Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss

           In today’s journal, I would like to discuss about Queer film along with the movie Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss. Through this paper we can know more about the elements in Queer film, and so can be differentiated from types of film. 

:::QUEER CINEMA:::

             For decades, Queer cinema has been existed but without a name yet. It was identified with avant-garde cinema, and it is a concept that re-examined and reviewed the image of homosexuality. In 1991, Queer Cinema was introduced at Toronto Film Festival as a concept. Since then, films have re-evaluated subjectivities, male gazes and so on; by incorporating the question of pleasure on screen and the celebration of excess, resulting in a subversion of previously considered mainstream genres. The evolution of Queer Cinema is more visible only in the 1990s with the global traumatizing effects of AIDS. At the same time, it is also known as the New Queer Cinema, in which such films have become a remarkable commodity and very much an identifiable movement. Also, New Queer Cinema is a term used to describe the renaissance of gay and lesbian filmmaking by the Americans. Gus Van Sant is known as the leader for such cinema with the contributions My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (1993).

               New Queer Cinema is not a single aesthetic but a collection, taking pride in difference. However, it is a male homosexual cinema that focuses on male desires. Lesbianism remains quite invisible, resulting in an inequality of funding for lesbian filmmakers. In the Queer theory, it challenges and pushes further debates on gender and sexuality, formally proposed by Feminist Theory, and as a critical response to the numerous discourses surrounding AIDS and homosexuality. There are four types of approaches in Queer Theory as well. Firstly, in the audience reception, Queer Cinema assesses popular cultural texts that overtly address non-straight audiences, such as the homosexual characters in a narrative film. Second, it contain texts that address straight audiences but have gotten appreciations from non-straight audiences. Third, Doty (1998) stated, “to describe straight-identifying film and popular culture theorist, critics, or producers that is concerned with non-normative straightness”. Fourth, films and popular culture texts, spectator positions, pleasures, and readings that articulate spaces outside gender binaries and sexuality categories, whether these are outside normative straight understanding of gender and sexuality or outside the orthodox lesbian and gay understandings. To conclude the theory discussion, Queer Cinema ascribes value to homosexuality and lesbianism, be it good or bad. New Queer Cinema revamps previously heterosexually-confined voices, sexuality and genres. Both of these engage audiences to connect to the queer or queerly contexts, across racial, cultural and societal boundaries. To talk about the key aesthetics for today’s theory as well, it subverts gender and sexual binaries or categories to expose the limitations of the categories in question. This is to encourage audiences to reflect on their surroundings and/or the various issues discussed within the film. After briefing the discussion, let’s leap to the brief introduction about the film that will be discussed for this paper, Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss. Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss is a 1998 American gay-themed romantic comedy film, written and directed byTommy O’Haver.

:::SYNOPSIS:::

                 Billy Collier, an aspiring photographer, was agreed to finance his Screen Kiss project while encountering a young coffee shop waiter, Gabriel, at the same time. He had a crush on him due to his cute and charming look. That night at a party, Billy recruited Gabriel to be his model and the two of them develop a friendship. Billy could not figure out Gabriel is fully straight or not, even though Gabriel had a girlfriend in the beginning. After some days, Gabriel broke up with his girlfriend, while Billy makes tentative overtures towards him in one night when they are sleeping on the same bed. Gabriel refused it, and Billy apologized to what he had done. After that, their closeness seems to become an end, in which Gabriel rejected everything from Billy in the day of shooting at a beach. At the end, Billy made a big success on his screening’s exhibition, and he met a guy named Joshua, who admired Billy’s outwork a lot. 

:::OPINION:::

               This is my first experience to watch a Queer film, and it teaches me a lot of things. It shows a subversion out from every romantic shows, drama or movie, that I have watched in my lifetime. As for myself, I prefer “special” movies over normal ones, which means that I really enjoy watching this film because it is different from any romantic shows. Another than that, this film teach me not just the relationship and life of a non-straight people, but also give me a sense of reality. In Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss, the ending is over my expectation, for others’ too. Most of the people will expect good endings in very romance film – two person be with each other happily forever after, yet this film did not show this ending. It symbolize the reality, which means that not everything will goes well. Billy did not get up with Gabriel, this is a sad-yet-over-expect ending. 

:::CONCLUSION:::

               

               As a conclusion, we can observe some elements of Queer Cinema in Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss. Through the elements, film students and audiences can differentiate and know more about the Queer films. However in some countries, these kind of films still cannot reach the acceptance from either government or society. Being diverse, I hope that everyone can give more attention to Queer Cinemas. It’s not just because for knowing the LGBTQI world or step into their shoes, but also influence the next generation as well.