The other day I watched Milk, the story of Harvey Milk who led the gay movement in the 1970s in San Francisco. An amazing man, played with absolute passion by Sean Penn. But I like Sean Penn, and his brother Chris, so his performance is no surprise to me. James Franco, on the other hand, did surprise me with a very convincing role as Scott - partner of Harvey and also activist.
What also surprised me was how easily people in Cape Town are still shocked. Years ago, I saw Anyway the Wind Goes - yes, it's Belgian and darn good. It contains a few mild sex scenes but some really good and honest party scenes with all the party ingredients like drugs, sex and loud music. Halfway through the movie, half of the spectators had left!! Why, I ask myself. Are people here really that quickly offended or do they just not read the review to find out what the movie is about and how explicit the scenes are. Darn! I hope they never showed Irreversible here! Imagine a senior couple thinking they're going for a nice French movie with the lovely Monica Belluci.
Anyway, Milk.. The movie opens with Harvey Milk meeting a pretty young man in the subway, they kiss, they go home.. they make love. Already, the neighbors on my left were shuffling uneasily in their seats. But Harvey and his partner split up and Harvey meets the next 'first lady'. They kiss, go home... and make love (like many of us do when we fall in love). By now, the neighbors on my left are done shuffling and simply get up and leave...
So I'm frowning now, did they not read the reviews and expected a movie about a little village that became famous because of its delicious milk, or did they just not like two men kissing (because that's all you could see, even in the sex scenes)
Maybe they just forgot to feed the dog..
