The Celluloid Closet

The movies are over 100 years old, and gay movie characters have been with us since the very beginning -- even during the Production Code years, when "sex perversion" was explicitly forbidden. From comic sissies to lesbian vampires, from pathetic queens, to sadistic predators, Hollywood has both reflected and defined how we think about homosexuality and about what it means to be a man or woman. With clips from over 100 Hollywood movies, and interviews with many of the filmmakers and stars who created them (including Tom Hanks, Shirley Maclaine, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, and Gore Vidal), The Celluloid Closet is an epic story -- by turns surprising, hilarious, and disturbing. The Celluloid Closet makes us see Hollywood images in a whole new light, exploding sexual myths and examining our attitudes about sexuality and sex roles as they evolved through the 20th century. © 1995 Reflective Image Inc. All Rights Reserved.