There's a depressing article in yesterday's Hollywood Reporter about the sad state of gay cinema. It's called "Gay pride abounds, but indie gay films tank," and it paints a pretty bleak portrait of the future of gay themed films at the box office:

"Strand Releasing's 22 films in theaters last year (most with GLBT themes) grossed just $462,000. Killer Films has shifted its focus from queer-themed features to true crime dramas and other films, with tepid critical and financial success. Rotten Tomatoes says that gay- and lesbian-themed films averaged a 51.5% rating in 2006 and 2007 (well below its under-60% "rotten" threshold), while projects like the 2005 Toronto fest's best Canadian feature winner, C.R.A.Z.Y., can't secure U.S. theatrical distribution."

Most of these same issues were brought up (and in more depth) back in April in an article on The Gay Movie Revolution, but I find one of the themes in both articles — that fewer and fewer gay films are seeing the darkness of movie theaters — extremely distressing.

For those of us who don't live in big cities with thriving gay communities, it's impossible to see a movie like Shelter on the big screen, where it belongs. Sure, we get absolute dreck like I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (held over another week!) but unless a gay romance is a cultural milestone, like Brokeback Mountain, there is no way a small town theater would go anywhere near it. (As it is, our theater only showed Brokeback twice, both times at Midnight, like it was too shameful to be shown during the day.)

The next big "gay" movie is probably Milk, which i seriously doubt will be shown anywhere around here. When it comes out, I'm going to have to decide if traveling 50 miles to see it is worth it (and the fact that gas will probably be $5.00 a gallon by then will make it tougher).

When I was preparing the blog post about Frameline 32, it sadly dawned on me that most of these films will never again be seen on a movie screen. A visual and aural feast like Were The World Mine deserves to be seen in the community of a crowded theater, and even an obviously goofy horror movie like Cthulthu begs for the vocal snarkiness of the stoned college kids in the back row.

Shelter

While it's great that cable outlets like Logo and here! are producing their own gay themed films, a little of the magic is lost when you can't experience it with a $5.00 box of Sno-Caps and a horny teen couple making out two rows ahead of you.

So here's my question: What's the last "gay movie" you saw in the theater?  Feel free to share in the comments.

(Above: Moritz Bleibtreu and Woody Harrelson play lovers in The Walker)

The Toronto Film Festival has become one of the biggest and most significant in the world in terms of deals and distribution. The fest recently announced its lineup, and it features some gay-related and gay-interest films in the bunch.

A Jihad for Love, by Parvez Sharma, is the first feature-length examination of the lives of gay and lesbian Muslims, whose lifestyles conflict with strict Islamic teachings.

Angel, directed by acclaimed queer(ish) filmmaker François Ozon, takes place in England, 1905. Angel Deverell is a gifted young writer who dreams of success, fame and love. But what will happen if all her dreams come true? The film stars Romola Garai, Lucy Russel, Michael Fassbender, Sam Neill and frequent collaborator Charlotte Rampling.

Barcelona (A Map) comes from director Ventura Pons, and according to the festival notes, "Incest, homosexuality and adultery are intertwined in the lives of six characters who come together in an old apartment in the heart of Barcelona." Nice to see homosexuality mentioned in such good company as incest and adultery, isn't it?

Chacun Son Cinema (Various directors): The Toronto International Film Festival is honoured to be showing this Cannes Film Festival favourite. More than 30 of the most distinguished contemporary filmmakers – including Canadians David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan as well as David Lynch, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Roman Polanski, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, and Wong Kar Wai – celebrate the 60th anniversary of Cannes with short films inspired by the cinephile’s place of worship: the movie theatre.

Lust, Caution, while not gay, is the latest film from Ang Lee. Following his Academy Award™ win for Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee returns with an erotic espionage thriller set in WWII-era Shanghai, in which a young woman (Tang Wei) gets swept up in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue with a powerful political figure (the dashing Tony Leung from Happy Together and In the Mood for Love). Also starring Chui Wai, Joan Chen and Wang Leehom.

The Past follows the twists and turns in the life of Rimini (Hot 100 vet Gael García Bernal). After his divorce, he survives a string of relationships, loses his livelihood as a translator, becomes entangled in a child custody battle, lands in jail and recovers his ability to fall in love.

Smiley Face is the latest comedy from gay director Gregg Araki. (And by all accounts it actually already opened here in the States earlier this year, which is odd.) Jane F (Anna Faris), unsuccessful slacker actress, is having a bad day. Her misadventures begin when she treats herself to a batch of cupcakes left unattended by her psycho roommate (Danny Masterson) that prove not as innocent as they appear. Soon she is trying to cross town so she can repay an unforgiving drug dealer (Adam Brody), attend an audition, and somehow replace the precious cupcakes.

The Walker is the American Gigolo follow-up from Paul Schrader, starring Woody Harrelson as the titular hustler, who is in this incarnation a high-end society escort in Washington, DC (and this time around, gay). Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, Willem Defoe, Ned Beatty, Moritz Bleibtreu and Mary Beth Hurt also appear.

Gay Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox's last film, Walk on Water, was the top-grossing film of all time in Israel, so when political upheaval in that country pretty much tanked the box office changes of his latest film, The Bubble, it was a bitter blow. This year's looking a lot sweeter, though, as the film is winning awards, critical acclaim, and a distribution deal on the international and gay film festival circuits.

"The bubble" refers to the trendy urban neighborhood where Noam (Ohad Knoller), an Israeli, lives with a straight female friend, Lulu (Daniella Wircer) and a gay male friend, Yali (Alon Friedmann). He meets Ashraf (Yousef "Joe" Sweid), a Palestinian, at a checkpoint one day, and they end up falling in love. Ashraf joins the three friends in their bubble, and for a time, everyone's happy.

Of course, as the title implies, the bubble does eventually burst. This is, after all, Israel and Palestine, and like all Romeo and Juliet stories, it was never going to have a happy ending.

The Bubble picked up a $5000 prize for the HBO juried award for the best fiction feature at last week's Miami Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, as well as the prestigious International Confederation of Art Cinemas Award (CICAE) at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

The film will show on May 17 at the Boston Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and will begin its US theatrical release in late summer. Check out the trailer after the jump for more.

The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival will launch its fourth decade on Thursday, June 14, with the North American Premiere of The Witnesses (Les Témoins), the latest film from director André Téchiné (Wild Reeds, 1994).

From Frameline:

Paris, 1984. In a cruisey city park, Adrien, a sophisticated, middle-aged doctor, meets Manu, a buoyant 18-year-old. Manu turns down Adrien’s proposition—then asks him to hold his jacket while he joins an orgy in the bushes. Not the best way to start a relationship, yet Adrien takes Manu under his wing. Manu needs guidance, and Adrien comes alive as he tromps around Paris with this energetic newcomer. Adrien’s friend Sarah worries that he’s being taken advantage of, but Adrien disagrees: “You can ask anything of your friends.”