1. Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
Blue Is the Warmest Color is centered on French teenager Adele, whose life changes when she meets Emma, a young Art student with blue hair. Emma will allow a naïve Adele to discover passion and to assert herself as a woman and as an adult, and in front of many others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and ultimately finds herself through love and loss.
Through this film, director Abdellatif Kechiche brings an emotional journey which is beautiful and honest, portraying the reality that lies within every human being. It shows what happens when an identity entwines with another’s, when balance and union is built, and when one looses oneself in other, into young love and later on, deep love. Moreover, the film, like many other movies on this list, explores a crucial question which the world is not ready to answer: what does it mean to be gay without participating in gay culture?
2. Call Me By Your Name (2017)
Call Me By Your Name involves Elio Perlman, a teenager, give into his yearnings and realize his sexual orientation over the course of a summer. Set in 1980s Italy, a romance blossoms between the seventeen year old and his father’s research assistant, Oliver.
Adapted from the book written by Andre Aciman, this heartbreaking tale leaves you rushing to grab a tissue box to wipe away the tears of joy and the tears of sadness.
Although the plot rolls in slowly, the beauty of the film comes with its simple message: we rip out so much of ourselves in order to be cured of things faster. You get absorbed into this bittersweet love that sprouts between the two main characters, stunningly played by Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer; a love filled with desire, compassion, misconceptions, and “later”. The cinematic masterpiece is not about the forbidden relationship that came to be between the two main characters, it is purely about love and all the pain it brings along with it.
3. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Brokeback Mountain is the story of Ennis and Jack, two cowboys who develop an emotional bond, which becomes complicated when they marry their respective girlfriends. It is a beautiful Western love story that is imbued with heartbreaking universality, with moving performances from the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.
This film is painfully hopeful and has beautifully captured the essence of frustrated, compressed passion that comes with most closeted relationships. Most of its teary moments come when Ennis and John make their trips to Brokeback Mountain, when they are caught in a passionate embrace by Ennis’ wife, and when Jack requests for his ashes to be spread across the mountain. The film’s remarkable cinematography adds to the aesthetic emotion it brings about, and it won many accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Director for Ang Lee. Ennis and Jack’s relationship may not end in a happily ever after, but they would always have Brokeback Mountain.
4. Aligarh (2015)
Aligarh tells the true story of Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, a professor on whom a sting operation was carried out to determine his sexual orientation. He forms a special bond with Deepu Sebastian, the journalist who covers his story. The film is directed by Hansal Mehta, with stellar lead performances from Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkumar Rao.
Aligarh is a film sparked with controversy, with its trailer and its release receiving an "A" certificate from the censor board, as then censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani reasoning that homosexuality was a subject unfit to be shown to children. There are no moving dialogues in the film, just moments of silence that speak volumes more than words. The film stresses incredibly on the message that everyone is entitled their own sexual preference and should have the freedom to love whoever they wish. Aligarh deals with the violation of the right to privacy of the quiet professor by members of the press, a crime that is forgotten by the public because the press catches Siras engaging in homosexual acts. You might find the film to be paced slowly, but Aligarh is a film that is necessary for every Indian to watch.
5. Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Boys Don’t Cry focuses on Brandon Teena a young transgender person, who becomes romantically involved with Lana, a single mother. However, he lies to her about his troubled past and gender identity. Sadly, he falls victim to a brutal hate crime perpetrated by two male acquaintances.
The executive producer of the film, Christine Vachon, said, “It’s not just about two stupid thugs who killed somebody. It’s about these guys whose world is so tenuous and so fragile that they can’t stand to have their beliefs shattered”. Hillary Swank’s award-winning performance in the lead role pays a fitting tribute to the heroic Brandon Teena. Despite the tragic biographical story the film tells, the most touching element it contains is the fact that it sheds light on the possibility of there being hope. The tear jerker is seeing Chloe Sevigny’s Lana crumple down on Brandon’s corpse, which is when you know that when Brandon died, a part of Lana dies too. Boys Don’t Cry is meant to chill your bones, and it does exactly that.
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Bibliography
1. IMDb
2. Rotten Tomatoes
