Queer Film History
Sam Correia talks queer film history with Atlanta-based film critic Jordan Costa
I’m writing this on Oscars Weekend. Though I have seen some of the Oscar movies—I enjoyed “Conclave,” “The Substance,” and “Wicked”—in general, I know nothing about film, and there are lots of popular films I’ve never seen. “The Godfather.” Nope. “Die Hard.” Uh-uh. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Shawshank Redemption,” “Terminator,” “Scarface.” Nope, never, not even once, sorry.
I’m not here to tell you my mediocre movie takes. So, I spoke with someone who knows about movies. Atlanta-based film critic Jordan Costa has worked on films like “Don’t Look Up” with Leonardo DiCaprio and “The Holdovers” with Paul Giamatti. Jordan and I spoke specifically about queer film history.
SC: Talk to me about queer film history. Are there any moments from queer movie history that particularly interest you?
JC: Film history is fascinating because it feels like it’s been around forever, but really has been around for about 130 years. There’s been so many changes to how queer people are presented in film that directly correlate with society’s feelings towards them. The important thing to remember is that queer people have always been present throughout the history of cinema.
Queer characters can be found in film as early as 1895, but from that time period to the 1960s, queer characters were considered something that went against “modest” content. This was reinforced when the Hays Code was put into place in the 1930s, which was a set of strict rules about what could and could not be shown in films. Queer characters could not have happy endings and could only be portrayed in three ways: queer-coded, as a villain, or as a corpse.
Atlanta-based film critic Jordan Costa has worked on films like “Don’t Look Up” with Leonardo DiCaprio and “The Holdovers” with Paul Giamatti.
Queer-coding is when a character would stereotypically be shown as gay, but it would never be explicitly said. For example, in the 1946 film “Gilda,” where the husband of the titular Gilda is shown to be flirtatious with the male main character. Then you have the 1959 film, “Some Like It Hot,” which tells the story of two men who pretend to be women to evade the law. When their true genders are revealed, one of the “women’s” suitors shows no aversion to still having a relationship with the man. Both of these films followed the Hays Code, and were able to imply that these characters were queer. “Some Like It Hot” is credited with being one of the reasons the Hays Code was finally retired.
Fast forward to the 1990s, with the devastating AIDS epidemic having wiped out so much of the queer community, the general perception towards the queer community began to change in the media. We got films like “Paris is Burning” (1990), “The Birdcage” (1996), “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” (1994), and “But I’m a Cheerleader” (1999). The characters in these films do face homophobia and they were part of a new era of showing queer characters having happy lives with people being generally accepting and sympathetic towards them.
The past 25 years have been fascinating for queer cinema. After an uptick of positive queer films in the ‘90s, the casual homophobia of the early 2000s seemed set on pushing progress to the sidelines. Gay characters were ostracized, they were the butt of the joke, or in the case of 2013’s “Blue Is The Warmest Colour,” seemed to exist for purely pornographic purposes.
But while queer cinema is far from being perfect, I feel confident that it is the best it’s ever been right now. While films such as “Love, Simon” (2018) and “Happiest Season” (2020) show the struggle queer people face with coming out, they also show that their endings do not have to be tragic. There’s an increase in films like “Booksmart” (2019) and “Bottoms” (2023) which treat queerness as the norm, meaning that a character’s queerness is not the central focus of the story. This is a positive change and something that I see shaping the next decade and beyond of films.
Something that intrigues me is how relatively new it is that queer films and actors have been included in the Academy Awards. Sure, queer films have been included before, and there have always been queer actors, but most were not out at the time of their nomination due to society’s homophobia and how it would have damaged their career. It wasn’t until 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain” received 8 nominations and 3 wins that we started to see queer films included in the Oscars. A mere 20 years later, we are seeing more queer films and actors nominated. 2024 saw the nomination of Colman Domingo for his role in “Rustin,” and this is notable because he was only the second openly gay man in the awards show’s 96 year history to be nominated for Best Actor. Two in 96 years, and the most recent nomination being in 2024 is so wild to me.
SC: What do film archives look like and what are your thoughts on the future of preserving film?
Film preservation is something that I’m extremely passionate about, but it also terrifies me. Something that regularly breaks my heart is that so much of Hollywood’s early era and Golden Age films are lost forever. Film wasn’t always as sacred as it is today, and in the early days studios were turning out so many films that they were quick to dispose of iconic Hollywood sets and costumes simply because they didn’t have the storage for them. Thankfully today, that’s not the case.
There are countless ways films are restored and preserved today through places like the Academy Film Archive and the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Sound Division of the Library of Congress. My favorite is the Criterion Collection, which every month adds films to its collection to restore as the filmmakers intended and put them on DVD.
I should note that I am very anti-streaming. I can see the appeal of companies like Netflix and Hulu, and I think in some cases, it’s good to have easy options to watch films at home. However, the impact streaming services have had on movie theaters has been painful to watch. I’m a huge advocate for supporting local independent theaters, and it’s sad to see them decline because people would rather watch movies at home. I also think streaming ruins the viewing experience; People are more likely to simply not pay attention to a film when they’re at home.
In terms of streaming services and film preservation, I think we should all be worried about the very real possibility of losing certain films forever. For example, Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which stars queer Native American actor Lily Gladstone, was produced by Apple Studios, had a limited theatrical run, and then was streaming on AppleTV+, but it did not receive a DVD release in the United States. If Apple decides to one day pull it from streaming, though unlikely, it risks becoming another piece of lost media.
I do think we are in a better position when it comes to preserving films than we were 50 years ago, but it still is something that makes me nervous.
SC: How does film stand up to other mediums to tell queer stories?
I’m biased in saying this because film is truly my great love in this life, but to me, film just seems to have more freedom and is more effective in connecting audiences with their stories. A huge factor of this is simply because film is a medium that requires you to look at it to understand.
The beautiful thing about films to me is that for two hours—ideally while sitting in a dark movie theater—you can live in a world so different from the one you know. I know, it sounds corny, but it’s true!! And the beautiful thing about society constantly changing and being more accepting of queer people is that audience members young and old are able to go to these theaters and watch someone that is just like them on screen.
20 years ago, options for queer characters were limited and, let’s be honest, were played by straight people most of the time. Now, we have authentically queer actors playing queer characters, and that is a huge deal. I referenced Lily Gladstone earlier, and to use her as an example again, in Kelly Reichardt’s 2016 film “Certain Women,” we see her play a queer cowboy pining over—who else—a teacher played by Kristen Stewart. Queer Native American women are able to look at Gladstone and see themselves. That is a huge deal, and while not exclusive to film, I personally think we see these kinds of connections being made more often in films than anywhere else.
SC: You kind of addressed this already, but what are your thoughts on “queer subtext” in movies?
Thankfully, times have changed since the Hays Code, and queer subtext looks a whole lot different. While I do think it’s important to have defined queer characters in media, I don’t find all queer subtext to be necessarily bad. One good example of this would be the 1994 film “Interview With The Vampire.” I went into this film completely blind, and I was literally blown away by how queer-coded it was. They never explicitly say that the two vampires Lestat (played by Tom Cruise) and Louis (played by Brad Pitt) are gay, but their co-dependent and extremely intense, passionate dynamic, not to mention the fact that they literally raise a child together, hints at a deeper meaning behind their relationship.
I think the real harm is to be found in queerbaiting in the media. Unfortunately, I think Disney is guilty of “queerbaiting” by announcing that characters will be queer without actually following through or providing any real queer representation in their films. I’d much rather have queer subtext in a film than filmmakers saying characters are queer just to gain viewers without actually providing queer characters.
SC: Queer film releases you’re looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to Daniel Minahan’s film “On Swift Horses” coming out this April, and also “The History of Sound” directed by Oliver Hermanus. I’ll also say I’m anticipating finally seeing Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 film “Queer.” It’s been out for a hot minute but it’s unfortunately impossible to find anywhere to view. Like I said earlier, instances like this are what scares me about film preservation!
You can check out Jordan’s film reviews on Instagram @whatsjordanwatching and on Letterboxd @jordanscosta
