Bodies do the talking in ‘Mala Noche,’ director Gus Van Sant’s daring debut
Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” In this week’s column, we’re revisiting 1986’s Mala Noche, the directorial debut of New Queer Cinema filmmaker Gus Van Sant.It’s unfortunately not uncommon for queer filmmakers to be forced to step away from centering openly queer narratives and characters as soon as they cross into the mainstream.
Although their body of work doesn’t necessarily lose its queer lens or sensibility, bigger budgets and release platforms usually come hand-in-hand with bigger creative restraints, as there are now bigger powers to respond to.
Even if a director is able to continue telling stories about queer characters, the radical nature of their early films that comes with shoestring budgets and very limited resources—constraints which ultimately make so many independent films feel so new and refreshing—tends to get lost.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.But there are some that are able to keep the elements that made their early films feel alive and revolutionary throughout their careers, regardless of their platform, size, and scope.
This week we’ll be talking about one of those directors: Gus Van Sant, one of the most prominent and consistently working directors of the last forty years.
