![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
new Yuletide fandom?
Last night I watched The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which is rather wonderful even though its "we need total war NOW" argument is a disconcerting one. And actually the film is too complex for any simplistic reduction to a moral: total war may be necessary, but the film has a strong elegiac streak for Candy's worldview in which even war ought to be carried on with decency and honor. Though of course there's a nationalism in that, too, a particularly British nationalism that's about taking pride in one's own supposed moderation and fair play and fondly imagining that one's empire was built on those values. As I said, complicated.
The film is also pretty damn gay. There's so much love between Clive and Theo, and by the end they are married. Yes they are. Okay, the film doesn't quite say so, but considering they seem to be living together and they're constantly touching and walking arm-in-arm and Theo keeps giving Clive these looks of wifely concern, I think it's a reasonable interpretation. (And earlier, in the scene when Clive is bringing Theo back from the train station to his house . . . my god, could they have sat any closer together? Clive's got his hand on Theo's knee, then takes his arm and just keeps holding on to it like he never wants to let go.)
And amazingly enough, all three of the women characters are great. They have agency and personality and are far more than just love interests. In relation to the general queerness of the film, it's intriguing how masculine-coded all three women are. First there's Edith, who wants a career and smacks down Clive when he tells her it's not a woman's place to think about politics. Then there's Barbara, who jokes that she fell in love with Clive because she wanted to join the army and see the world. And then Angela, who did join the army, who lights her own cigarettes and prefers to be called "Johnny." There's a little throwaway moment that I love, when Clive comes out of a building and finds Johnny and another woman in uniform having a smoke and a chat, and he says something like "let's go, chaps." The film on the whole is celebratory of women moving into "men's roles," which isn't too surprising for a wartime film but is still refreshing.
I may have to nominate this for Yuletide, because I want fic about Clive and Theo together as old men, realizing that alongside the love they both felt for Edith, they also have always loved each other.
The film is also pretty damn gay. There's so much love between Clive and Theo, and by the end they are married. Yes they are. Okay, the film doesn't quite say so, but considering they seem to be living together and they're constantly touching and walking arm-in-arm and Theo keeps giving Clive these looks of wifely concern, I think it's a reasonable interpretation. (And earlier, in the scene when Clive is bringing Theo back from the train station to his house . . . my god, could they have sat any closer together? Clive's got his hand on Theo's knee, then takes his arm and just keeps holding on to it like he never wants to let go.)
And amazingly enough, all three of the women characters are great. They have agency and personality and are far more than just love interests. In relation to the general queerness of the film, it's intriguing how masculine-coded all three women are. First there's Edith, who wants a career and smacks down Clive when he tells her it's not a woman's place to think about politics. Then there's Barbara, who jokes that she fell in love with Clive because she wanted to join the army and see the world. And then Angela, who did join the army, who lights her own cigarettes and prefers to be called "Johnny." There's a little throwaway moment that I love, when Clive comes out of a building and finds Johnny and another woman in uniform having a smoke and a chat, and he says something like "let's go, chaps." The film on the whole is celebratory of women moving into "men's roles," which isn't too surprising for a wartime film but is still refreshing.
I may have to nominate this for Yuletide, because I want fic about Clive and Theo together as old men, realizing that alongside the love they both felt for Edith, they also have always loved each other.
no subject
no subject