A Single Man (2009)
September 12, 2014 8:21 PM - Subscribe

An English professor, one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (5 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
The story that this is based on is the one Isherwood wrote trying to explore what would happen if his lover of many years Dan died before him*.

I found it *really* hard to watch.

*Of course the older Isherwood died before him, Dan is still alive today, but he did spend an entire night alone with Isherwood's body drawing him before the hospital took it away.
posted by The Whelk at 8:37 PM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


Also that's Jon Hamm on the phone at the start so I've decided this takes place in the Mad Men universe.
posted by The Whelk at 8:38 PM on September 12, 2014


*Of course the older Isherwood died before him, Dan is still alive today, but he did spend an entire night alone with Isherwood's body drawing him before the hospital took it away.

The documentary about Isherwood and his partner Don Bachardy is really great: Chris and Don.
posted by latkes at 10:41 PM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


Just watched this and found it one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, so aching, so soft, touching everything it views with this tender, broken gaze. And...

Felt so betrayed by the last moment. I still remember watching the Celluloid Closet and just getting it how fucked up it was that every single gay person had to be killed in every media representation of us, (as shown here, even those made by us).

I've been thinking a lot about the death of queerness as an identity, in the context of gay marriage and decreasing homophobia - what is queer if we're part of the norm? This film brings this beautiful, awfulness of the fear of being yourself with others that we don't have to live with anymore (or less and less). But it made me so fucking glad to be past this stage where we have to be punished with death for merely existing.

I've yet to read any Isherwood but maybe I'll start with this.

Stunning film - in all senses.
posted by latkes at 8:04 AM on June 11, 2015


Just saw this. What a great film. Very moving. I loved the technicolourness of it.
posted by unliteral at 5:03 PM on July 7, 2019


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