Netflix is bringing Pride to the big screen with a special curated Egyptian Theater program.
IndieWire can exclusively announce Netflix’s “Hollywood Pride: Queer Lives on the Silver Screen” event, taking place from June 25 through 27 in Los Angeles. The film series is co-programmed by critic and author Alonso Duralde, who will be in attendance to promote his book “Hollywood Pride” that influenced the title of the program.
With classics such as “All About Eve” and “Pillow Talk” coupled with “The Old Dark House” and “Suddenly, Last Summer,” the Netflix theatrical event spans nearly a century of queer representation onscreen.
Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s “Bound” also lands a theatrical premiere of its 4K restoration, with Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly playing onscreen lovers with mob ties.
The program concludes with “Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution” featuring LGBTQ stand-up legends and modern trailblazers like Margaret Cho and Wanda Sykes; the film recently debuted at Tribeca 2024.
Check out the full lineup below and get tickets here.
TUESDAY, JUNE 25TH
1:30 PM: PILLOW TALK (103 mins)
Rock Hudson and Doris Day proved to be an irresistible pair in this 1959 hit rom-com that scored big at the box office and landed an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In the very 1950s set-up, Day’s interior decorator and Hudson’s womanizing composer run afoul of each other when she complains about his overuse of their shared telephone party line. When coincidence leads Hudson to meet Day in person and he takes an interest in her, he disguises his voice, and the games begin. Rock Hudson’s name has become synonymous with the Hollywood closet, as perhaps the biggest star ever to eventually come out. Though his private life was known to many in Hollywood circles, his professional status as a top big-screen heartthrob long kept him from acknowledging the truth. In a curious turn, the persona he adopts in PILLOW TALK to hoodwink Day leads to suspicions that his character might be gay – an innocent coincidence, or a wink from behind the scenes?
4:30 PM: SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (114 mins)
Iconic playwright Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof) often wove queer themes into his most famous works…and those themes were famously obscured in the plays’ Hollywood adaptations due to the Hays Code. In the case of Suddenly, Last Summer, however, queerness is acknowledged in perhaps the most direct fashion as possible for the era. Though the story’s queer specter Sebastian Venable is never seen on screen, his presence is felt within the turmoil between his mother Violet (Katharine Hepburn) and cousin Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor). Violet has had Catherine committed, and is advocating for her to be lobotomized by young surgeon John Cukrowicz (gay Hollywood legend Montgomery Clift) in a veiled attempt to keep their past with Sebastian a secret. Though the lurid details of what occurred among the three of them prior to Sebastian’s death retain an air of mystery, Catherine’s simple explanation speaks volumes: “We procured for him!”. The film only received the necessary permissions from censors due to the view that it showed the evils of homosexuality, but queer fans will revel in the melodrama and the towering performances from Hepburn and Taylor, both of whom received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.
7:30 PM: ALL ABOUT EVE (138 mins)
Long a favorite among gay audiences for its sharp one-liners and larger-than-life Bette Davis performance, Joseph L. Mankewicz’s 1950 Best PIcture Winner revels in the offstage drama of Broadway star Margo Channing (Davis), a legendary theater actress grappling with newfound insecurities around aging and romance. Enter Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), Margo’s devoted fan who mysteriously appears one night at a performance, and uses her innocent charm to work her way into every aspect of Margo’s life. It’s soon clear that Eve has ambitions toward stardom herself, and will stop at nothing to attain it…even if it means wrecking friendships, marriages, and lives along the way. Evaluating the film in later years, many have noted the queer coding of Eve’s character, and that of her nemesis, acid-tongued theater critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders). Whether their scheming and double crosses are stereotypical queer villainy from the Old Hollywood Era or shrewd commentary on hearts turned sour by hiding their true selves, the fireworks they cause are a sight to behold.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26TH
1:00 PM: SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (114 mins)
4:00 PM: SPA NIGHT (93 mins)
Director Andrew Ahn’s debut feature announced him as a gifted new voice in queer cinema, gathering awards from Sundance, the Spirit Awards, and many more festivals, and paving the way for his success in later years with Fire Island. Set in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, Spa Night focuses on 18-year-old David, a Korean-American teen who takes a job at a local spa when his family hits hard financial times. David soon discovers that the spa is a hotbed of gay activity, where explicit sexual affairs between customers are frequent. He also discovers that this appeals to him, leading to a reckoning of identity amidst his traditional, conservative environment.
7:00 PM: BOUND – THEATRICAL PREMIERE OF NEW 4K RESTORATION!
Before they blew the world’s mind with The Matrix, Lana and Lilly Wachowski delivered a jolt of pure pulp pleasure with their hyperstylish debut, which puts a deliciously sapphic spin on a crackerjack caper premise. When butch plumber Corky (Gina Gershon) catches the eye of alluring femme (fatale) Violet (Jennifer Tilly), little does she know she’s about to be drawn into both a torrid affair and a high-stakes heist that will pit the pair against the mob. With crackling dialogue, luscious neo-noir cinematography, and live-wire performances by Gershon, Tilly, and Joe Pantoliano, Bound is a genre-reimagining joyride that keeps both the tension and the erotic heat rising through each crazily careening twist.
9:45 PM: THE OLD DARK HOUSE – 4K DCP (72 minutes)
Special introduction to film by Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies)
Director James Whale lived a comparatively open queer life in his 1930s heyday, as he simultaneously became one of the most legendary names in horror. Though the queer allegory of his horror classics like The Bride Of Frankenstein are more frequently discussed, his gloriously strange dark-and-stormy-night tale The Old Dark House is replete with LGBTQ deliciousness. As the film begins, stranded travelers stumble upon a strange old house, and find themselves at the mercy of a highly eccentric and potentially dangerous family, including – as Alonso Duralde puts it in his book Hollywood Pride – “Ernest Theisger playing a character whose last name is “Femm,” who swans about menacingly, while the creepy, bedridden paterfamilias of the estate is played by actress Elspeth Dudgeon, with a beard pasted on and credited under the name ‘John Dudgeon’”. This atmospheric thriller also features an unforgettable post-Frankenstein horror role for Boris Karloff, as the hulking, disfigured butler Morgan, and a turn by queer legend Charles Laughton. Unsurprisingly, Whale’s film is said to be a prime influence on The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
THURSDAY, JUNE 27TH
1:00 PM: SPA NIGHT (93 mins)
4:30 PM: PILLOW TALK (103 mins)
7:30 PM: OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION
Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution is the first feature length documentary to explore the history of queer stand up comedy. The documentary considers the importance of LGBTQ+ stand up as a driver of social change over the past five decades, actively reflecting and challenging cultural norms and values. Ultimately, the film reveals that queer comedians — whether they intended to or not — helped change the world, one joke at a time.
Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution combines interviews, memorable stand up performances, archival materials, and verité footage featuring top LGBTQ+ comedians including Lily Tomlin, Sandra Bernhard, Wanda Sykes, Eddie Izzard, Hannah Gadsby, Tig Notaro, Rosie O’Donnell, Margaret Cho, Bob The Drag Queen, and Trixie Mattel, among others.
Film introduced by director Page Hurwitz; pre-show stand-up sets emceed by Dave Holmes!
