QUEER AS FOLK That is a series that can only be British. I remember in the early 60s, or is it slightly later, a theater that played one big success in London at the time in Charring Cross Road, "No sex Please, we are British". Times have changed and this series is quite typical of that change. Sex, sex and sex, stopping one inch from hardcore sex, and gay what's more. And yet that film is a lot more than these few erotic episodes. First it is deeply committed to diversity in sexual orientation. All the nuances and shades of gayness are exploited and shown in the most funny and comical way, never derisive, never aggressive, but always in a comic orientation of its own. You cannot imagine the diversity of shades and personalities you may or might find in this community. In fact you have to dip yourself in it, or even soak yourself in it to know. But be careful though to know what you're doing otherwise it might become another famous play on Charring Cross Road, viz. "The Mousetrap". Second it strikingly confront the problem of age in a sexual community that is too often marked by transience and instability, especially since these couples are not recognize by the law and do not have the right to marry and create a stable home. That implies gay people are more or less forced to cruise all their life, to be the hunter or to be the prey. That is so clearly shown with the main character who is practically never having two helpings of the same dish. But that is true till a fifteen year old boy he seduces decides to ask for more insistently. That makes the main hero Stuart think maybe he is losing something that will never come back, his youth and he maybe should think of the future and not only of the present, or at most the balance of the hunt and how many people, I mean men and boys, he has shagged. But Stuart has another problem with his childhood friend, Vince, who is gay too, who would like to get Stuart or who would like Stuart to get him, but he is shy and he does not want to find himself involved in the great unstable sexual looting of the vast world. So he gets attached to an older man and this episode, both for Stuart and his friend Vince, is a revelation, an epiphany. They discover they have something in common that they cannot find at all with anyone else, and that is exemplified with the various actors who played Doctor Who. They have a past in common, a tremendous level of personal commitment to each other, generally called friendship, and a sexual attraction and even passion they can easily release, provided they get away from their common environment that is a mousetrap to them, viz. Manchester. Third the series does not hesitate to show what sex is for young male teenagers (fifteen or so) and here the fifteen year old boy, Nathan, is our study case. Nathan, is the living example of that age. Provocative and yet shy, exhibitionistic and yet modest, passionate and yet reserved, light-headed by principle and yet over-thoughtful. In fact he knows one thing: he wants sex. He knows a second thing: he wants gay sex. He finds danger and difficulties exciting, so why not try the macho jock at school who is of course both straight and homophobic, even if
when he closes his eyes and lets himself go, he may accept a helping hand. But this young chick, Nathan, has to learn one thing: Stuart is too old for him. He, Nathan, can only be some kind of a cherry on a pile of ice-cream for Stuart's birthday or any other celebration. But he has nothing in common with Stuart except his sex and his sexual attraction and orientation. And that's the meaning of the second series. The first series had finished nothing at all and we were hanging in midair. But the second series gives an end to every character and the last episode ends up with a hot scene on a hot parking lot in the hot state of Arizona between the hot cities of Phoenix and Tucson with a hot gun and a not so hot contrite "Sorry!" from a hot muscular truck driver who could very easily get involved in some hot gay bashing episode, like at the beginning of Stephen King's "IT". Just get the full two series and watch them for fun, enjoyment, and eventually, if you are in the proper mood and orientation, for pleasure.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID