February 16, 1926– John Schlesinger:

“Hollywood is an extraordinary kind of temporary place.”

It would be very difficult to underestimate the influence that at least two of Schlesinger’s films have had on my life as a gay man. Midnight Cowboy (I was 15 years old when I saw this X rated film) and Sunday Bloody Sunday (I was 17 years old) both contained mind-blowing moments for me. Truly great films, they both have fascinating gay characters as well as homoerotic moments that lodged in my young gay mind and stayed through my middle-age.

Jon Voight is simply luscious in Midnight Cowboy (1969), and Murray Head is the poster boy for the sexy 1970’s male in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). Glenda Jackson checking out Murray’s perfect physique as he showered made me consider how I felt when I stood next to beautiful boys in the showers after gym class. I kept sneaking a peek and wondering if any of them might ever be mine.

Sunday Bloody Sunday is an astonishing film for its time. It is the first film I ever saw where a gay man was rather “normal” and sympathetic, and where male attraction seemed inevitable and fated. The film asks: Is it better to share a lover than to have none at all? It is the story of two people, a gay middle-aged Jewish doctor played by the great Peter Finch and a 30-ish working woman, Glenda Jackson, who are romantically intertwined with a boyish artist played by Head who treats them both with a bit of ennui.

Schlesinger was well reviewed as a director, and celebrated in his lifetime, but history has not been as kind. He won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director in 1969, received nominations in 1965 and 1971, was still doing important work through the 1970s, but he made so many missteps in the 1980’s and 1990’s that when he, at last, made one last great feature film, it was mostly ignored. He followed that up with the a couple of the worst films he ever made, the dreadful thriller Eye For An Eye (1996) and the miserable Madonna/Rupert Everett vehicle, The Next Best Thing (2000, it must have seemed a good idea on paper), and then he checked out for good in 2003, remembered only with headlines: “Oscar Winning Director Dies.”

But, Schlesinger was a very important part of British filmmaking in the 1960’s, directing the brilliant swinging London films: Darling (1965), Billy Liar (1963), A Kind Of Loving (1962), plus the beautiful Far From The Madding Crowd (1967), each brilliant, with gorgeous production values and first-rate acting. Schlesinger then moved to Hollywood and made such thoughtful films as Day Of The Locust (1975) and Falcon And The Snowman (1985). His films after that rarely rose above mediocrity, but his last great film is truly a true treasure and one of The Husband’s and my all-time Top 10 Favorites Films.

Technically Cold Comfort Farm came out in 1995, and would have been Oscar eligible had it not played on television in Britain. The film received good reviews but not much notice. Maybe it was a matter of timing. Cold Comfort Farm was sort of riding the wave of popular Jane Austen adaptations, although it is not Austen and set in the early 1930’s rather than the 19th century, but it is a British Costume Comedy of Manners. How much more would it get noticed today, now that Ian McKellen is known the world over for X-Men and those damn Lord Of The Rings films, and not just as the guy from the interesting Richard III? Or that Kate Beckinsale is now thought of as one of the world’s most beautiful women and a tough cookie, and not just the actor who was okay in Much Ado About Nothing (1993)?

Cold Comfort Farm is a divine peach of a film. Beckinsale (not wearing black leather jumpsuits) portrays a city girl who goes to live with her cousins in the country and perhaps discover herself as a writer. The collection of her very odd cousins include the crazed matriarch, the earthy Seth (Rufus Sewell) and an enigmatic preacher father, played by McKellen in a fantastic and eccentric performance. Openly gay producer/director Bryan Singer told McKellen 2 years later while they were making Apt Pupil (1998) that he should watch this guy’s performance in Cold Comfort Farm to get some ideas on how to approach his role, without realizing he was talking to the very same actor. Add in some nutty, only slightly restrained performances by the great Eileen Atkins, Julia Margolyes, Joanna Lumley, and Stephen Fry and you get a great cinematic mix of low humor and high style.

The film has a happy ending when a Hollywood producer enters the story, but the true happiness is that Schlesinger made one more excellent film, even if it was mostly ignored on impact.

Schlesinger’s work with actors always received particular praise and Dustin Hoffman, Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson and Alan Bates are among those who gave some of their very best work for him. He also occasionally directed plays and opera, and he did some especially good work for television. His acclaimed television film An Englishman Abroad (1983) is the sort of quality product we expect nowadays on HBO or Netflix, but outstanding for pre-cable programming. He also worked occasionally as an actor, especially good in a television adaptation of David Leavitt’s gay themed novel, The Lost Language Of Cranes (1991).

Schlesinger survived a quadruple heart bypass in 1998, but then he suffered a stroke in December 2000. In summer 2003, Schlesinger was taken off life-support in a hospital in Palm Springs by his life-partner of over 30 years, photographer Michael Childers. Schlesinger’s final credits rolled early the following day. He was 77 years old when he left this sad world.

My own favorites Schlesinger films:

Darling (1965)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)

Marathon Man (1976)

Yanks (1979)

Madame Sousatzka (1988)

Cold Comfort Farm (1996)