Like Tom Kalin's homoerotic Swoon, based on the murderous American male duo Leopold and Loeb, American Translation ( now on DVD from TLA releasing ) is terrifying for many reasons besides being based on the true stories of a serial killer whose victims were gay escorts. In this film loosely inspired by these accounts, a handsome psychopathic French twink named Chris ( Pierre Perrier ) goes on the run with a wealthy French-American woman, Aurore ( Lizzie Brocheré ) , whose father ( also the film's director ) is a businessman struggling with the world recession.
It is love at first sight after a tryst in the bathroom of The Bristol hotel in Paris—that is, until Aurore uncovers that Chris' sadism may be monstrous. Chris makes passive-aggressive comments that their love is dangerous because it will not last. Aurore must either become a willing participant or return to another kind of isolation with her father. This nihilistic thriller overtly tries to not judge Chris, but, rather, questions whether it was same-sex childhood trauma that caused his illness or if it's just his nature.
In a string of events akin to Bonnie and Clyde and its Depression-era setting, Chris attempts to draw out Aurore's sympathy for his killer instinct while lassoing her with steamy sex in the back of his hippie wagon, even stripteasing in Aurore's living room—complete with strobe lights. The couple ventures to his hometown to get married by the priest who solicited sexual favors from Chris as a child; then, they honeymoon at the inn where his childhood best friend committed suicide. Chris knowingly but savagely takes Aurore on this sick and vengeful road trip across France, naively thinking he'll never get caught as long as his sex appeal stays fully erect. Pascal Arnold directed from his own screenplay and Jean-Marc Barr co-directs, acts, and shoots this high-style, low-budget queer thriller.
Previews:
In The Raven, gay British actor Luke Evans ( Clash of the Titans; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ) , plays Detective Fields, a version of Auguste Dupin, the first private eye in fiction invented by Edgar Allen Poe, played here by John Cusack ( High Fidelity ) . In the movie, Poe is called to solve a series of crimes in Baltimore, Md., where he lived in the 1830s before he wrote the poem after which the film is named. Poe must draw on his own instincts of deduction as he teams with Fields to stop a madman from turning every one of Poe's stories into reality.
Dupin first appeared in 1841 in The Murder in the Rue Morgue. Dupin, who had a secret life with a dandy poet known only as "D," is often compared to Sherlock Holmes, once portrayed as gay in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes ( 1970 ) . The Raven co-stars Alice Eve ( She's Out of My League; Sex and the City 2 ) as Poe's love interest, Emily Hamilton, and Brendan Gleeson ( Albert Nobbs—coming to DVD May 15 ) . The ruggedly handsome Oliver Jackson-Cohen ( Faster, Going the Distance ) also co-stars. James McTeigue ( V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin ) directs from a script by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare ( Loverboy ) .
Fans of On Golden Pond will likely appreciate the simple premise of Darling Companion, the first film by director Lawrence Kasdan ( The Accidental Tourist, Big Chill ) in more than a decade and his first independent film. With 11 films to his credit and three Academy Award nominations, Kasdan rejoined his wife and Academy Award nominated co-writer, Meg ( Grand Canyon ) , to script Darling Companion, which is based on their experience searching for their lost cherished mutt, Mac, in the Rockies in Colorado. The movie is described as a comedy about many forms of companionship, the love between species, young human love, mid-life love and the recently wed.
Darling Companion is a gay affair about more than just a mixed-breed stray dog. It stars Diane Keaton, who once played Sybil Stone, a stubborn advocate for her gay son and his blind Black partner in The Family Stone. Kevin Kline, who famously played a gay teacher in the 1997 film In and Out, reunites with Kasdan after his roles in Grand Canyon and Big Chill. Two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest played the mother-in-law to gay parents Nathan Lane and Robin Williams in The Birdcage. Co-starring in Darling Companion is the awkwardly handsome mumblecore actor/director Mark Duplass ( Greenburg, Cyrus ) , featured in the homoerotic dramedy Humpday, directed by Lynn Shelton.
Film notes:
—An ensemble comedy with a heavily African-American cast, The Skinny—the latest feature film by gay African-American writer/director Patrick-Ian Polk ( Punks; Noah's Arc ) —reunites many of the actors from the Noah's Arc TV series and features transgender Internet celebrity B. Scott. The story follows four young, Black, gay men ( Magnus, Sebastian, Kyle and Joey ) and their lesbian best friend ( Langston ) . The friends arrange to meet in New York City one year after their graduation from Brown University. Polk was awarded the 2012 Fusion: LGBT People of Color Film Festival Achievement Award by Lee Daniels ( Precious ) . See the film during its one-week engagement in Chicago starting Friday, April 27, at Landmark Century Theatre, 2828 N. Clark St.
—Jamie and Jessie Are Not Together is the latest feature by Wendy Jo Carlton ( director of the lesbian-themed film Hannah Free, produced by WCT Publisher/Executive Editor Tracy Baim ) . Jamie and Jessie will screen Thursday, April 26, at 8 p.m. at Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Tickets are $18 and include the film and after-party at Blue Bayou, 3734 N. Southport Ave. Sales benefit the Lesbian Community Cancer Project of Howard Brown Health Center.
—Lost Bohemia ( 2010 ) , by Josef Astor, is about the Carnegie Hall Studios, a Manhattan haven for artists such as purportedly gay composer Leonard Berstein ( West Side Story ) and modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan ( played by Vanessa Redgrave in Isadora ) . The film plays April 27-May 3 at Gene Siskel Film Center.
—On April 19, the Chicago International Film Festival honored Kelsey Grammer with the Career Achievement Award at the 48th Annual Hugo Television Awards. The actor recently won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Mayor Tom Kane in the Starz drama Boss. Its memorable pilot episode was led by gay director Gus Van Sant ( Milk, Elephant, My Own Private Idaho ) , also credited as an executive producer of the first eight episodes.
