The Pass (19:00)

LGBT sounds like one of the Great British railway companies prior to the 1947 nationalisation:

Great Western Railway (GWR)
London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS)
London and North Eastern Railway (LNER)
Southern Railway (SR)
What do you suggest? (LGBT)

For our present-day circumstances it is a very ill-conceived term, because the "L's" and the "G's" (at least) have nothing whatever in common; they are in fact direct opposites in every way.

As regards "particular favourites" for various rating it would be possible for a start to narrow down the field of thirty by removing a) all the Lesbian rubbish, and b) all the Northern American rubbish - Americans removed themselves from the civilised world at the time of Vyet-Name.

We would therefore have left just fifteen films. Oddly enough there are very few French films in the suggested list, although there are three or four separate lists of various kinds in the right-hand column, including "Ten Great French ones". Several of my favourite films, and many French ones and Asian ones, are not in any list, but I do not at this point wish to propose my own list, being quite busy with "The Tomorrow People".

So here is what is left, in the original order and to be variously rated in the future perhaps:

1. Weekend (British romantic drama). I have not seen it or even ever heard of it, but here is a synopsis:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekend_(2011_film)

2. Happy Together (1997). I first saw this film about ten years ago. Anything to do with our former colonial possession delights me.

3. Tropical Malady (2004). I have not seen this one (although it is possible I have it in my cupboard as yet uncatalogued. I will look out for it. The Siamese have the reputation of being rather "wild" do not they?

4. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). Yes I did see this just before I left the mother country. All right, certainly.

5. All about my Mother (1999). I do not care about the sound of this, and it may in any case not qualify.

6. Un Chant d'Amour (1950). In 1960 or thereabouts I purchased a number of Genet's books, but do not think I ever read them through to the end. His homosexualism seems to stem from his life as a tramp or criminal, whereas my own emerged naturally from public-school life, in an environment very very different from that in which Genet lived. I see the "homo" in this film (which I first watched about ten years ago), but do not see any "sexual" part at all.

7. Victim (1961). I saw this when it first came out. It is a very influential film in which some aspects of life were portrayed in a film for the first time. Realistic up to a point. . .

8. Beau Travail (1999). I happened to see this on the tele-vision machine years ago but did not like it at all. I see now that it was made by a lady and that explains my feeling.

9. Beautiful Thing (1996). I have not seen this, but according to Wikipaedia it too was directed by a lady so I have already lost interest.

10. Stranger by the Lake (2013). I believe I have this in my cupboard but have not yet watched it. The Wikipaedia description is not very encouraging, since it may be too violent and the characters look rather oafish in the photo-graph.

11. Theorem (1968). Did Terence Stamp have a musical connection we wonder? If so, there is no doubt that such a connection would have assisted him with his subsequent cinematic career. I saw this film, what, in the Biograph perhaps, at least twenty years ago, and did enjoy the experience.

12. Death in Venice (1971). Mr. Bogarde is again good in this film (which most people will have seen and enjoyed), but the principal problem with it is that the boy is not beautiful enough - just a kind of ugly Swede.

13. Pink Narcissus (1971). We include this because, although trans-Atlantic, it has already been contributed to the present forum by member Uncle Henry, and we do not wish to drive him away with lack of due respect do we. Does it have much point though we must enquire?

14. Sunday B****y Sunday (1971). This one has a personal connection for me, because the little Malaysian around with whom I was going at the time told me he was just like the boy in it, and so I did not dare to watch it for some years. When at last I ventured to do so, I was not much taken by Mr. Finch or indeed the others.

15. Funeral Parade of Roses (1969). I saw this about ten years ago and found it really a hateful thing, in the Nipponese way.

Thank you for the correction Mr. H. I must be going gaga because the actor of whom I was thinking was David Hemmings, as described in John Bridcut's book.

"Britten's interest in Hemmings ceased very abruptly, from the moment his voice broke, which occurred unexpectedly while singing the aria "Malo" during a performance of The Turn of the Screw in 1956 in Paris. Britten was furious, waved Hemmings away, and never had any further contact with him."

What a horrid old man!

Nothing to do with Teorema though.

You have a point about Ls and Gs, Sydney, my observation was that they do not tend to mix, although Bs and Ts add a certain spice to the separate parties. I agree with all your other queries, ahinton!

It would not at all do were one to hog the forum what.

Very well, the member's six remaining questions are rather trivial, but here is an attempted response.

1. Where's "Vyet-Name"?

It is an area forming part of the Indochina peninsula, a combination of An Nam and what we Europeans call Tonkin. It is sometimes also given the name Nam Việt (meaning simply Southern Việt), a name that goes right back to the second century BC.

It has recently been colonized by Frenchmen, Nipponese, and trans-Atlantic unspeakables.

Ninety-five million people live in it.

2. What do you mean by "Lesbian rubbish"?

I mean worthless productions by Lesbians; items of no spiritual value.

3. is it an historical movie? - "Siamese" have not been so termed for around a century.

We regret to say that we find it impossible to believe the member's wild assertion. The name of the country was changed from Siam to Thai-land as recently as 1939. But then in 1945 it was changed back to Siam, and remained so until 1949, when it was changed to Thai-land again. The word "Thai" means simply "free". In these circumstances, the English adjective "Siamese" continues to be used to the present day by men of steady principles. For more detail about the etymologies please refer to our footnote below.

4. why do you ascribe it [homo-sexualism] to "public school life"? Was homosexuality encouraged at the school that you attended? Can it in any case be "encouraged"?

Briefly: a) Experience; b) yes (by at least four masters and by many students); c) yes, let us hope so.

5. You mean "American", right?

No, I always mean what I say. I have never approved of interpretation, in either prose or musical performance.

6. Must "we"?

Absolutely. If one goes through life without enquiry about points one is not really living is one? One is a mere stuffed goose.

So - now that all Mr. H's queries have been satisfactorily responded to, it is after three years time for him to start some threads of his own. Half a dozen or so will do for a beginning, will they not.

Note:

A) Etymology of "Siam"

The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens. By others it is known by the exonym Siam (สยาม). The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma (श्याम, meaning "dark" or "brown"). The names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned and artificial distortion.

B) Etymology of "Thailand"

According to George Cœdès, the word Thai (ไทย) "free man" in the Thai language, "differentiates the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs." A famous Thai scholar argued that Thai (ไท) simply means "people" or "human beings", since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word "Thai" was used instead of the usual Thai word "khon" (คน) for people.

While Thai people will often refer to their country using the polite form prathet Thai (ประเทศไทย), they most commonly use the more colloquial term mueang Thai (เมืองไทย) or simply Thai, the word mueang, archaically a city-state, commonly used to refer to a city or town as the centre of a region. Ratcha Anachak Thai (ราชอาณาจักรไทย) means "kingdom of Thailand" or "kingdom of Thai". Etymologically, its components are: ratcha (Sanskrit raja "king, royal, realm"); -ana- (Pali āṇā "authority, command, power", itself from an Old Indo-Aryan form ājñā of the same meaning) -chak (from Sanskrit चक्र cakra- "wheel", a symbol of power and rule).

We trust that that will set the member straight.