Movie Magazine International Blog

   By Moira Sullivan There were several excellent documentaries at the  Frameline44  film festival that ended in September that are about LGBT culture. The importance of this festival for profiling new films that concern the lives of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders was certainly felt this year with these excellent films.   Cured (see clip above) is a new film directed by Patrick Sammon and Bennet Singer about    the American Psychiatric Association's 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. There was so much involved in this decision and the filmmakers take us on a journey to the beginnings of this important recall. The film is brilliantly edited to make this historical period come to life. Ahead of the Curve This documentary concerns the history of  Curve magazine, a thriving, first glossy magazine about lesbians. The    film chronicles founder Franco Stevens and how her persistence kep...

By Monica Sullivan Ask Dr. Ruth is a strange hybrid of a movie, rather like Dr. Ruth herself.  It has an intriguing introduction: an animated sequence that suggested what young Ruth’s life was like as a child and an adolescent.  There is also footage of the town where she grew up before the Nazis took over and decimated her family.  Ruth was among a group of children who escaped the fate of their families.  The rest of the movie shows how Ruth eventually found true love, plus fame and fortune and all the rest of that stuff as a sex therapist.  Dr. Ruth fans will love it, others will be indifferent to it.  Anne Frank fans will dig in for their umpteenth reading of “The Diary of a Young Girl”.  One of the members of Movie Magazine met Dr. Ruth and thought she was weird.  That comes through in this documentary.  You can see it in the reactions of talk show hosts and their guests. © 2016 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 05/01/19 Movie Magazine ...

By Moira Sullivan The 44th Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco went virtual this year from September 17–27, 2020. It was a record breaking event with 75 films screened online. During the pandemic I am interested in seeing high quality features that are thought provoking and visionary. Two films were exceptional at this year’s Frameline: The Goddess of Fortune from Italy directed by Ferzan Özpetek and Forgotten Roads from Chile directed by Nicol Ruiz Benavides. The Goddess of Fortune is a multi character well crafted film with a wonderful ensemble of vocalists for the soundtrack. Two gay men Arturo, (Stefano Accorsi) and Alesandro (Edoardo Leo) on the verge of a breakup, receive a visit from a mutual friend. She is going to the hospital for tests and wants to leave her two children with them. It turns out the relationship is complicated since they all three were sexually involved in the past and one of her children may have been fathered byAlesandro. The film set design an...

By Monica Sullivan “Mike Wallace is Here” tells the story of the “60 minutes” star who spent most of his career commenting on and analyzing the news.  News was his life, as it would be for his son Chris, 71.  Mike Wallace began his television career in 1949 with the police drama “Stand By For Crime” as Lieutenant Anthony Kidd.  That same year he was master of ceremonies on “Majority Rules” a quiz show which lasted two years.  In 1951 he was a moderator on “Guess Again” another quiz show and that same year he was a co host on “All About the Town” which lasted until 1952.  He was also a panelist in “What’s in a Word” in 1952.  Then he became the emcee on “Who’s the Boss” as well as being the emcee on “The Big Surprise.”  “The Mike Wallace” interviews followed in 1957 and 1958, then he moved on to “Who Pays” in 1959, “Biography from 1961-1964 and then many years of “60 Minutes”.   My problem with the career of Mike Wallace is that most of these ...