Great film - "Chris and Don - A Love Story "

[Jody]

Edited to include entire title of movie..................

Tonight my friend Frank and I went to see a wonderful film at a great artsy little theater in Kew Gardens, Queens which is our boroughs rival of the Quad in Manhattan, a lovely little theater with nice art work in the lobbies such as old Life magazine covers and Hollywood magazine type covers...The bathrooms even have a man with a 1930's style fedora hat and a woman with a veiled hat on the doors, a very tastefully done art deco style place, even though it has been broken down into several theaters and modernized of course.

We arrived early and decided to see "Chris and Don" for the 6 PM showing and then dinner...It was an outstanding film told through the eyes of Don Bachardy, an artist who is known for drawing many Hollywood legends, about his life with the writer Christopher Isherwood.

Isherwood was born in in England to a well to do family and was closer to his nanny than his mother...His father was an officer who died in WW1...He felt conflicted with being a gay man in staid Britain and moved to Berlin where he experienced the cabarets and the night life and met a young man...They saw first hand the Nazi rise to power and travelled around Europe before his partner was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to war.

Isherwood left Europe like so many others and came to America in 1939...He did not particularly care for New York, with its hustle and bustle and cold winters and got on a train for Los Angeles where he would remain for the rest of his life...He would later meet Don Bachardy, many years his junior and was actually smitten initially with Don's older brother...Don (and his brother) were very handsome boys and Don and Chris would develop a very open relationship in Los Angeles, specifically Hollywood for many years after...Chris was a well known writer who financed Don's budding art career and Don painted many portraits of famous Hollywood stars and Chris and Don went to all the parties out in Tinseltown, always together.

After Chris passed Don was quite sad (he assisted Chris to the very end) and then remained in the Los Angeles home they shared for years together, bicycleing everywhere around town after that and still painting his lovely portraits, many handsome young men in the mix. 

The film made me contemplate my relationship with Frank, whom I have only known for a few years...We are just friends and though he is most cool about it, I think my having HIV may be a bit of a hang up for him, I won't judge him for that, though I also don't believe I am his type physically, he is ten years my junior, I am tall, he is short and happens to favor darker skinned men, but still we have a certain love that may be stronger than just a friendship, I believe.

Anyway - a wonderful, sweet must see film, for gay and straight alike!!!

Jody

[allanq]

Thanks Jody. Netflix has it, and I just put it on my queue.

Allan

[Robert]

Jody.

Back in high school ('60's) I read Isherwood's The Berlin Stories. which is what the play/movie Cabaret is based on.  I was hooked and had to read everything by the man.  That was my latent homosexuality coming out.  As you know, Cabaret is a classic and Joel Grays' signature role.  Because of the movie, I fell in love with Michael York who played the gay blade, who I guess you could say was Isherwood (if there is anything autobiographical about it)

Anyway, thanks for the clue.  Like Allan, I've added it to my queue.

robert

[Jody]

Yes Robert, Cabaret is discussed early on...Chris and Don truly had amazing lives together and there is even some animation thrown in that truly adds to the story line...It was a memorable little movie for me, Frank enjoyed it immensely as well.

Jody

[allanq]

I read Ishwerwood's book "A Single Man," a very touching short novel about a gay man.

I just checked my Netflix queue and saw that "Chris and Don" isn't yet available on DVD. Netflix put it on a special queue and will presumably let me know when it becomes available on DVD.

Allan

[BT65]

I don't have Netflix, but will look for it at one of the video stores in the next couple weeks.

[allopathicholistic]

Hi Jody, from the sounds of it, a film like this can easily put us into comtemplation mode. I simply assumed Frank was like Eileen to you, you know, a platonic activity friend who you'd be able to meet people through, etc. Well, in my prediction, you, Joe T. and Frank are like three amigos for life - for better or for worse etc - And that's gorgeous in of itself  Luv, A