An Englishman in New York | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Directed by | Richard Laxton |
Written by | Brian Fillis |
Produced by | Amanda Jenks |
Starring | John Hurt Denis O'Hare Jonathan Tucker Swoosie Kurtz Cynthia Nixon |
Music by | Paul Englishby |
Release date |
|
Running time | 75 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
An Englishman in New York is a 2009 biographical film that chronicles the years gay English writer Quentin Crisp spent in New York City, starring John Hurt reprising his role as Crisp from The Naked Civil Servant (1975). The film takes its title from "Englishman in New York", a song about Crisp written by Sting for the 1987 album ...Nothing Like the Sun .
The film follows Quentin Crisp's move in the late 1970s from London to New York City, where he was embraced by celebrities and artists. [1] Crisp becomes a local, and then more national celebrity and writes for New York magazines. He struggles to find his way through flippant comments he makes during the AIDS crisis which he refuses to recant. He befriends and helps to promote artist Patrick Angus. In the 1990s, he continues his hefty schedule of public performances, including a two-person show with performance artist Penny Arcade. He appears in the Sally Potter film Orlando as Queen Elizabeth I and appears for the last time in America in a Tampa, Florida gay bar doing a Q&A where he reminds the young crowd of outsiders to "Neither look forward where there is doubt, nor backward where there is regret, look inward and ask, not if there is anything outside that you want, but whether is anything inside that you have not yet unpacked."
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 70%, based on 10 reviews, and an average rating of 6.53/10. [2]
In 2010, An Englishman in New York was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards. [3]
Quentin Crisp was an English raconteur, whose work in the public eye included a memoir of his life and various media appearances. Before becoming well known, he was an artist's model, hence the title of his most famous work, The Naked Civil Servant. He afterwards became a gay icon due to his flamboyant personality, fashion sense and wit. His iconic status was occasionally controversial due to his remarks about subjects like the AIDS crisis, inviting censure from gay activists including human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City (1998–2004), she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and reprised the role in the films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), as well as the television show And Just Like That... (2021–present).
Sir John Vincent Hurt was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in the world". He possessed what was described as the "most distinctive voice in Britain". He received numerous awards including the BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award in 2012 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 for his services to drama.
Penny Arcade is an American performance artist, actress, and playwright based in New York City. She is known for her comedic wit, forthright delivery, and stage presence. Her performances explore topics such as gentrification, humanity, womanhood, LGBT culture, nostalgia, family history, and the life of the outsider. Additionally, Penny Arcade is known for her association with underground arts and culture.
Jonathan Moss Tucker is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the films The Virgin Suicides (1999), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Hostage (2005), In the Valley of Elah (2007), The Ruins (2008), and Charlie's Angels (2019). He has appeared in the television series The Black Donnellys (2007), Parenthood (2011–2013), Kingdom (2014–2017), Justified (2015), Snowfall (2018), Westworld (2018–2022), City on a Hill (2019), and Debris (2021).
Denis Patrick Seamus O'Hare is an American actor, singer, and author noted for his award-winning performances in the plays Take Me Out and Sweet Charity, as well as portraying vampire king Russell Edgington on HBO's fantasy series True Blood. He is also known for his supporting roles in such films as Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Milk (2008), Changeling (2008), and Dallas Buyers Club (2013). In 2011, he starred as Larry Harvey in the first season of the FX anthology series American Horror Story, for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie in 2012. He returned to the show in 2013, playing Spalding in American Horror Story: Coven and once more as Stanley in American Horror Story: Freak Show, the latter for which he earned a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination. For his performance in American Horror Story: Hotel as Liz Taylor, O'Hare received critical acclaim.
The Celluloid Closet is a 1996 American documentary film directed and co-written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and executive produced by Howard Rosenman. The film is based on Vito Russo's 1981 book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, and on lecture and film clip presentations he gave from 1972 to 1982. Russo had researched the history of how motion pictures, especially Hollywood films, had portrayed gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters.
"Englishman in New York" is a song by English singer-songwriter Sting, from his second studio album ...Nothing Like the Sun, released in October 1987. Branford Marsalis played soprano saxophone on the track, while the drums were played by Manu Katché and the percussion by Mino Cinélu.
Naked in New York is a 1994 American romantic comedy film directed by Daniel Algrant and starring Eric Stoltz, Mary-Louise Parker, Ralph Macchio, Jill Clayburgh, Tony Curtis, Timothy Dalton, and Kathleen Turner, and featuring multiple celebrity cameos, including William Styron listing all of his authored, penned and film work, Whoopi Goldberg as a bas-relief mask, and former New York Dolls singer David Johansen as a talking monkey, which were arranged by executive producer Martin Scorsese.
Everybody's Fine is a 2009 American drama film written and directed by Kirk Jones, and starring Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. It is a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian film Everybody's Fine. In Brazil, Russia and Japan, the film was released direct-to-DVD.
Taking Woodstock is a 2009 American historical musical comedy-drama film about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by James Schamus is based on the memoir Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte.
Little Ashes (2008) is a 2008 Spanish-British drama film directed by Paul Morrison and written by Philippa Goslett. It is set in Spain during the 1920s and 1930s, where three of the era's most creative talents meet at university. Luis Buñuel, later a noted filmmaker, is dismayed as his friends, surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and poet Federico García Lorca, develop a love affair.
The Naked Civil Servant is a 1975 made-for-television biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jack Gold and produced by Verity Lambert. It was adapted for film by Philip Mackie, based on Quentin Crisp's 1968 book of the same name. The movie stars John Hurt, Patricia Hodge and John Rhys-Davies. It was produced by Thames Television and originally broadcast on 17 December 1975 on the British channel ITV. In 1976, it was shown on the US channel WOR and later PBS when Thames Television and WOR exchanged programming for one week. For his performance, Hurt won the BAFTA for Best Actor in 1976 and the production also won the 1976 Prix Italia. The title of the book and the film is derived from Crisp's time working as a nude model in a government-funded art school.
A Single Man is a 2009 American period romantic drama film based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. The directorial debut of fashion designer Tom Ford, the film stars Colin Firth, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of George Falconer, a depressed gay British university professor living in Southern California in 1962.
Patrick Angus (1953–1992) was a 20th-century American painter who, among many other works, created a number acrylic paintings of the interior of the Gaiety Theater and some of its dancers and customers in the 1980s. Some of the titles are: Grand Finale (1985), The Apollo Room I (1986), Remember the Promise You Made (1986), Slave to the Rhythm (1986), All The Love in the World (1987), and Hanky Panky (1991).
The 21st GLAAD Media Awards was the 2010 annual presentation of the media awards presented by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The awards seek to honor films, television shows, musicians and works of journalism that fairly and accurately represent the LGBT community and issues relevant to the community. The 21st annual award ceremony included 116 nominees in 24 English-language categories, and 36 Spanish-language nominees in eight categories.
Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives is a 2010 American rape and revenge exploitation film written and directed by Israel Luna. The film follows a trio of trans women who exact revenge on the men who brutally assault them and murder two of their friends. The film is split into five chapters, one of which is a missing reel.
Resident Alien is a 1990 documentary film about the life of British writer and actor Quentin Crisp. directed, produced and edited by Jonathan Nossiter, and co-produced by Dean Silvers. Resident Alien was Crisp's first documentary; it was followed by Naked in New York in 1994 and The Celluloid Closet in 1995.
Lady Clover Honey is an American drag queen, comedian and television correspondent who lives in Jersey City, NJ and works in the New York City area. Born Kevin Clover Welsh in Totowa, New Jersey, he moved across the Hudson River to Manhattan in 1998 and then to Jersey City, New Jersey in 2011. Lady Clover Honey was an Entertainment News Reporter on the television program Under the Pink Carpet, a show that highlights Nightlife and Culture in New York City and is broadcast on NYC Life/NYC Media WNYE-TV, and on WYBE MiND TV in Philadelphia, making her the first recurring Drag personality to be regularly seen in a series on an official NYC media broadcast.
James White is a 2015 American drama film written and directed by Josh Mond. The film stars Christopher Abbott, Cynthia Nixon, Scott Mescudi, Ron Livingston, Makenzie Leigh and David Call. James, a twenty-something New Yorker, struggles to take control of his self-destructive behavior in the face of momentous family challenges.