I Love You Phillip Morris As the New Zealand International Film Festival is about to open, festival director Bill Gosden says I Love You Phillip Morris and Undertow are two gay films he is particularly proud to have landed this year. We went after them quite aggressively," Gosden says. "And we are very pleased we were able to get hold of both of them." I Love You Phillip Morris stars Jim Carrey as a gay conman and Ewen McGregor as the cellmate he falls in love with. It has hit delay after delay in its US release, sparking rumours it was being held up due to its gay content. However Gosden says the real story is not actually so controversial. "The reasons are all to do with business. It's very easy to construct a paranoid conspiracy theory about it – but actually it's kinda boring. It's all about the company who owned the rights going out of business, so that held the film up for quite awhile. It has been released very successfully in the UK already." Gosden has seen the film and says it's terrific. "It's a little bit kind of silly about sex in some ways. But it's wildly romantic. There's no doubt in the performances that these two guys are crazy about each other and that's the real motor in the movie. Ewan McGregor is such a wonderful actor and he's playing a rather gentle Southern gay boy. " "It's based on a true story you know and Jim Carrey plays this flamboyant con artist who embezzled a vast amount of money from his employers. There are a lot of people around who don't like him one bit," Gosden says. "This is as exuberant and out there as Brokeback Mountain was muted and repressed." Undertow Gosden's other gay film pick Undertow just won the prize for the best new feature at the Frameline gay and lesbian film festival in San Francisco. The gay love story is set on the Peruvian coastline, telling the story of a married man has a love affair with a male artist. "Several people we know saw the film in Sundance and said 'hey, you've got to get this one," Gosden says. The festival director says there is a strong line-up of gay-interest films overall. "We definitely go for diversity. But we are well aware there is an excellent gay and lesbian film festival around as well." Other gay-interest films include Howl, in which James Franco plays Allen Ginsberg and French Canadian film I Killed My Mother, which writer and director Xavier Dolan acts in himself - he wrote it when he was just 16 and made the film when he was 20. Gosden says the "bizarre and interesting" Portuguese film To Die Like a Man, which is about gender confusion, is also worth checking out. "It's a very strange but fascinating film, so anybody who is into engaging with those issues should definitely see that film – and be prepared for quite a bumpy but amazing ride." The New Zealand International Film Festival opens in Auckland on Thursday. It will show in 15 locations across the country. For schedules and ticket information click here
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 6th July 2010 - 2:02pm