Better late than never

Yiannis Diamntopoulos’ The Blue Dress (Το Γαλάζιο Φόρεμα) is one of the worst additions to Queer Cinema, I have ever witnessed, and it makes me so sad that it is part of the few gay-themed movies of greek cinema. It’s not only a bad movie, but at the same time proves that homophobia runs in our veins, even if we are gay. The stereotypes you want to fight are included in a film that should have never been shot.

The fifties. A widow is raising her three children but has a soft spot for her only son, Yiorgos. The first signs of the son’s ‘peculiarity’ appear early on: clashes with the family, a break with social role models, and friendships with individuals of the same sex. His passion for dancing leads him to Paris and his passions to bisexual relationships.
The eighties. His return to Greece is a letdown. His failure as an artist and the further deterioration of his relationship with his mother lead him to extreme decisions: streetwalking on Syngrou Avenue, working as a dancer in a transvestite club, prison, a sex change operation. His mother has a hard time keeping up with the changes in his life.
The nineties. The happiness he dreams of does not come. The end is tragically liberating.

The synopsis is actually what the creators of the film wrote, I haven’t change a word from what they gave at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2005. There the film was first presented and won 6 prizes. And I have to admit that it almost deserved the wards for the technical part, but that’s were it ends.

The film is so offending for you as spectator, as a human and as a homosexual. The director, who has the reputation of knowing the gay life from the inside, managed to take an interesting book, about the “adventure” of being gay in Greece in the 80’s and turn it in one of the most homophobic movies ever. Actually the writer of the book denied the film being connected with his work. Even the change of the funny-making title The Dress Looks Fabulous on You, George (Σου Πάει Τρέλλα το Φουστάνι Γιώργο) to the inessential Blue Dress, proves the inability of the creators to deal with the subject.

Any offensive cliché you can imagine appears. The little boy who dresses as a girl, the over-protective mother, the absence of father, the two sisters, the uncle who wants him to be a MAN. And as the story develops you see, the little boy hanging out with strange men, he starts as a bisexual, then gay, then transvestite, then transsexual, somewhere in prison he does a lesbian sex, then returns to man looking.

From the beginning till the end homosexuality is treated as spreading disease that deteriorates with time, leaving a torn out family, wounds that will never heal. If you see this movie you really believe that homosexuality is the devil inside and that you have to control it because only bad things will happen. The sex scenes could have been hot, thanks to the leading man, but still they are so fake, and the director seems so sitgushed of what he porrays. He just tries to prove how bad is homosexual sex. So no matter how hot his ass and his abs are, you will find it very difficult to be aroused if you watch the film. If you just fast forward it then maybe.

Yiorgos NanourisI remember getting out of the screening furious and wishing for the film to disappear from the world. Unfortunately the awards and the gay promotion it could have, helped it make it to theatres, thankfully word-of mouth managed to surpass things and actually nobody saw it. Just in case you ever wondered of what this film is, please download it for free or something and never spend a cent for this.

I can’t imagine that it is actually placed among queer cinema’s films. If you thought cruising was offensive, this film just proves that you can go a step further. It is offensive, homophobic and above all bad and boring. And apart from my offended gay side, there was this cinephile side that also wanted to cry for help, as the film developed in the worst way it couls. Did they actually thought of storyboards and decoupage before? Too bad for Yorgos Nanouris who plays the lead character, because he actually is talented , beatiful and deserved something more. He gives his best but they gave him nothing to save him.