How "The Boys in the Band" changed the representation of gays

Jim Parsons as Michael, Robin De Jesus as Emory, Michael Benjamin Washington as Bernard and Andrew Rannells in The Boys in the Band.

-

• The film

  The Boys in the Band

  Joe Mantello is posted Wednesday on Netflix.

• It is an adaptation of Mart Crowley's play of the same title, first performed in New York in 1968.

• William Friedkin had made a first adaptation of this work in 1970. “This film, like the play, shows various gay profiles.

  We partly escape the assignment of a certain number of very affirmed stereotypes ”, underlines to

  20 Minutes

  Didier Roth-Bettoni, author of

  Homosexuality in the cinema

  .

Summer 1968. A group of gay friends gathered in a New York apartment for one of their birthday parties.

During the evening, between the terrace and the living room, the festive atmosphere turns sour, the explosion of resentment follows good humor.

Here is a rough summary of the plot of

posted on Netflix on Wednesday.

This feature film by Joe Mantello is an adaptation of the play of the same title first performed on the stages of off-Broadway fifty-two years ago.

“It's hard to imagine the impact the play had [at that time] today.

It was the first to deal with the gay lifestyle, and it was both extremely funny and moving.

It will remain etched forever in the memory of those who saw it ”, writes in his Memoirs * William Friedkin, who was the first to transpose the work of Mart Crowley to the cinema, in 1970.

“It is a very important feature film in the United States, notes to

Didier Roth-Bettoni, author of

.

Its diffusion in the rest of the world, in any case in France, is much more discreet and late [released in France in 1972 under the title

, it barely exceeded 50,000 admissions].

This is the first time that we see on an American screen characters who are all, with one possible exception, homosexual.

The film, like the play, shows varied gay profiles.

We partially escape the assignment of a number of very strong stereotypes.

This diversity of views, of approaches, was innovative at the time.

"

An all-gay casting

Alongside the effeminate homo are a somewhat stupid gigolo, a stuck intellectual, a fickle seducer… All the protagonists find their place on the scale of exuberance, from total discretion to blossoming flamboyance.

“There is an overcoming of many stereotypes, continues Didier Roth-Bettoni: the representation of gays not being immediately identifiable on the screen by the spectators, the presence of at least one couple in the frame, the ethnic diversity since there is a black character [and a Latino in the adaptation of 2020] and social class.

To have this wide and unexpected palette for American viewers at the time is almost a revolution.

"

The play was first performed a year before the Stonewall Riots, considered the founding event of the LGBT rights movement in the United States.

Stigma and clandestinity were then the daily life of the majority of homosexuals.

“Show me a happy homosexual, I will show you a gay corpse”… This line, one of the best known of

, reflects the leaden mantle that weighed on those concerned and the internalized homophobia they could feel.

"Mart Crowley told me how he struggled to come to terms with his homosexuality and how he wrote the play in a state of depression, drawing inspiration from himself and the people he knew to create his characters," says William Friedkin in his

.

While noting that “the tragedy of being gay is a stereotype that runs through much of Hollywood cinema,” the author of

, prefers to see the glass half full.

“The play came at a time when LGBT activism was not at all structured in the United States and when the theater and the cinema mark an evolution of mentalities.

The play is carried by actors who all form a community.

There is a kind of collective affirmation: these artists are invested in this project to convey other images of homosexuality.

We must measure the step taken in relation to what existed at the time.

"

The

are the same

actors

who performed the text on stage in 1968. Most are gay.

Fifty years later, the same process is at work: the actors

of Netflix's

, are the ones who performed it on the stage in 2018. And all, by Jim Parsons - the Sheldon Cooper of

- to Matt Bomer - Neil Caffrey in

- have publicly discussed their homosexuality.

This 100% gay casting is "a coincidence" assures Joe Mantello to Caroline Vié for 

.

A coincidence which is however not insignificant: "It saved us precious time because they were familiar with the subject of the play and its vocabulary," says the director.

In addition, they felt bound by the solidarity that can be had between gay men.

"

"Give visibility to lives we have forgotten how they unfolded"

If the original work seems, on paper, very anchored in its time, it remains nonetheless current in certain aspects.

“The text still has fairly strong resonances on the issue of the couple, on the relationship to loyalty, to taking responsibility for those around them, believes Didier Roth-Bettoni.

Bringing it to the screen again is perhaps a way of recalling what life was like for homosexuals at that time.

It is to give visibility to lives where we have forgotten how they unfolded.

"

Joe Mantello has taken few liberties from the original material.

But the variations made only make more sense.

Here is what William Friedkin tells, still in his

, about the filming of The

 : “Mart Crowley had written a scene that took place off-screen in the theatrical version.

Hank (…) and Larry (…) leave the party when the guests lose control of themselves under the influence of alcohol.

They go to a guest room where we see them kissing passionately.

It would have arguably been the first time such a scene appeared in a mainstream film.

[The actors] reluctantly agreed to shoot it;

then, after their agents raised objections, they refused it.

Shooting a scene like this was going to ruin their careers, they had been told.

(…) As the end of filming approached, they realized the importance of the scene and its value as an affirmation of the commitment of their characters.

(…) Much later, in the editing room, we said to ourselves that she was not useful, that she was only dramatizing the moment.

Looking back, I think we should have kept it.

"

An absence mended in the Netflix movie: Larry and Hank's embrace is one of the final shots of

.

Even filmed against the light, the love between two men can now be shown in full light.

*

(ed. De La Martinière)

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