Table Of ContentShORT CUTS
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QueeR CiNema R
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sCHoolGiRls, VampiRes aNd GaY CowBoYs iN
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Queer Cinema: schoolgirls, Vampires, and Gay Cowboys illustrates queer cinematic
aesthetics by highlighting key films that emerged at historical turning points
throughout the twentieth century. the book traces the representation of gays and
lesbians from the sexual liberation movements of the roaring 1920s in Berlin to
the stonewall Rebellion in New York City and the emergence of queer activism and
film in the early 1990s. the book explains early tropes of queerness, such as the
boarding school or the vampire, and describes the development of camp from 1950s
Hollywood to underground art of the late 1960s in New York City. it concludes with an
exploration of the contemporary mainstreaming of gay and lesbian films and global
queer cinema.
“tHis Volume BRiNGs woNdeRful ClaRitY to a Complex field. iN a
HistoRiCal fRamewoRk witH iNteRNatioNal peRspeCtiVe, tHe Book 50
exploRes aN impRessiVe BReadtH of RepReseNtatiVe films iN tHeiR QueeR CiNema
ofteN CoNtRoVeRsial politiCal, tHeoRetiCal aNd aestHetiC deBates.
sCHoolGiRls, VampiRes aNd GaY CowBoYs
aNd tHRouGH all tHis, it CeRtaiNlY make tHese ReadiNGs aBout sauCY
B
daddies aNd fRieNds of doRotHY a GReat pleasuRe.” a
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RaNdall Halle, uNiVeRsitY of pittsBuRGH B
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BARBARA MENNEL is associate professor of film studies and German studies at the m
university of florida. e
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ThE ShORT CUTS SERiES is a comprehensive list of introductory texts covering the full l
spectrum of film studies, specifically designed for building an individually-styled library for
all students and enthusiasts of cinema and popular culture.
BaRBaRa meNNel
“tHis seRies is tailoR-made foR a modulaR appRoaCH to film studies
...aN iNdispeNsaBle tool foR BotH leCtuReRs aNd studeNts.”
pRofessoR paul willemeN, uNiVeRsitY of ulsteR
ISBN 978-0-231-16313-2
ShORT CUTS
WALLFLOWER PRESS
cover image
www.wallflowerpress.co.uk film studies BRokeBaCk mouNtaiN (2005)
9780231 163132
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SHORT CUTS
INTRODUCTIONS TO FILM STUDIES
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OTHER TITLES IN THE SHORT CUTS SERIES
THE HORROR GENRE: FROM BEELZEBUB TO BLAIR WITCH Paul Wells
THE STAR SYSTEM: HOLLYWOOD’S PRODUCTION OF POPULAR IDENTITIES Paul McDonald
SCIENCE FICTION CINEMA: FROM OUTERSPACE TO CYBERSPACE Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska
EARLY SOVIET CINEMA: INNOVATION, IDEOLOGY AND PROPAGANDA David Gillespie
READING HOLLYWOOD: SPACES AND MEANINGS IN AMERICAN FILM Deborah Thomas
DISASTER MOVIES: THE CINEMA OF CATASTROPHE Stephen Keane
THE WESTERN GENRE: FROM LORDSBURG TO BIG WHISKEY John Saunders
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CINEMA: THE PLAY OF SHADOWS Vicky Lebeau
COSTUME AND CINEMA: DRESS CODES IN POPULAR FILM Sarah Street
MISE-EN-SCÈNE: FILM STYLE AND INTERPRETATION John Gibbs
NEW CHINESE CINEMA: CHALLENGING REPRESENTATIONS Sheila Cornelius with Ian Haydn Smith
ANIMATION: GENRE AND AUTHORSHIP Paul Wells
WOMEN’S CINEMA: THE CONTESTED SCREEN Alison Butler
BRITISH SOCIAL REALISM: FROM DOCUMENTARY TO BRIT GRIT Samantha Lay
FILM EDITING: THE ART OF THE EXPRESSIVE Valerie Orpen
AVANT-GARDE FILM: FORMS, THEMES AND PASSIONS Michael O’Pray
PRODUCTION DESIGN: ARCHITECTS OF THE SCREEN Jane Barnwell
NEW GERMAN CINEMA: IMAGES OF A GENERATION Julia Knight
EARLY CINEMA: FROM FACTORY GATE TO DREAM FACTORY Simon Popple and Joe Kember
MUSIC IN FILM: SOUNDTRACKS AND SYNERGY Pauline Reay
MELODRAMA: GENRE, STYLE, SENSIBILITY John Mercer and Martin Shingler
FEMINIST FILM STUDIES: WRITING THE WOMAN INTO CINEMA Janet McCabe
FILM PERFORMANCE: FROM ACHIEVEMENT TO APPRECIATION Andrew Klevan
NEW DIGITAL CINEMA: REINVENTING THE MOVING IMAGE Holly Willis
THE MUSICAL: RACE, GENDER AND PERFORMANCE Susan Smith
TEEN MOVIES: AMERICAN YOUTH ON SCREEN Timothy Shary
FILM NOIR: FROM BERLIN TO SIN CITY Mark Bould
DOCUMENTARY: THE MARGINS OF REALITY Paul Ward
THE NEW HOLLYWOOD: FROM BONNIE AND CLYDE TO STAR WARS Peter Krämer
ITALIAN NEO-REALISM: REBUILDING THE CINEMATIC CITY Mark Shiel
WAR CINEMA: HOLLYWOOD ON THE FRONT LINE Guy Westwell
FILM GENRE: FROM ICONOGRAPHY TO IDEOLOGY Barry Keith Grant
ROMANTIC COMEDY: BOY MEETS GIRL MEETS GENRE Tamar Jeffers McDonald
SPECTATORSHIP: THE POWER OF LOOKING ON Michele Aaron
SHAKESPEARE ON FILM: SUCH THINGS THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF Carolyn Jess-Cooke
CRIME FILMS: INVESTIGATING THE SCENE Kirsten Moana Thompson
THE FRENCH NEW WAVE: A NEW LOOK Naomi Greene
CINEMA AND HISTORY: THE TELLING OF STORIES Mike Chopra-Gant
GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST CINEMA: THE WORLD OF LIGHT AND SHADOW Ian Roberts
FILM AND PHILOSOPHY: TAKING MOVIES SERIOUSLY Daniel Shaw
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CINEMA: FROM HERITAGE TO HORROR James Leggott
RELIGION AND FILM: CINEMA AND THE RE-CREATION OF THE WORLD S. Brent Plate
FANTASY CINEMA: IMPOSSIBLE WORLDS ON SCREEN David Butler
FILM VIOLENCE: HISTORY, IDEOLOGY, GENRE James Kendrick
NEW KOREAN CINEMA: BREAKING THE WAVES Darcy Paquet
FILM AUTHORSHIP: AUTEURS AND OTHER MYTHS C. Paul Sellors
THE VAMPIRE FILM: UNDEAD CINEMA Jeffrey Weinstock
HERITAGE FILM: NATION, GENRE AND REPRESENTATION Belén Vidal
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Q U E E R C I N E M A
SCHOOLGIRLS, VAMPIRES AND GAY COWBOYS
BARBARA MENNEL
WALLFLOWER
LONDON and NEW YORK
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A Wallflower Press Book
Published by
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York • Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © Barbara Mennel 2012
All rights reserved.
Wallflower Press® is a registered trademark of Columbia University Press.
A complete CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-231-16313-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-85020-9 (e-book)
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 The Origins of Queer Cinema: Schoolgirls, Vampires
and Cross-Dressers 6
2 Camp: Where Art Meets Trash 26
3 Stonewall and the Positive Identification Figure 49
4 New Queer Cinema: A New Aesthetic Language 67
5 Gay Cowboys, Fabulous Femmes and Global Queers 94
Conclusion 113
Notes 117
Filmography 119
Bibliography 125
Index 134
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted to Yoram Allon at Wallflower Press for supporting this project,
part of his general invigoration of Film Studies. I thank the Photo Archive of
the Deutsche Kinemathek for permission to reprint the stills in this volume
and Peter Latta for his kind and generous help. Amy Ongiri, Jodi Schorb, Kim
Emery and Katherine Baker provided great company, alternating between
sentimental memories, silly commentaries and engaging critical debates
while watching lesbian cinema and television in the early stages of this
project. Katrin Sieg put together a panel on ‘Queer Film in Contemporary
Europe’ at the German Studies Association where I profited from discus-
sions with B. Venkat Mani and Randall Halle. I have had the privilege to
learn from Katrin Sieg’s insights into queer theory and its pitfalls over the
years. Jeffrey S. Adler spent many a night watching the films that make up
this book, accompanied by Lizzie – a dog with a peculiar taste for queer
cinema. I am particularly indebted to those who have taken the time to
read individual chapters and provide extensive, productive and smart feed-
back: Jeffrey S. Adler, Kim Emery, Sabine Hake, Kenneth Kidd, Amy Ongiri,
Brad Prager, Jeffrey Schneider and Jodi Schorb. A special shout-out goes to
founding writing-club members Kenneth Kidd and Jodi Schorb for making
writing fun!
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INTRODUCTION
Schoolgirls, vampires and gay cowboys are the heroes of this book. The
former – schoolgirls and vampires – emerged in German films as ciphers
of queer desire at the beginning of the twentieth century, while the latter
– Ang Lee’s gay cowboys – queer the most manly of men and symbolise
the presence of gays and lesbians in contemporary Hollywood. It is from
the moment of omnipresence of gays and lesbians on television and in the
movies – as main characters, their relatives, neighbours and best friends –
that we return to a past when a character could be discredited as ‘queer’ by
a calling card that smelled of lavender, as Joel Cairo famously was in John
Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941). The tragic and monstrous queer fore-
runners of their contemporary well-adjusted gay and lesbian counterparts
populate the history of queer cinema and allow us to trace its different
incarnations. This book brings together important moments, periods and
turning points that add up to a history of queer film.
Queer Cinema thus goes beyond describing gay and lesbian films to
participate in a larger project of queer Film Studies: an archeology of an
alternative cinematic aesthetics organised around non-normative desires.
‘Queer’ exceeds the notions of gay and lesbian identities that emerged
in Paris, London, New York and Berlin at the beginning of the twentieth
century. For some, ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ are descriptive terms that capture
socially lived experience, while for others they constitute the political pro-
gramme of declaring one’s gay or lesbian identity. Naming and publicly
embodying a different desire transcends compulsory heterosexuality and
demands rights to diverse sexual, erotic and affective relationships and
gendered embodiments.
Sexuality and gender played a central role in the history of film, even
before feature-length narrative films developed, because the medium
1
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