#is paris burning?

[littleeyesofpallas]

[xbuster]

The clearest “ohayou ohayou bonjour” you will ever hear.

[sigurism]

Alain Delon Paris brûle-t-il? dir: René Clément

[boxcarwild]

Is Paris Burning? (aka Paris brûle-t-il ?) is a 1966 film about the liberation of Paris in August 1944 by the French Resistance and the Free French Forces during World War II.

A French-American co-production, it was directed by French filmmaker René Clément, with a screenplay by Gore Vidal, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost and Claude Brulé, adapted from the 1965 book of the same title by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.

The film stars an international ensemble cast that includes French (Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Bruno Cremer, Pierre Vaneck, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Leslie Caron, Charles Boyer, Yves Montand), American (Orson Welles, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Robert Stack, Anthony Perkins, George Chakiris) and German (Gert Fröbe, Hannes Messemer, Ernst Fritz Fürbringer, Harry Meyen, Wolfgang Preiss) stars.

All sequences featuring French and German actors were filmed in their native languages and later dubbed in English, while all the sequences with the American actors (including Welles) were filmed in English. Separate French and English-language dubs were produced.

[bantuotaku]

When I first heard that there was this new documentary film about black gay men, drag queens, and drag balls I was fascinated by the title. It evoked images of the real Paris on fire, of the death and destruction of a dominating white western civilization and culture, an end to oppressive Eurocentrism and white supremacy. This fantasy not only gave me a sustained sense of pleasure, it stood between me and the unlikely reality that a young white filmmaker, offering a progressive vision of "blackness" from the standpoint of "whiteness," would receive the positive press accorded Livingston and her film.

Watching Paris is Burning, I began to think that the many yuppie-looking, straight-acting, pushy, predominantly white folks in the audience were there because the film in no way interrogates "whiteness." These folks left the film saying it was "amazing," "marvelous," "incredibly funny," worthy of statements like, "Didn't you just love it?" And no, I didn't just love it. For in many ways the film was a graphic documentary portrait of the way in which colonized black people (in this case black gay brothers, some of whom were drag queens) worship at the throne of whiteness, even when such worship demands that we live in perpetual self-hate, steal, lie, go hungry, and even die in its pursuit. The "we" evoked here is all of us, black people/people of color, who are daily bombarded by a powerful colonizing whiteness that seduces us away from ourselves, that negates that there is beauty to be found in any form of blackness that is hot imitation whiteness.

The whiteness celebrated in Paris is Burning is not just any old brand of whiteness but rather that brutal imperial ruling-class capitalist patriarchal whiteness that presents itself-its way of life--as the only meaningful life there is. What could be more reassuring to a white public fearful that marginalized disenfranchised black folks might rise any day now and make revolutionary black liberation struggle a reality than a documentary affirming that colonized, victimized, exploited, black folks are all too willing to be complicit in perpetuating the fantasy that ruling-class white culture is the quintessential site of unrestricted joy, freedom, power, and pleasure. Indeed it is the very "pleasure" that so many white viewer switch class privilege experience when watching this film that has acted to censor dissenting voices who find the film and its reception critically problematic. Black Looks: Race and Representation pg. 149-150 by Bell Hooks

[demigods-posts]

sometimes. i just have to remind myself that percy took annabeth to paris. like, canonically. he forgot their one-month anniversary. and took his girl to paris to make up for it. the standards are in elysium.

[queer-media-tourney]

Finale, at long last

Paris is Burning won and I am never doing anything with this blog again

[stannisbaratheon]

DORIAN COREY: I always had hopes of being a big star. Then as you get older, you aim a little lower. Then I say, "Well, yeah, you might still make an impression."

PARIS IS BURNING 1990, dir. Jennie Livingston

[topflobtch]

Octavia Saint Laurent in “Paris Is Burning.” (1990)

[cinematicmasterpiece]

paris is burning (1990)

[xbuster]

Track: Mirai (Voyage)

Game: Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning?

Artist: Paris Kagekidan

[gr00vyvampiregrrrl]

Vogue Nights, Friday the 13th edition from back in October 2023

[heartlesscad]

20 days into pride month here are some gay movies that if you haven't already seen I highly recommend you do

"Some Like It Hot" (1959) how they got away with making gay shit in the 50s. Two guys have to cross dress to escape death by mafia. Marilyn Monroe is also there being hot. They ride off gayly into the sunset. Easily piratable.

"Paris is Burning" (1990) documentary made in the late 80s about the gay scene in New York. Interviews with monumental drag queens. On YouTube

"To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" (1994) two award winning drag queens take a younger queen on a road trip from New York to Los Angeles. They get stuck in a small town in middle America when their car breaks down. My personal favorite comfort movie. Easily piratable.

"The Watermelon Woman" (1996) a black butch lesbian film maker is researching the life of a black actress from the 30s only credited as the watermelon woman. Available on the internet archive, but you'll have to pause the video and let it load forever. Worth it.

"But I'm a Cheerleader" (1999) I know it had a moment on tiktok a while ago but if you haven't seen it you should. Last scene made me cry the first time I watched it, it was so cute. Easily piratable.

"The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo" five part youtube series with not near enough views. Messy gay representation. The directer/writer has made some other weird youtube movies equally as unhinged

[the-mechanica]

my problem really deeply is how shallow a tolerance younger people have for old queer media. like yes, it's dated and some of the politics don't hold water anymore, but to ignore older media simply based on that is to loose EVERYTHING we have bc we don't have a lot. just because queer themes caught up more recently doesn't mean we should rehash everything to fit into a more "presentable" format that is only considered modern bc of the puritanical blacklash of the last several years and sanitization of queer themes.

[isagrimorie]

Star Trek Voyager, 4x08 - Year of Hell, Part 1

Captain Kathryn Janeway as a Brilliant Tactician, part 1, 2, 3 (version 1) (version 2)

[queer-media-tourney]