Reviews (6)

Not quite what the title implies
This film covers in a limited sense what THE CELLULOID CLOSET covers more professionally and comprehensively. The title refers to the reel of gay and homoerotic scenes from Hudson's studio films that he compiled for showing to his friends at parties. There are no candid home movie clips (no shots of Rock by the pool, Rock and Tab Hunter playing croquet, or of anyone dressed in women's clothes). If you can surmount that disappointment, it should be noted that the studio clips are mostly of extremely poor quality (as if photographed from a tv screen). On top of that, the film has an amateurish quality (a not-very-similar-looking actor plays Rock speaking from the world beyond, sometimes with his image inserted into the frame with the real Rock Hudson). I'm sure for some viewers these qualities will give the film a sort of underground cult classic feeling and add to its appeal. I found such effects distracting and annoying. On top of this, there are no interesting new revelations about Hudson (or about a Hollywood lavender underworld). All stones were left unturned.

Even so, ROCK HUDSON'S HOME MOVIES did make me appreciate the sheer number and variety of films Hudson made (westerns, war, Douglas Sirk melodramas, as well as the familiar, fluffy technicolor sex comedies with Doris Day). Not the best actor America ever produced, but certainly one the camera loved.

Clever
This clever film uses clips from Rock Hudson's Hollywood movies to tell the truth about his gay life. You will not be able to see those films the same way again. If you liked " The Celluloid Closet" you'll like this movie

Delight!
This movie explores the myth known as "Rock Hudson." What was up there on the screen and how did it mirror the real Rock Hudson. In fact, is there a real Rock Hudson or is he just a real-life manifestation of his Seconds character? The movie deftly blends real footage with an actor playing Rock Hudson. The result is a startling blend of intertextual delight.

"Fantastic" documentary about Rock Hudson
A masterpiece about comedy, a perfect complement for "Pillow Talk" and other Rock Hudson's comedies. Here, Rappaport make a editing from Rock Hudson's movies of all times, selecting scenes that suggest you the homosexuality of the star/charachter. Very funny, for all Rock Hudson's lovers/fans and people without prejudices.

A great gay "essay" film
I can understand the other reviewer's disappointment with this movie if he was expecting some kind of narrative "memory" play. The movie functions as a deconstructive essay, much like Rappaport's subsequent "From the Journals of Jean Seberg". Think also of the kind of shoestring budget essay films that Orson Welles made toward the end of his life ("F for Fake" and "Filming Othello"). This movie delighted me, made me see some familiar material in whole new ways (how could I have missed all of that coded material in Howard Hawks' "Man's Favorite Sport"?), and was a fun consciousness raiser. I watched this with friends and everyone came away buzzing about it. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Mark Rappaport, best known as the writer-director of Rock Hudson's Home Movies, pushes the envelope once more with a provocative film that defies convention. Part memoir, part cinematic essay, and part social critique, this is slyly disguised as a documentary. A searing Mary Beth Hurt stars as the cynical and witty ghost of actress Jean Seberg. As much about the American value system as Seberg's tragic life, Journals is a little too convoluted in a few too many places. However, Rappaport does bring his stream of consciousness full circle by the film's ending and it earns kudos just for its originality. --Rochelle O'Gorman ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good documentary; poor subject
Mary Beth Hurt appears as the postumous voice of Jean Seberg, an actress best known for her lead role in Jean-Luc Goddard's first film, 'Breathless'. Mark Rappaport's film compares her career and political activities with those of the more famous Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. Rappaport trys to make a case for Seberg as a naïf done in by men, Hollywood, America, and J. Edgar Hoover. He combines file footage with Hurt's narration to create a complex and thoughtful film, but it's hard to work up any sympathy for his subject, especially in her later years when she's running guns for the Black Panthers. He has Seberg say some caustic things about herself, particularly in her choice of men, but she (or Rappaport) remains unapologetic about her political affiliations. Rappaport also defends Fonda and Redgrave through Seberg's voice. This film doesn't defy any convention that I could detect; it simply follows orthodox Hollywood leftism. I found no information about the sources for the words that Rappaport puts in Seberg's mouth. I assume that they're fabricated. The DVD has no extra materials.

Fascinating
This is a quantam leap for Mark Rappaport from the execrable Rock Hudson's Home Movies. I particularly liked the parallels he makes between Jean, and Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave as political activists. Mary Beth Hurt is an actress I haven't seen enough of so I relished her role here. I remember seeing a documentary about the mystery surrounding Jean's death which included footage I was anticipating, however it's absence is a quibble. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Not quite what the title implies
This film covers in a limited sense what THE CELLULOID CLOSET covers more professionally and comprehensively. The title refers to the reel of gay and homoerotic scenes from Hudson's studio films that he compiled for showing to his friends at parties. There are no candid home movie clips (no shots of Rock by the pool, Rock and Tab Hunter playing croquet, or of anyone dressed in women's clothes). If you can surmount that disappointment, it should be noted that the studio clips are mostly of extremely poor quality (as if photographed from a tv screen). On top of that, the film has an amateurish quality (a not-very-similar-looking actor plays Rock speaking from the world beyond, sometimes with his image inserted into the frame with the real Rock Hudson). I'm sure for some viewers these qualities will give the film a sort of underground cult classic feeling and add to its appeal. I found such effects distracting and annoying. On top of this, there are no interesting new revelations about Hudson (or about a Hollywood lavender underworld). All stones were left unturned.

Even so, ROCK HUDSON'S HOME MOVIES did make me appreciate the sheer number and variety of films Hudson made (westerns, war, Douglas Sirk melodramas, as well as the familiar, fluffy technicolor sex comedies with Doris Day). Not the best actor America ever produced, but certainly one the camera loved.

Clever
This clever film uses clips from Rock Hudson's Hollywood movies to tell the truth about his gay life. You will not be able to see those films the same way again. If you liked " The Celluloid Closet" you'll like this movie

Delight!
This movie explores the myth known as "Rock Hudson." What was up there on the screen and how did it mirror the real Rock Hudson. In fact, is there a real Rock Hudson or is he just a real-life manifestation of his Seconds character? The movie deftly blends real footage with an actor playing Rock Hudson. The result is a startling blend of intertextual delight.

"Fantastic" documentary about Rock Hudson
A masterpiece about comedy, a perfect complement for "Pillow Talk" and other Rock Hudson's comedies. Here, Rappaport make a editing from Rock Hudson's movies of all times, selecting scenes that suggest you the homosexuality of the star/charachter. Very funny, for all Rock Hudson's lovers/fans and people without prejudices.

A great gay "essay" film
I can understand the other reviewer's disappointment with this movie if he was expecting some kind of narrative "memory" play. The movie functions as a deconstructive essay, much like Rappaport's subsequent "From the Journals of Jean Seberg". Think also of the kind of shoestring budget essay films that Orson Welles made toward the end of his life ("F for Fake" and "Filming Othello"). This movie delighted me, made me see some familiar material in whole new ways (how could I have missed all of that coded material in Howard Hawks' "Man's Favorite Sport"?), and was a fun consciousness raiser. I watched this with friends and everyone came away buzzing about it. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

So, I'm not the only one
So I'm not the only one who obsessively watched these old movies as a kid and wondered why Walter Brennan kept showing up as the seemingly love-sick, woman-disparaging best friend of the handsome hero (usually Gary Cooper). Actually, this tape is a great companion piece to The Celluloid Closet. The Celluloid Closet maintains that the veiled gay characters of Hollywood's golden age were all comic sissies or tragically doomed or villainously deranged. This second look seems to say, "Well, usually. But if you take a second look at a few very familiar characters we all took for granted, alot of them were just regular guys." They spend alot of time analyzing Wendell Corey in Desert Fury as the overprotective, coffee fetching sidekick of gangster John Hodiak, but don't even mention the much more obvious relationship between gangster Robert Taylor and drunken sidekick Van Heflin in Johnny Eager. But it's a worthwhile rental and Dan Butler is too cute to only be seen on the world's most closeted sitcom Frasier, where he's forced to play a hetero.

Very interesting film, but tape is overpriced for couple of
reasons... First of all, judging by technique and material employed, this film must have cost very little to make. Secondly, the quality of the tape varies from very good to very bad (couple of shots are all blurry and kind of twitching). High cost and average picture quality notwithstanding, the film itself is very interesting. Mark Rappaport gives us his own perspective on politics of Hollywood. Although his perspective is very subjective, it does make you think. I think first of all this film was meant to be good fun. However, if you look closer, you will find that underneath all that humor and fun Mark Rappaport has produced a serious study of Hollywood. He has managed to connect fun material with film theory, "queer theory" in particular. Film clips, used to illustrate author's point, vary from well-known "westerns" to screwball comedy. All films mentioned are old and classic ones. I, personally, could think of numerous other film clips that would fit in perfectly, but perhaps those clips were not available to the authors. Keep in mind that this film is neither a feature film nor a documentary. It is simply a collection of clips, intercepted with humorous monologue, read by Dan Butler. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Is a paranoid a person with a persecution complex or a too-active imagination? Or perhaps it's just a person who has all the facts! Don't miss this sinister and brilliant piece of subversive soap opera written and directed by Mark Rappaport, his last feature before a decade of filming biographical deconstructions (Rock Hudson's Home Movies, From the Journals of Jean Seberg).To the point of hysteria, Rappaport spins such an intricate yarn of incestuous relationships that a plot summary is nearly impossible. On the other hand, the megalomaniacal characters on display are so twisted and intriguing that you probably won't be too worried about following the thread--just keeping up with who's doing whom will keep you busy enough.Comparisons to Thomas Pynchon's slim novel The Cryingof Lot 49 are justified, but as terrifying and funny as that book is, Rappaport's film is an improvement: his wry ironies and sharp visual style accomplish such distortions in what we see, hear, and think in a compression of screen time that you might find yourself crying with the tortured gallery of characters for this oddity to be over. Viewers who make it to the end will be treated to the catchy 1980s theme song "Paranoid," also composed by the filmmaker. --Christopher Chase ... Read more

Amazon.com

Definitely not for everyone's taste, this comic modern retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice shows filmmaker Mark Rappaport at the height of his powers, a movie the British Film Institute recognized as the Most Original and Innovative Film of 1978.Estelle (Randy Danson) recounts scenes from her romantic life from entries written in her journal.Her sister (Claudia Weill) comes to stay with her after being released from an insane asylum.Paul enters their lives, and meanwhile a maniac slasher is on the loose in the city. It sounds like a melodrama, and to a certain extent it is, but in the way that Hamlet is a murder-mystery or Girl with aPearl Earring a peasant portraiture. With a totally original syntax that has never been surpassed, Rappaport reinvents Gluck's opera, the Victorian novel, and the art of cinema all in 76 minutes; even if you don't care for the first two, see it if you believe in the life-changing powers of the movies.This is beautiful, essential viewing. --Christopher Chase ... Read more