THE BEST LGBTQ MOVIES OF ALL TIME
THE RICH WORLD OF CINEMA WAS KIND ENOUGH TO PRESENT US WITH LOT OF BRIGHT, DRAMATIC AND THRILLING LOVE TALES. THERE ARE A FEW SUPER SENSUAL AND BREATHTAKING LGBTQ MOVIE STORIES WE SURE YOU WOULD LOVE TO KNOW.
1. CAROL, 2015
Manhattan, early 1950s, Christmas and.. this two! The story of love Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) who’s going through a difficult divorce from her husband and young aspiring photographer Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara). Carol is a slow, beautifully film that doesn’t rush and gives small hints, leaving the audience with an ache of want. Don’t worry, it has sensual love scenes but still gives us a chance to notice deep platonic connection between two women.
2. Happy Together, 1997
This film is not simply a crystallisation of excellent directing, cinematography, and acting, but also a testimony of the political effect of Hong Kong during the time of its handover from Great Britain to China, mapped onto the painful codependent relationship between the two characters.
2. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, 2005
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal playing two sensitive cowboys, you probably already heard about this movie. American West, couple of drinks and love scene in the mountain tent. Both of men are going through accepting new feeling and developing a passionate sexual and emotional relationship. Brokeback Mountain garnered three Oscars and millions fans all over the world. Strongly recommended.
3. Weekend, 2011
Real people. Real situations. No gay ‘issues’. A wonderful antidote to the clichés of LGBTQ+ cinema. This is the very best kind of relationship drama – gay or otherwise.
4. ROOM IN ROME, 2010
Spanish girl Alba in Rome brings a younger Russian woman Natasha to her hotel room during both of their last night of vacation in Rome. Extremely attractive love scenes and deep talks that’s what waiting for us in this movie. Step by step women discover they have more things in common that they thought. But would it be more than just one night adventure?
5. Paris Is Burning, 1990
Glamour, music, bitches and tragedy; and it’s all real. A special film with a legendary pedigree in class of its own. Like a limited edition Gaultier Bra. A story that says more about life and living life to the full than a thousand hollow promises the heterosexual world could offer.
6. KISS ME, 2011
Swedish drama film about a young woman Mia who’s engaged to be married finds herself in an affair with her soon-to-be stepmother’s lesbian daughter Frida. Oh yes, it sounds a little confusing! First kiss and secret sensual sex night at parents’ house. Mia struggles with doubts about her future and tries to choose between her fiancé and big new feeling in her life.
7. Tropical Malady, 2004
Utterly bizarre. Utterly beautiful. The weirdest and most wonderful gay love story ever told. The final encounter between the hero, searching for his lost lover, and the tiger, is completely hypnotic.
8. DESERT HEARTS, 1985
American romantic drama film about Professor Vivian Bell who arrives to stablish residency in Nevada to get a quickie divorce finds herself increasingly drawn to Cay Rivers, an open and self-assured lesbian. Vivian’s uncertainty and inaction make Cay act more resolutely. Women face with a misunderstanding and judgment from others and they have to decide if their love’s worth it.
9. My Beautiful Laundrette, 1985
One of the best films about the Thatcher era – what it meant, how it shaped contemporary life and how its values might be challenged or reworked.
10. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, 2017
Summer of 1983 in the north of Italy is time for love between Elio, a 17-year-old Italian who lives with his parents in rural and Oliver, 24-year-old graduate student who was hired as research assistant by Elio’s father. Guys spend much time together, ride bikes, go party and fall in love with each other. Beautifully scripted, photographed and acted, a gay love story that’s romantic and a little sad too.
11. All about My Mother, 1999
The ultimate Almodóvar film, fusing a narrative situation that could have come straight out of a Douglas Sirk melodrama with far more turn-of-the-millennium concerns about transvestism, transsexualism, AIDS, prostitution and out-of-the-blue bereavement.
12. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, 2019
French historical romantic drama about Marianne, a painter who arrives on a distant island in Brittany to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman, Héloise. Both of women act carefully with each other and don’t rush to get closer. But more and more getting in a strained relationship they find there lot of forbidden sexual attraction. Gorgeous and sensitive story of love in the late 18th century what we really recommend to watch.
13. My Own Private Idaho, 1991
Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix give bravura performances as two gay street hustlers in Van Sant’s blistering early 90s exploration of the unforgiving American gay scene.
14. Pink Narcissus, 1971
A joyously sexy, almost psychedelic collection of stories featuring the fabulous beauty of Bobby Kendall in this hugely influential self-produced film by James Bidgood. A miracle of low-budget filmmaking and artistry.
15. Death in Venice, 1971
Visconti may have melted Dirk Bogarde’s face with toxic theatrical make-up, but this is the most beautiful film about love and death ever made.
16. Mulholland Dr., 2001
Riffing on identity-merge classics Vertigo and Persona, David Lynch recasts the eponymous highway as a Möbius strip in which Camilla/Rita/Laura Harring is probably always crashing in the same car, always grappling through her confusion to the care of ingénue Betty/Diane/Naomi Watts, before their lives do a switcheroo after a heady night at the Club Silencio.
17. The Watermelon Woman, 1996
“Girlfriend got it goin’ on!” Cheryl’s appraisal of 1930s African American performer Fae ‘The Watermelon Woman’ Richards applies equally to the film and its director. Dunye played Dunye, and Richards was her note-perfect invention. “Sometimes you have to create your own history” ends the film: The Watermelon Woman made history.
18. Tangerine, 2015
A breath of fresh air and one that weirdly served to remind me of some of the best of ‘old’ queer cinema, following a working girl on a mission to find her man. LA never looked lovelier; I never smiled so wide.
19. Show Me Love, 1998
Beautiful Thing has peppermint foot lotion. Show Me Love has chocolate milk. Moodysson’s debut is a truly sublime and touching story of star-crossed teen-girl lovers, a relationship clearly destined to go nowhere together but oblivious in their delight at discovering each other.
20. Orlando, 1992
I remember this having a profound effect on me when I first saw it. The queering of gender seemed an impossible dream at the time, only something in movies! I’ve come back to it time and time again since and each time found something new that resonates.
