It's a drag

[gwyn]

I have this vid idea I keep noodling with, for much farther down the line, that involves drag queens and kings. I want to make it multimedia, and I've compiled a list in my head on movies I want to include. Can you think of more? They should ideally have more than just a quick one-off scene of someone in drag, and it would be super bonus points if it involved a straight person having some kind of attachment or personal interactions to the person in drag.

So far I've got:
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
To Wong Foo...
Flawless
Sweet November (though that really is only one scene, so it's iffy)
The Birdcage (even though I really hate this movie)
Some Like It Hot
Tootsie
Just One of the Guys
Shakespeare in Love
Twelfth Night (not sure which version)
Yentl (I can barely stand the thought of it, but... there aren't that many movies of women in drag)

It seems like, sadly for my purposes, most of the women in drag movies are period or costume drama, and I wish it weren't so. I realize I can also include Rocky Horror, though I'm not sure I want to. And I'd love to have *good* movies rather than some Z-grade thing that no one knows about -- the more familiar to a wide fannish audience, the better. And please don't say Mrs. Doubtfire. I will have to kill you.

Comments

[gchick.livejournal.com]

Victor/Victoria

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Gar. I can't believe I forgot that. It's one of my favorite movies!

[brynnmck.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this counts, but what was the one with Toni Collette and Nia Vardalos where they were playing drag queens? Connie and Carla, IMDB tells me. Even though they're actually women, there are also actual drag queens in the movie, and David Duchovny falling in love with Nia Vardalos even though he thinks she's a man.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever even heard of that one!

[dine.livejournal.com]

it's not fictional, but how about Paris is Burning?

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm trying to stick with fictional, and I was hoping to stay with movies, but I may have to include a few TV eps, too. I don't know. I guess a lot will depend on what I can do in the time allotted.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

You've got Some like it hot, so I guess 40s/50s is okay? I think Henry and June had a scene with A woman in drag in it, and Marlene Dietrich dressed in drag in some of her movies (image here http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3192231936/nm0000017). If I remember right, Top hat and tails was a very popular look for women in 40s/50s movies.

Re Drag in films

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant in "Sylvia Scarlett" - a romantic comedy from 1935. Kate is a female con artist on the run with her father from the police, and is disguised as a male for much of the movie. Set contemporaneously in the 1930s, IIRC, so not periord or costume drama. Most younger folks likely won't recognize the movie, but most should still recognize Hepburn herself.

Photo of Hepburn from movie:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2507380736/nm0000031

Re: Re Drag in films

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I can't believe I didn't think of that. I completely forgot about it!

Re: Re Drag in films

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

*jaw drops* Holy moly, I need to see this movie.

If only we had something like Netflix over here, or dvd rental places that actually rent anything from before 1970...

[anoel.livejournal.com]

Does Rent count? Also if you're open to TV shows and reality shows, Buck in United States of Tara, there's a drag queen episode of Project Runway and Rupaul's Drag Race features drag queens.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I was hoping to stay away from TV, but I have a feeling I may have to go there for various shows. HIghlander has the famous episode with Duncan as an actor, doing the woman's part.

Resources re Drag in Films

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

There is an extensive listing of movies with transvestite / cross-dressing / drag / transgender / transsexual content available online. Breaks out into time frames (Pre-1950s, then by decade) with very brief content notes. Includes foreign (non-US) films, and animation as well as live action. Animated shorts will have high audience recognition, but the getting hold of the source might be more problematiccal.

Caveat: You'll need to do significant sorting, as the list includes films with incidental content, as well as those with more sigificant content.

Jaye Kaye's Transgender Movie Guide - A-Z index of movies with transvestite / cross-dressing / drag / transgender / transsexual content
http://members.fortunecity.com/jayekayetv/tmovies/5.htm

Also Hazel Freeman's Transgender Film and Media Guide was excellent, but you'll have to use the Wayback Machine as the site no longer exists.
OLD URL: http://www.hazels-web.co.uk/films/index.php

Re: Resources re Drag in Films

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for so much info! I don't think I've ever used Wayback Machine before, I guess this will give me a chance.

[feochadn.livejournal.com]

The Ballad of Little Jo.

*ahem*

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Hah! Yeah. Although again, period piece! Dammit!!

[avidrosette.livejournal.com]

There's Orlando and the high school AU version of Twelfth Night, She's the Man, and The Crying Game. Also that movie about Brandon Teena and the BBC versions of any number of Shakespeare plays. Sounds like an intriguing project!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I had wanted to avoid some of the really serious films, especially if they have painful results to the issue of cross dressing or transgender, but Crying Game might be just on the edge of that and still usable. It's definitely not a serious project and I feel like that might be pushing the boundaries of good taste. She's the Man, though, is definitely one of the movies I was trying to remember and couldn't for the life of me come up with the title. Thank you so much!

[ixchel55.livejournal.com]

Orlando and well, technically Constantine (although technically Gabriel was supposed to be non-gender - still dressed as a male).

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about Orlando and wondering if that would fit in with what I was doing -- it's not a serious vid in any way. ANd the nature of the "drag" in there is so different from some of the things I was looking at it. But it helps to have a lot of ideas to sort through. What would we do without Swinton?

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I was going nuts trying to remember this one!
Stage Beauty (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368658/) - about male actors playing women in Shakespeare's time, and the first woman to do it

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

Yes! I was about to suggest it. I love that film :)

[przed.livejournal.com]

Will you kill me if I suggest Tootsie? And there's the brief shot of Cary Grant in fluffy housecoat in Bringing Up Baby.

If you want to stray into south east Asia, there's Farewell My Concubine. And Ashes of Time, which just got re-released to DVD and has Brigitte Lin in ancient warrior drag. (I know, they're period pieces...)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Tootsie's already on my list! I was thinking of Farewell My Concubine and trying to decide if it's too far on the one side of things from where I want to go. I guess I won't really know until I start it, but now I have a much much bigger list!

[dorinda.livejournal.com]

This might technically be TV, but since it's a BBC miniseries it also has a movie-ish feel to me, *and* it has women dressing in male drag, *and* I think the visual style/tone of it would not be out of place in a humorous approach: "Tipping the Velvet," which is about a lesbian finding her way in the Victorian music-hall world of male impersonators. A period piece, unfortunately for your stated preferences--but still, super-enjoyable and visually striking.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if I do get into TV stuff, I definitely have to do TTV. Although not that scene with the big scary dildo. ::shudder::

OMG I GET TO SEE YOU IN A COUPLE WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[klia.livejournal.com]

Stage Beauty has Billy Crudup and other actors in drag.

Wild Boys of the Road (1933, directed by William A. Wellman) has Dorothy Coonan dressed as a guy.

National Velvet? Liz Taylor rides The Pie dressed as a boy.

Bosom Buddies: Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari in drag. Heh.

Kinky Boots: Chiwetel Ejiofor in drag.

Bad Education: Gael Garcia Bernal in drag.

You could go super creepy and use Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

Hmm, I know there are some I'm forgetting...

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

It puts the lotion in the basket...

Hey, how could I forget Kinky Boots? Dur!

[klia.livejournal.com]

Ah, I knew I forgot something:

Breakfast on Pluto: Cillian Murphy in drag.

You could use Lady Chablis from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

There's drag in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, right?

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Pluto is still on my Netflix queue and I haven't gotten near there yet. Someday. I think with Hedwig it's not really about drag in the way I am thinking of it. And I worry about playing too loose with trans stuff.

[silk-knickers.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen Ma Vie en Rose (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Ma_Vie_En_Rose/1155032?lnkce=seRtLn&trkid=222336&strkid=2027780317_1_0&strackid=78b2fc84d75b36d6_1_srl)?

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

You know, that is still on my Netflix queue but I have never gotten to it yet. I should definitely take a look at that, I've always wanted to see it.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

I think the movies I know of have all been named, but if you are going to use TV footage as well, I'd be happy to provide you with some footage of the Widow Twanky from Hercules - of course, strictly speaking she's not a drag queen but a pantomime dame. (And in the context of HtLJ, there's no mention anywhere that she might be a man -- she simply is what she presents herself as, which IMO is awesome.)

There's also Autolycus (Bruce Campbell) and Salmoneus dressing up as chorus girls and doing a fan dance, in an ep that's a pretty blatant parody of Some Like It Hot...

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I didn't know BC had done any draggy stuff in the show, so that's really good to know (since I adore him). Widow Twanky!!!! OF COURSE!!! 3>s Widow Twanky.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

there's that one scene in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.