Resident Alien (film)

Last updated
Resident Alien
ResidentAlienMoviePoster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter
Release date
1990

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. [1]

Contents

It was premiered at Berlin Panorama (part of Berlin International Film Festival) in 1991. [2]

Synopsis

At age 72, writer and melancholy master of the bon mot, Quentin Crisp (1908–1999), became an Englishman in New York. John Foster's camera follows Crisp about the streets of Manhattan, where Crisp seems very much at home, wearing eye shadow, appearing on a makeshift stage, making and repeating wry observations, talking to John Hurt (who played Crisp in the autobiographical TV movie The Naked Civil Servant), and dining with friends. Others who know Crisp comment on him, on his life as an openly gay man with an effeminate manner, and on his place in the history of gays' social struggle. The portrait that emerges is one of wit and of suffering.

Cast

Reviews

Christopher Null for rated the movie 2.5 stars out of 5 and "Ok". He stated that the "film that is ostensibly about why a strange little man decides to uproot his life and move" to New York, but it provides no answers. [3]

"Savagely amusing and warm." The Washington Post. [4]

"Perceptive and thoroughly engaging." The LA Times. [4]

Home media

The DVD release of the film appeared on 27 September 2005 for Region 1. [5] A new DVD edition was re-released in the US in 2006 by New Video. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quentin Crisp</span> English writer and actor (1908–1999)

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.

<i>The Elephant Man</i> (film) 1980 film directed by David Lynch

The Elephant Man is a 1980 biographical drama film based on the life of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man who lived in London in the late 19th century. The film was directed by David Lynch, produced by Mel Brooks and Jonathan Sanger, and starred John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Michael Elphick, Hannah Gordon, and Freddie Jones. The Elephant Man is generally regarded as one of Lynch's more accessible and mainstream works, alongside The Straight Story (1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hurt</span> English actor (1940–2017)

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.

<i>Philadelphia</i> (film) 1993 legal drama film by Jonathan Demme

Philadelphia is a 1993 American legal drama film written by Ron Nyswaner, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. Filmed on location in its namesake city, it tells the story of attorney Andrew Beckett (Hanks) who comes to ask a personal injury attorney, Joe Miller (Washington), to help him sue his employers, who fired him after discovering he was gay and that he had AIDS.

<i>Mondovino</i> 2004 American film

Mondovino is a 2004 documentary film on the impact of globalization on the world's different wine regions written and directed by American film maker Jonathan Nossiter. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and a César Award.

<i>The Celluloid Closet</i> (film) 1995 American documentary film

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.

Armin Hagen Freiherr von Hoyningen-Huene is a German-American photographer, artist, filmmaker, clothing designer/sewer, and model best known by his stage name Peter Berlin. In the early to mid-1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colton Ford</span> American singer and actor

Glenn Soukesian, known professionally as Colton Ford, is an American singer and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Nossiter</span> American filmmaker

Jonathan Nossiter is an American filmmaker.

<i>An Englishman in New York</i> (film) 2009 British film

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.

<i>The Naked Civil Servant</i> (film) 1975 British television film by Jack Gold

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.

<i>The Naked Civil Servant</i> (book) 1968 autobiography of Quentin Crisp

The Naked Civil Servant is the 1968 autobiography of British gay icon Quentin Crisp, adapted into a 1975 film of the same name starring John Hurt.

<i>Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants</i> 2009 film

Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants is a 2009 American documentary film directed and co-written by Patrick Creadon. The special was released on VH1 on July 14, 2009, and July 23, 2009, on Nick at Nite. It was also included on SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes DVD released in North America on September 22, 2009. The documentary chronicles the popular culture success of the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. It features commentaries from series creator Stephen Hillenburg and celebrity fans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bette Bourne</span> British actor (born 1939)

Bette Bourne is a British actor, drag queen, campaigner, and activist. His theatrical career has spanned six decades. He came to prominence in the mid-1970s onwards after joining the New York-based alternative gay cabaret troupe Hot Peaches. He then went on to form his own alternative gay theatrical company, Bloolips.

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).

<i>The Adonis Factor</i> 2010 American film

The Adonis Factor is a 2010 documentary film produced and directed by American director Christopher Hines through his own production company Rogue Culture Inc. Filmed at various locations, it was shown at a number of gay and documentary festivals. The television premiere was April 2, 2011 on the gay channel Logo.

<i>That Man: Peter Berlin</i> 2005 American film

That Man: Peter Berlin is a 2005 documentary about the popular gay icon Peter Berlin directed by Jim Tushinski. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival.

The Partisan Coffee House was a radical venue of the New Left, at 7 Carlisle Street in the Soho district of London. It was established by historian Raphael Samuel in 1958 in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. It closed in 1962, victim of a "business model" that was hospitable to the penniless intellectuals who patronised it, but wholly unrealistic. The building is now utilised as office space.

Vito is a 2011 American documentary film produced and directed by Jeffrey Schwarz of the Los Angeles-based production company Automat Pictures. The film documents the life of Vito Russo, gay activist, film scholar, and author of The Celluloid Closet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4th International Emmy Awards</span>

The 4th International Emmy Awards took place on November 22, 1976 in New York City. The award ceremony, presented by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, honors all programming produced and originally aired outside the United States.

References

  1. Claude Summers (Editor) The Queer Encyclopedia of Film and Television , p. 246, at Google Books
  2. "Jonathan Nossiter, Director". beirutfilmfestival.org. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  3. Null, Christopher (November 2005). "Resident Alien". contactmusic.net/. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Resident Alien". celluloid-dreams.com. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  5. "Resident Alien". Amazon. 27 September 2005. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  6. "Jonathan Nossiter". torinofilmlab.it. Retrieved 19 August 2018.