Obviously the writers of the movies (and of the plays and books that became movies) of this era knew they were introducing characters who were in some sense queer. The actors seem to know precisely what they’re communicating. But for the popular viewer, how much did they know? How did they see these films? What did they think was happening in them? It’s so appealing. I don’t mean the censorship itself, but the sly, subtle representations of bubbling subconscious—who can resist?

One of the things I keep finding are scenes in which two cohabitating people argue about one of them creating too much clutter, not going out and working or seeing other people. There is an erotic communication behind each one. One partner is holed up in the house, drinking too much and making a mess, and demanding that the other partner must love him anyway. The other comes home to clean up the mess, marching around and demanding changes that will never happen. This is, I think, one way that repressed queer desire gets to say what it wants. It says, look at me and love me with all my filth. And it says, I can only love you with all the filth removed from view.

In the very charming 1961 film Goodbye Again, Ingrid Bergman plays a 40-year-old interior decorator in Paris whose boyfriend Yves Montand is constantly cancelling plans to chase after idiotic twentysomethings. So when the plainly insane 25-year-old Anthony Perkins appears and begins declaring his passionate (and clearly Oedipal) love for her, she puts up a heroic and hysterical effort to resist before being terrorized into giving it a go. As one might predict, he’s obsessive and perverse, and wants to make their affair as public as possible, in ways that expose her as just as queer as he is. One day she comes home to find him drunkenly napping and sulking, and threatens to break up with him, with bizarre results:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a very different version of the same scene, but doubled, in the disturbing 1963 film The Servant. James Fox plays a dissipated upper-class young man who hires an extremely traditional-seeming manservant, Dirk Bogarde, who subtly invades his private life and destroys his chances of marriage and success. Once he realizes he’s been duped, in a truly shocking scene, he finds he is too dependent on the servant to dispense with him. Instead, the two enter an intense contest of wills in which each man takes a turn accusing the other of being filthy as a way of asserting his dominance:

Click here to view the embedded video.

These scenes of filth and confrontation have more erotic content than a thousand frozen-mouthed Hays-Code kisses. By the time both of these films were made, sexual subjects—even queer ones—had already begun to be explored in mainstream cinema in fairly unambiguous ways. The plays Suddenly Last Summer and The Children’s Hour were made into films in 1959 and 1961, respectively, and both plots hinge entirely on gay sexual desire. There was a new explicitness available about queerness. But I think what I love especially about movies of the late 50′s and early 60′s is the persistence of queer content presented in Freudian semaphore.

What did average filmgoers see when they saw these movies? My mother was only a teenager when she saw The Servant, but she claims she developed a searingly painful erotic obsession with Dirk Bogarde, and, if one believes the hundreds of obsessive sexual fantasies typed into YouTube comments about Anthony Perkins in Goodbye Again, I think perhaps that film may have functioned similarly for others.

I don’t want to knock explicitness. I love explicitness. But there’s something about not saying what you mean that requires a sublimely creative—and perverted—imagination.

1. War Horse. Seriously? This Disneyfied schlock is potentially a best-picture nominee? As my very wise Uncle Red Dog noted, Joey the Horse, with whom every man in the shire fell deeply in love, actually seemed like a jinx: “Everyone who came in contact with him either died, were maimed, had their turnip crop ruined by a monsoon, their jams and cooking pots stolen or went blind.” Poor turnips!

2. The Artist. Loved it. As befits a silent film, the less said about it, the better.

3. The Descendants. Didn’t love it. Perhaps it was a mistake to watch it on DVD at home rather than in a theater, but my overall impression was, like, whatever. Every time George Clooney goes through a movie looking pained and confused, people think it’s the greatest acting job in history. It makes me feel pained and confused.

4. Young Adult. Wanted to like it. But couldn’t find a single character to root for, except maybe Patton Oswalt. His scenes with Charlize Theron felt true and sad, and he was a genuinely good dude. But she… she… was a monster. And the high-school crush she pined for was cardboard. I squirmed throughout the second half of this movie, anxious for it to end.

5. Mission Impossible. I was in the mood for a good popcorn movie. So sue me! But this was just too much. Sometimes, action movies build stunts around the plot. This one built the plot around stunts. I never understood why they had to do half the wacked-out, super-dramatic things they did. Climb the outside of a glass skyscraper in Dubai? Why not! It makes for a good trailer. Also, Tom Cruise looks completely ridiculous now doing his stiff-arm running thing. Everyone in the theater snickered during that part.

Movies I haven’t seen but wanna: Hugo, Moneyball, The Iron Lady, My Week with Marilyn

Movies I don’t really wanna see: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Shame, Albert Nobbs, J. Edgar, Drive

On the Fence: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

And, in preparation for awards season and all the blathering by critics and reviewers, here is the best film commentary I’ve seen in a very long time:

Click here to view the embedded video.

1.) This song “A Real Hero” by College (feat. Electric Youth) is from the movie Drive. I could not stop playing this song every day, ten times a day, for a week straight. Especially after experiencing the movie. Go ahead, see the movie and see if you do not play this song obsessively. And if you go, which I strongly recommend, know this: it has some serious violence. I felt a bit traumatized when the movie ended. But also, I felt like I had just watched something amazing. One of my favorite movies of the year. Anyone else feel the same?

Click here to view the embedded video.

2.) Berlin. While visiting that city a couple weeks ago we were struck by a few things. First, it’s a really really fun place to visit right now (ok, for a few years now, but we’re late to the party). It’s cheap. It’s energized. There is a DIY artistic entrepreneurial-ness everywhere. Except for the food–which is terrible (Such a weird defect in a world-class city. But, communism, I imagine, was not a nurturing patron of inventive cuisines. Also, as a guide book pointed out, Germany’s short-lived stint as a World Empire meant that its colonies never got a gastro-foot-hold in Berlin, unlike say, Britain’s Indian cuisine, France’s Moroccan, Dutch’ Indonesian, etc.) Another thing, a lot of people walk their dogs off-leash. And people don’t seem to care. And people walk their dogs right onto the subway. It’s a very permissive city. You can buy beer, wine, liquor at just about any corner store. And throughout the night. And you can carry it on the street. Or onto the subway. Berlin’s treatment of alcohol is fascinating. I’ve never seen people on a subway car at 10:30 in the morning enjoying a large green bottle of beer. People who look like they’re on their way to work. Perhaps other countries in the world are just as permissive, I’ve just never seen it displayed like this before. The other thing about Berlin is how it makes you confront some heavy heavy shit. You don’t get that gut-kick visiting Barcelona or Beijing. The War, the holocaust, the Wall. There are some really moving memorials and museums completed in the last few years, in particular, the holocaust memorial and the Jewish History Museum (by Daniel Libeskind). I won’t describe them here, but by themselves they would make the trip to Berlin worth the trouble.

3.) Amsterdam. Has anyone else been there recently? Is it just me, or is it just a little bit boring? For all the ground-breaking permissiveness of this city (red-lights, coffee houses, legalized outdoor sex in their public park, etc.), it felt really sleepy. Central Amsterdam–outside of the red-light district–is a gorgeous and dreamy world of canals, bridges, and 17th Century houses and is clearly inhabited by very wealthy people. It’s like visiting those tiny brownstone streets in the West Village, except with much greater acreage and more beauty, and everyone rides bikes instead of cabs, but it still feels unwelcoming, like you don’t belong there. And for a city known for its nightlife, it closes down really early. We had a hard time finding a place for dinner after ten. And it was hard to get find a decent place to have a drink after eleven. It felt at times like a movie-set that gets abandoned by night–except for that occasional bike whisking by. Maybe Summer is a lot different than October. And with a pack of friends in the know, it’s probably a lot more fun. Did we miss something? Is there a good reason to visit again soon?

4.) Occupy Wall Street. A couple days ago I came across this link to Adbusters that proposed OWS finally take up a unifying cause: The Robin Hood Tax. Why hadn’t I heard of this until now? The Robin Hood Tax video (feat. Bill Nighy) below is from February. Of 2010. I should really check my facebook more often. Regardless, the video’s pretty clever. Could this idea really work? Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have signed on. And a lot of smart economists too. Could this be the unifying rallying cry that OWS could finally manifest? Maybe. Is this the time? Adbusters proposes October 29th. The Robin Hood Global March. Torches and pitchforks. And our TGW masks. If this is for real, my fellow travelers, let’s make ourselves heard! Anyone in?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anyway. For your Tuesday pleasure, a few intriguing lists I’ve seen floating around the Internets.

1. 15 Wonderful Words with No English Equivalent (via Mentalfloss.com). These are all fantastic, but my favorite is “Iktsuarpok,” an Inuit word that apparently means “that feeling when you’re waiting for someone to show up at your house and you keep going outside to see if they’re there yet.”

2. 161 Road Trips in the West (LAtimes.com). With a handy-dandy gas-cost-calculator, so you can figure out if you can afford the trip.

3. Logo designs gone wrong. (hongkiat.com). These are mostly kinda juvenile, but a few of them are rather funny… Just goes to show ya, creating good, meaningful, non-dirty designs isn’t as easy as it looks.

4. With apologies to Mr. Smearcase, from whom I stole this: Roger Ebert’s list of the greatest movies of all time. How many have you seen?

How else would I have ever known that a scene from Jaws II was filmed mere miles from where I grew up?

Or that the slumber party scene in Grease, one of my all-time favorite movies, was shot in a home just a few blocks from where I now live?

Check out your neighborhood – you might be surprised at what you find!