We loved Julia Ducournau’s Raw. On this episode, find out what we think about her follow-up, the Palme d’Or winning Titane.
Bonus Episode 18: Titane
LGBTQ+ Film - podcast episodes
Discover all of our podcast episodes on LGBTQ+ films and filmmakers.
Ep. 112: Raw and Thelma: Modern female monsters
We discuss Raw and Thelma, two classics of modern horror from directors who both have exciting new films on the festival circuit.
This is a premium members-only episode. Become a member to listen to the full episode.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Editor-at-Large Mary Angela Rowe.
Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016)
A young vegetarian eats meat for the first time and it awakens in her a hunger for something else. Justine leaves her strict-but-distant parents vegetarian, veterinarian parents to study at veterinary college herself. Justine enters as a disciplined high achiever who cares deeply for animals. What she finds is an anarchistic, sexist college nearly devoid of adults in which frosh are subject to a week to a week of relentless hazing. Worse, her older sister Alex has become a “cool girl” leader among the upperclassmen. When Alex pressures Justine into taking part in a hazing ritual where she eats raw rabbit kidneys, Justine begins to experience physical changes and then strange hungers for meat — cooked, raw, and then human. Justine eventually discovers that Alexia went through the same process herself and has become an unrepentant cannibal. Justine rejects Alexia’s embrace of her condition, but Justine’s hunger is growing, and she has carnal thoughts — in every sense — about her sweetly easygoing gay roommate.
Raw is available on VOD and streaming on Crave in Canada, Netflix in the US, and Shudder in Australia
Thelma (Joachim Trier, 2017)
In Thelma, we meet the eponymous character when she first arrives at university to study medicine, leaving home for the first time. She’s shy, smart, and strictly religious, but she’s sent off kilter when she starts to experience seizures for the first time, triggered partly by her attraction to a female classmate, Anja. Along with these seizures, she discovers that she has supernatural powers that she can’t control, that act on her instinctual desires and impulses in often harmful ways. The film explores Thelma’s close by toxic relationship to her overbearing parents, and follows her as she pursues a romance with Anja and investigates her new illness, learning that it originated in her childhood and even in previous generations of her family.
Thelma is available on VOD and streaming on the Criterion Channel in Canada and the US, and Hulu and Kanopy in the US
Show notes for Raw and Thelma:
- Purchase our ebook Beyond empowertainment: Feminist horror and the struggle for female agency. The book features a case study on Thelma, featuring an essay and interviews with Trier, co-writer Eskil Vogt, and cinematographer Jakob Ihre. Read excerpts here.
- Register for The Seventh Circle, a symposium on gender, sexuality, and disability in horror cinema.
- Sign up for updates on the first book to ever be published on the films of Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier
- Read Mary Angela’s 2017 review of Raw
- Read a preview of Orla’s essay on sisterhood in Raw from Beyond Empowertainment.
Related episodes
- Ep. 109: TIFF 2021, part 1
- Ep. 107: Are men OK? Masculinity, mental health, & addiction in Another Round and Oslo, August 31st Redux
- Ep. 35: The Invisible Man and Unsane (Members Only)
- Ep. 21: Feminist horror
Ep. 110: Weekend and End of the Century: Brief encounters
We finally discuss Andrew Haigh’s Weekend on the podcast. To celebrate the film’s 10th anniversary, we are going into detail on the film and discussing another great film about a brief encounter between gay men, End of the Century.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and staff writer Lena Wilson.
We discuss Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011) on the podcast
Russell (Tom Cullen) unexpectedly spends a weekend talking to, having sex with, and getting to know Glen (Chris New), an artist he picks up at a club for sex — in exchange for a conversation about it that Glen will tape the next day and use as part of an art installation. Glen is moving to America at the end of the weekend, so their connection is inherently fleeting. But it sparks a sea change. Their discussions about coming out and past flings are the first time we see that Russell really yearns for a partner and for romance. Glen pushes Russell out of his comfort zone, challenging him to enter spaces he wouldn’t otherwise — emotionally and physically.
Weekend is available on VOD, and streaming on the Criterion Channel in Canada and the US and BFI Player in the UK
We also discuss End of the Century (Lucio Castro, 2019) on the podcast
Lucio Castro’s directorial debut, End of the Century, starts out like an Iberian sequel to Weekend, only to become a kind of post-modern exploration of love, sex, intimacy, and possible lives. Two men repeatedly cross paths in Barcelona and eventually, after what one of them refers to as a “chess game” of sending signals, fall into bed together. Ocho, an Argentinian poet (Juan Barberini) who makes his living in advertising in New York City, is renting an AirBnB in the city for a vacation; Javi (Ramon Pujol) is a local. Intimate conversation follows the sex, and the long, uninterrupted takes feel like familiar territory. But when Javi drops that they have actually met before, we suddenly cut quickly back in time for the film’s second act: to that meeting a decade previously, when they spent a day together, sharing stories, looking at art, and possibly going to bed together.
End of the Century is available on VOD, and streaming on BFI Player in the UK
Show Notes for Weekend and End of the Century
- Purchase our ebook on Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, which includes an essay on home in all of Haigh’s films.
- Weekend was our 5th favourite film of the 2010s. See the other choices.
- Read our list of 25 unsung queer cinema treasures, featuring End of the Century
- Stay tuned to the site for more coverage of Weekend this week
Related Episodes
- Ep. 96: Girlhood and compulsory heterosexuality: Water Lilies and Jennifer’s Body
- Ep. 94: Looking
- Ep. 91: AIDS on screen, featuring It’s a Sin
- Ep. 69: Paddington and Paddington 2 (Members Only)
- Ep. 66: Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country and Ammonite (Members Only)
- Ep. 29: Films about finite romance (Members Only)
- Ep. 7: Lean on Pete (Members Only)
Ep. 104: Agnieszka Holland on directing
This episode presents our June masterclass with Agnieszka Holland. She discusses her body of work, what drives her, and her newest film, Charlatan.
Ep. 98: Angels in America: Comparing two adaptations
On this episode, we discuss two renditions of Tony Kushner’s gay fantasia Angels in America: Mike Nichols’ HBO Miniseries from 2003 and the NTLive recording of Marianne Elliot’s 2017 production at the National Theatre in London.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and special guests:
Dr. Emily Garside – who did her PhD on theatrical responses to the AIDS crisis with a case study on Angels in America.
Noemi Berkowitz – actor, director, critic – past Seventh Row contributor and regular 21st Folio podcast contributor.
On this episode on Angels in America
- Angels in America’s place in LGBTQ+ theatre (3:04)
- The characters (10:06)
- Our relationship to the play (16:56)
- The productions (30:30)
- Comparison between productions (41:56)
Angels in America
Angels is a huge sweeping play told over two parts: Millenium Approaches and Perestroika in total it is around 7 hours long and can be viewed as either separate evenings or as a ‘whole day experience’
The play mixes the fantastical- Angels crashing through ceilings, ghosts, and dreams talking back- with elements of emotional and medical realism. It’s at once a sincere relationship and politically driven drama and at once a surreal political, philosophical meta-theatrical adventure.
It follows Prior Walter, and his diagnosis with AIDS, parallel to the story of Harper, a Mormon, now living in New York, who has ‘emotional problems’ and a valium addiction. Prior begins to see Angelic visions, that seem to escalate with his illness, telling him he’s a Prophet. Alongside Prior’s story we see a fictionalized version of all too real Lawyer Roy Cohn, who also has AIDS but denies it, claiming he has Liver cancer. Roy, like Harper and Prior also sees visions- in his case of Ethel Rosenberg whose prosecution team he was part of.
Harper’s husband Joe is a gay man, scared and in the closet. In part due to his religious beliefs as a Mormon, in part because he’s a Republican, and Roy Cohn’s protegee. As everyone’s lives collide Joe ends up with Louis, Prior’s ex boyfriend who leaves him when he gets sick, scared of his inability to care for his boyfriend. Roy meanwhile finds himself under the care of Belize, a gay nurse who happens to be Prior’s best friend. As lives entwine, Prior’s visions escalate, and he finds himself pulled to Heaven making the decision to return the prophet the Angels gave him and decline his status as a Prophet.
Told over 7.5 hours, it’s a complex philosophical, political, theatrical adventure, which is also full of heartfelt emotional moments as well.
The 2003 miniseries is available on DVD and streaming on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the USA
Role
Prior Walter
Harper Pitt
Roy Cohn
Joe Pitt
Louis Ironson
Belize Arriaga
Hannah Pitt/Ethel Rosenberg
The Angel/Nurse Emily
2003 Miniseries
Justin Kirk
Mary-Louise Parker
Al Pacino
Patrick Wilson
Ben Shenkman
Jeffrey Wright
Meryl Streep
Emma Thompson
2017 National Theatre
Andrew Garfield
Denise Gough
Nathan Lane
Russel Tovey
James McArdle
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett
Susan Brown
Amanda Lawrence
Episode notes
- Visit Emily’s website for more in-depth analysis of Angels in America and updates about her book, More Life: Two Decades of Angels in America
- Visit Noemi’s website for updates on her work
Related episodes to Angels in America
- Ep. 94: Looking
- Ep. 91: AIDS on screen, featuring It’s a Sin
Ep. 97: The films and TV of Desiree Akhavan
On this episode, we discuss the work of bisexual Iranian-American filmmaker Desiree Akhavan, who is best known for the films Appropriate Behaviour and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, as well as the TV shows The Slope and The Bisexual.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
The episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney. Executive Editor Orla Smith, and special guest Lena Wilson.
On this episode
- Why this episode (4:37)
- Appropriate Behavior (9:14)
- Akhavan’s great casting (12:23)
- The Bisexual (13:02)
- Bisexual identity (13:49)
- Coming out narratives (36:44)
- The Bisexual‘s emotional experience of casual sex (43:46)
- Structure in Appropriate Behaviour and The Bisexual (48:50)
- The Miseducation of Cameron Post (54:15)
- Chloe Grace Moretz (1:22:18)
Appropriate Behavior (2014)
Appropriate Behaviour, which was released in 2014, follows Shirin, played by Desiree Akhavan. Shirin is a young bisexual woman in New York getting over a breakup with her ex-girlfriend Maxine, played by Rebecca Henderson. The film cuts between flashbacks to Shirin’s relationship with Maxine and the present day, where she’s trying to get her life together. That involves clumsily rejoining the dating scene, and switching careers from journalism to teaching preschool kids to make movies on GoPro cameras. In the film, we get a comedic insight into Shirin’s struggles dating as a bisexual woman, and her reluctance to come out to her Iranian family.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is based on Emily M. Danforth’s novel of the same name. It’s the ‘90s-set coming-of-age story of Cameron, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, a young teenage lesbian who is sent to a gay conversion therapy camp by her very Christian aunt. There she befriends misfits Jane and Adam, played by Sasha Lane and Forrest Goodluck. She also faces emotional abuse at the hands of the camp’s icy leader, Dr. Lydia Marsh, played by Jennifer Ehle, and her “ex-gay” brother turned camp counselor, Reverend Rick, played by John Gallagher Jr.
Desiree Akhavan episode notes
- Read Lena’s 2018 review of The Bisexual on The Playlist
- Read Orla’s interview with The Miseducation of Cameron Post DP Ashley Connor
Desiree Akhavan related episodes
- Ep. 96: Girlhood and compulsory heterosexuality: Water Lilies and Jennifer’s Body
- Ep. 93: The Films of Agnieszka Holland
- Ep. 85: The Films of Naomi Kawase
- Ep. 79: Sundance 2021, Part 2
- Ep. 78: Sundance 2021, Part 1
- Ep. 66: Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country and Ammonite
- Ep. 45: The films of Anne Émond
Episodes 45 and 66, along with most episodes older than six months, are only available to Seventh Row members as part of the Premium Podcast feed. Membership is cheap and comes with a ton of benefits. Click here to find out more.