Bi Focus
Brand new on PlanetOut!
News, views, and a little bit of dish! Tune in each month as Michael
Szymanski looks at movies, TV, stage, music, and books from a bi
perspective.
The bisexual will dump the boy for the girl and then dump her for a
guy
again. At least that's the way Hollywood sees it. In movies, bisexuals
aren't happy unless they're
wrapped up in some sort of three-way romance.
And often, the bisexual stuck in the middle is downright evil.
Jude Law didn't get that Best Supporting Actor nomination nod for
nothing. As Dickie in The Talented Mr. Ripley, he worked hard to
attract the interest of both Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon's
characters. His fiancee, Gwyneth, seems to accept the fact that Dickie
is never going to remain
loyal. A carefree, dashing heartbreaker,
Dickie loves 'em and leaves 'em, and we know that deep down he wants
Matt to
hop into that tub with him.
Dickie spells out his own demise in much the same way as Tim Curry's
sweet transvestite, Frank N. Futter, in The Rocky Horror Picture
Show, who seduces
both Brad ("Asshole") and Janet ("Weisssss") within moments of each
other.
Things will never be the same for that virtuous Adam & Eve after
they've tasted the snake's apple. Thanks to the intrusive bisexual,
their lives erupt into murder, mayhem, and death. (Or is that Basic
Instinct? -- same thing.)
If the bisexual character isn't the killer/heart-breaker of the trio,
he
or she is the soft and hapless victim. What good is Michael York doing
sitting all alone in his room in Cabaret
when he's in love with
the wild
and sassy Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli). York is the
quintessential quiet, sensitive bi guy who is pulled in so many
different
directions that he ends up losing everything because he can't make up
his mind. (The one little coming-out scene in the movie, by the way,
isn't nearly as explicit about the character's bisexuality as the play.)
And it doesn't seem much easier if the bi triangle is just about
sex. In
John Schlesinger's groundbreaking '70s film
Sunday, Bloody, Sunday, a doctor,
played by the older and dashing Peter Finch, and his wife (Glenda
Jackson) are both having a fling with the same studly bi male artist
(Murray Head). Even if it seems like it's all just for fun, jealousies
erupt
and things get a bit nasty, and the bi guy seems to be the victim of his
own
indecision.
A bisexual romance doesn't have to be in odd numbers, and it doesn't
have to be a triangular tug-of-war, points out Boston-based author Wayne
Bryant,
whose book Bisexual Characters in Film: From Anais to Zee
(Haworth Press)
is the ultimate bi movie reference guide. A bi guy himself, Wayne does
list
some three-way relationship movies among his favorite romantic films,
though.
Wayne mentions a fascinating little independent film called A
Rose By Any Other
Name, which explores a young woman's lust for another woman. By
bisexual filmmaker Kyle Schickner, who stars as the baffled boyfriend,
Rose explores various forms of attraction
in a humorous, non-judgmental way. It's a smarter, funnier, more
feminine
version of Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy (which was really about the
unspoken desire
between the male characters). It's much less well-known, unfortunately,
but it is available in
video stores. Unlike in Amy, Schickner
isn't afraid to mention the B-word as an option for his girlfriend's
sexual
identity, even taking Rose to a BiNet discussion group. The
three-way that Schickner's character seems to dream of never
materializes, much to his chagrin. (In Amy, when the mere
suggestion that the
two guys and girl sleep together is brought up, it effectively ends
their
longstanding friendships.)
The idea of friendships among a triad was sorely challenged in Gregg
Araki's most
accessible movie to date, Splendor,
which came out last year and
has just been released on video in time for Valentine's Day. Araki was
the darling of
Queer Cinema for awhile and quite an outspoken voice of the gay
community,
but now has quietly started a relationship with a woman. In this movie,
two handsome guys fall for the
same girl, she likes both of them, and they all eventually end up in the
same bed. The
triad seems idyllic for awhile, but things eventually collapse when the
girl can neither handle being the center of attention nor choose between
two men she loves equally. She dumps the guys for a more "normal"
relationship, and they
continue to live together for awhile, until they decide to go rescue
her. Nothing
is really resolved, except that they're back in their comfortable
odd-numbered relationship.
A movie that sort of climaxes with a three-way sex scene is
Threesome.
Handsome, sweet Josh Charles comes to the realization that he has fallen
for
both his goofy best friend Stephen Baldwin and the sexy Lara Flynn
Boyle.
Playing a macho straight guy, Baldwin is a bit repelled by the news, but
doesn't want to sacrifice the friendship. The three have a one-time roll
in the hay, but conclude it isn't something that can happen again.
During the premiere of Threesome,
I asked all three actors
if they would ever consider a three-way. Charles said he prefers sex
one-on-one; Baldwin said the circumstances would have to be right; and
Boyle giggled,
"It'd be nice to do it with two guys, but I think it's better for me
that I
do it on film only."
Charles says he has been amazed at what he's found out
about people's sex lives since the movie. "People tell me now about all
the
threesomes, foursomes, and fivesomes they've had, so I think there's
more of an
audience for this kind of thing than I ever imagined."
And Jennifer Tilly, who was also at the screening, says
she was disappointed that they didn't have more guy-guy intimacy in the
three-way.
"I would have loved to have seen it," Tilly said. "I mean when they
touched each other's naked butts I thought 'Go for it.' But then they
pulled
back and didn't show us what happened, and I thought, 'Well, that's
Hollywood!' "
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