an unnecessary lezza kiss, take 1: e.g. Basic Instincts, Cruel Intentions, Spring Breakers...
The Sapphic Movie Trailblazers
I salute the early lesbian directors like Alice Guy-Blaché for dressing up as husband in her 1902 - Sage Femme De Première Classe and Dorothy Arzner for her 1929 - The Wild Party. Then Katharine Hepburn for her gender-bending role in 1935 - Sylvia Scarlett when the Hays code was five years in place and the 1961 - The Children's Hour even though it had to be cut. For me the Hunger, Desert Hearts, The Colour Purple kicked it off, on mainstream. Bravo and thank you to the heroic woman directors who really felt what they were directing and to some of the boys who so warmly directed their movies. Without some of these movies and no lucky strike, chance meeting, for sure I would have been deliberating longer to step into my first lezza club!
1902 - Sage Femme De Première Classe
Young couple go shopping for a baby, where babies are born in a cabbage patch...
Translated as Midwife to the Upper Class. The female director (Alice Guy) plays the husband - trailblazing for movies at the time.
Dir: Alice Guy-Blaché | Alice Guy-Blaché & Yvonne Serand
1914 - A Florida Enchantment
Sortie girl discovers a magic seed that can make women act like men and vice versa. She takes one, then slips one to her maid and her philandering fiancé...
Believed to be the first documented appearance of bisexual characters in an American movie.
Dir: Sidney Drew | Edith Storey
1929 - Die Büchse der Pandora
A femme fatale's charms and unrepressed nature brings ruin to her numerous admirers including the Countess "Tuxedo" and eventually, to herself.
Pandora's Box: French censors thought it indecent for a father and son pursue the same woman so they changed the silent movie titles from son to male secretary and the lezza Countess became her childhood friend.
Dir: G. W. Pabst | Louise Brooks & Alice Roberts
