tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post6159508249009567620..comments2024-03-23T12:05:23.537-05:00Comments on The Wild Reed: The Paradox of Dirk BogardeMichael J. Baylyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03087458490602152648noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-63443491789238075552022-11-20T00:07:10.103-06:002022-11-20T00:07:10.103-06:00See, as for example,what happened to Rupert Everet...See, as for example,what happened to Rupert Everett. He ended being cast in gay-bitchy-best-friend parts only!<br />Plus Bogarde seemed to be anyway a quite discreet man.lepoissonmasquéhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09666485217045149088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-34794141655491366732018-07-01T17:35:18.745-05:002018-07-01T17:35:18.745-05:00I am surprised you find it difficult to fathom suc...I am surprised you find it difficult to fathom such silence. For the early part of his career gay men were routinely hunded, entrapped and prosecuted in probably the most persecutory period in gay British history. British stage actors who were caught looking for sex - John Gielgud, for one - seemed to have received some support from audiences. It is unclear what would have happened to a British film star. Bogarde was nearing 50 by the time male homosexuality was partially decriminalised in the UK. To imagine that he would have come out at that point is far-fetched surely: he had set up a carefully managed social and professional self, even if many (friends and family) understood that Forewood was his partner. Who else came out at that time? <br /><br />The closet is fiercely and darkly powerful, and remains so for many, even in 2018. It is a highly personal experience, as is coming out of it. So it seems a particular type of cruelty to criticise Bogarde for not coming out (when? at a time of our choosing?). We seem to have replaced the shaming of being gay with the shaming of hiding it, which is ahistorical and, well, just downright bizarre. But it shows us how attractive shame is as part of our titillating discourse around sexuality. The 2001 Arena documentary is a prime example of this.<br /><br />On a different tack completely, who's to say how much Bogarde would have benefited personally from coming out to strangers. There's no control segment on that particular experiment. (He was, in effect, out to his inner circle at a time when many weren't even able to achieve that.) He relied on the control of his image and played with that control cleverly and creatively. Many film stars since have been (and still are) very reluctant to reveal that they're gay because it would get in the way of being viewed - necessarily - as the bland canvass for their work.<br /><br />'You have to read between the lines of everything I've written. It's all there if you're prepared to read between the lines', he said (or at least something very close) in the TV interview with Harty. I think the writing about his care for the dying Forewood is hugely moving and clearly, openly records Bogarde's love for him. <br /><br />What is abundantly clear from all the films, the books, all the interviews, all the family reminiscences is that Bogarde was big on power, less so on personal fulfilment. Power was what it was all about. We may find that unpalatable, notwithstanding the zeitgeist of personal empowerment. Ultimately he exercised his personal agency to not come out. I don't see how we've been disadvantaged by that, and it's presumptuous to suggest that he was. Stevie Rickardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-75161286255284187882011-10-13T14:44:26.808-05:002011-10-13T14:44:26.808-05:00Secret relationships. One statement you quite, Mi...Secret relationships. One statement you quite, Michale, is so telling. We want to believe that we could have this secret exciting relationship. It does have its appeal, "our little secret." Intrigue. But it wears on anyone, can't be healthy for long, and everyone should be able to respect and be respected in their relationship. <br /><br />"I'm still in the shell, and you're not going to crack it, ducky." I can hear the bitter pain oozing out of that statement. <br /><br />And his silence as being gay became more a part of the public discourse: was his silence out of bitterness? Was there shame, that later people were brave enough to speak out and live while he chose to hide--even if it were so much more dangerous for him to come out.<br /><br />This is so instructive when we look at the kind of bitterness that seems to visit some people in their later years. We see less of it now, but a life of general unhappiness is not "fixed" by a "perfectly happy" relationship.<br /><br />Growing up as I did in a place where my romantic feelings were widely unwelcome as a racial minority in the 1970s in a very homogeneous community, I realized at some point that I was in the closet, even as a heterosexual. Can't live like that, even though in ways, at times I still do. <br /><br />Just makes me think that living like that is such a loss in realizing and enjoying one's own beauty. What a waste of a beautiful man--a waste to himself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-76577402145576407342011-10-12T03:52:52.629-05:002011-10-12T03:52:52.629-05:00Thank you indeed. I also recently reviewed Andre T...Thank you indeed. I also recently reviewed Andre Techine's LES ROSEAUX SAUVAGE (The Wild Reeds) which perhaps is where the title of your blog comes from? A fascinating movie too.Michael O'Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17820802843771524920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-33589181254883152522011-10-12T00:07:17.810-05:002011-10-12T00:07:17.810-05:00Hi, Michael! Thanks for alerting me to your own wr...Hi, Michael! Thanks for alerting me to your own <a href="http://osullivan60.blogspot.com/search/label/Dirk%20Bogarde" rel="nofollow">writings on Dirk Bogarde</a> and to your <a href="http://osullivan60.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">blog</a> in general. You've gathered together some great pictures and it all makes for a fascinating and entertaining read!<br /><br />peace,<br /><br />MichaelMichael J. Baylyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03087458490602152648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27612445.post-45833674479981385622011-10-11T22:03:11.349-05:002011-10-11T22:03:11.349-05:00Fascinating stuff on Bogarde, whom I too was fasci...Fascinating stuff on Bogarde, whom I too was fascinated about since I was about 11 years old and saw him first in Campbell's Kingdom, 1957 and The Spanish Gardener. I have written about this myself last week in fact, as I had just read the original book where the character of Jose the gardener is 19 and gets killed but of course in the film Dirk is in his mid 30s and not only survives but sends the reconciled son and father happily on their way to their next post - a total reversal of the novel's bleak ending!<br />Bogarde's private life is endlessly fascinatng too, he really knew everyone, friends with Garland (until they made that film together!), Kay Kendall, Ava Gardner, Capucine, Bacall and working with all the new emerging /British talent (Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay etc) and all those European ladies like Aimee, Thulin, Mangano, Vitti. <br />I love Modesty Blaise where his camp villiant is a constand delight and then of course there are The Servant, Accident, Victim, Darling, all 60s classics.<br />If you are interested the Dirk Bogarde label on my own blog shows what I have been writing on him.<br />His own books and novels are also still in print and worth investigating. I met him briefly in 1970 when he gave a very entertaning discussion in London to promote Death in Venice. <br />The Singer Not The Song is also of course a bizarre camp classic, where Dirk was furious to be lumbered with John Mills as the object of his passion!Michael O'Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17820802843771524920noreply@blogger.com