TONGUES UNTIED (1989)

“I was mute, tongue-tied, burdened by shadows and silence. Now I speak, and my burden is lightened, lifted, free.”

TONGUES UNTIED originally broadcast on PBS stations across America on July 16, 1991, as part of their “POV” (Point of View) series. It is an experimental documentary by Marlon Riggs talking about the alienation of gay people in American society, specifically gay Black men. And the subject of gay people being silenced is ironic because while reading old newspaper articles about TU’s original release I came across multiple sources saying that 18 of the 50 largest television PBS stations (markets) refused to air the film. And others didn’t show it until late at night. Including one that didn’t show it until midnight! But let’s not go off into the weeds about dim-witted program directors in 1991…is TONGUES UNTIED a good film? Yes, it’s quite good.

As mentioned earlier: TONGUES UNTIED is an experimental film and it did take my perfectly chiseled honky buttcheeks a few minutes to get into the rhythm of the free-style, poetic, street rapping approach the film used, but once I caught on, I dug it and even wished the film had been longer. At 54 minutes I felt like Marlon really only scratched the surface of his story. (Maybe this has already happened), but I would love to see much longer different documentary about Marlon Riggs and the subject matter and events talked about in TONGUES UNTIED. For example: he briefly talks about having full on anal sex with other boys at age 6! Like holy shit, that could be a full doc all to itself! And don't even get me started on the breakdown of different kinds of snaps! I could watch a 12-hour film about that.

I don’t want to give away too much, you should just see the movie for yourself, but there was one segment that I want to talk about. They’re talking about how gays are openly mocked and ridiculed in society and during this segment, there is a close-up shot of poet and activist Essex Hemphill simply looking into the camera. At the same time, they play clips of popular movies of the time using the f-word. It was very simply done and yeah, it’s kinda like that one scene from South Park, but I personally found it very upsetting because I remember seeing all of those movies back in the 1980’s and it never even crossed my adolescent mind at how hurtful it was. And now as I’m going back and re-visiting and reviewing older movies, I’m straight up shocked at how fucked up some of these mainstream films are. I’m talking about you, CROCODILE DUNDEE. Anyway, I just found that segment to be heartbreaking.

Sadly, TONGUES UNTIED is not for all audiences, but it deserves to be seen by all (adult) audiences.

Double-feature with PARIS IS BURNING.

[Update: It is not part of the film, but I included a screen capture of Marlon Riggs' obituary. He died in 1994 at age 37. It's sad to think about the positive impact he could have had if he had lived longer. We were all robbed.]

WINGS OF DESIRE (1987)

Being an uneducated dummy who enjoys arthouse cinema has its fair share of problems. One issue is I’m not smart enough to properly express my feelings about the films I watch. Another is I most likely miss details while watching the movies because I’m too stupid to notice them. But luckily nobody reads this shit, so I'll just plow ahead anyway! Yaaay! Duuuurrrr.

Two (male) angels hang around Berlin, Germany all day and night listening to people’s thoughts and trying to comfort them. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don’t. These two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, have been alive for millennia, but they cannot actually touch things, feel weather or be seen. As the film progresses, one of the angels, Damiel, begins to have thoughts that he wants to become a human so he can experience all the horrible, shitty, wretched aspects of being a human. Here’s a free piece of advice: don’t do it, being a human fucking suuuuuuuucks.

WINGS OF DESIRE is a fascinating trip back to 1980’s arthouse. I love the look of the film, it’s absolutely gorgeous and maybe even constructed to be a love letter to Berlin, kinda like those scenes in MANHATTAN and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS are love letters to New York City, but what do I know? The other highlight of the film is the way it presents humans’ inner dialogues. As the angels walk among groups of people, the spoken dialogue shifts non-stop all over the place, it’s very well made and honestly sounds like it would be hell to experience. Film-making aspects aside, another great thing about WINGS OF DESIRE is all of the thoughts and questions it conjures up in the viewer’s mind. I’ve seen WOD a few times over the years and every time I’m left for days thinking about what exactly it is to be a human and my place in humanity as a whole. I'm also curious about the angel beings in this film universe because all of the ones in this movie seem to be white adult males. So can there be angels of other races? Overweight angels? Trans angels? Bulimic angels? Angels with missing limbs? I'm just curious.

Deliberately slow pace, absolutely gorgeous camerawork, a Nick Cave sighting, awesome use of colours and lack of colours, 1986’s LEGAL EAGLES on a movie theater marquee, strong acting, a Suicidal Tendencies t-shirt, a runtime that maybe went a little long. Overall, WINGS OF DESIRE is an above average film, but it's lost some of its emotional power since its original release in 1987. Still, it's worth checking out for those curious.

Part 2 - Faraway, So Close! (1993)
Remake - City of Angels (1998)