The Celluloid Closet By Rob Epstein

The Celluloid Closet (1995) directed and produced by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, as well as narrated by Lily Tomlin, is a documentary inspired by the Vito Russo non-fiction book of the same name, historically contextualizing narratives of queerness in film and other media. The documentary begins by establishing the foundations of queer and early themes of queer representation before the era of the Hays Code. The narrator then describes the transition to during and post-Hays cinema and the transition of depicting queer folk as victims to victimizers, all the way to the mid 1990s. Several tropes related to our class material are also discussed. As the film industry gained traction, Hollywood gained power over queer people’s self-image as

This is because these narratives pose little threat to hierarchical sentiments around identity. In the 1950s, hypermasculinity became the ideal and signs of homosexuality were declared inherently effeminate and therefore morally wrong, although this did not stop creators in Hollywood from continuing to “write movies between the lines, and some members of the audience had learned to watch them that way” (Epstein). Certain Freudian theoretical concepts often appeared in the form of phallic and yonic symbolism that would lean as close to innuendos as possible without explicitly violating the Hays Code, such as in the form of guns symbolizing penises as two men tell one another about their desires to look at each others’ “guns”. In a deleted scene from the 1960 film Spartacus, Tony Curtis played the character Antonious, who is asked about whether he prefers the taste of oysters or snails, which represent the binary between traditionally masculine phallicism and its feminine counterpart. He alludes to the concept of bisexuality when he answers that he enjoys the taste of both. According to Curtis, “taste is not the same as appetite and therefore not the question of morals”

He ultimately ended up dying, demonstrating the “bury your gays” trope, fueling a stereotype that queer characters often see fatal or otherwise tragic fates in media. Maupin describes his experience watching the film as his “first glimpse into what [he] imagined organized gay life to be, and it was very, very scary because it suggested people would have to remain hidden in the shadows” (Epstein). This trope continues into modern film and can act as a considerable factor in influencing how queer folk are socialized into viewing coming out as a safe or unsafe option. Author Susie Bright analyzes the roles of Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine in the 1961 film, The Children’s Hour, where although not explicitly mentioned, MacLaine’s character, Martha, is evidently tortured over her suppressed feelings for Hepburn’s character, Karen. Bright attributes “the loathing she feels, how sick she is with herself” (Epstein) to internalized homophobia that homosexuals feel when confronting their same-sex