Lilies (1996)

This is the sort of pretentious crap that has killed art-house cinema. The fact that the players speak English makes it more criminal to hear dialogue that appears to have been written in French and then sloppily translated. The actors speak like they are reading bad subtitles and are therefore forced to speak some very idiotic sentences indeed. The young actors are pretty but surprisingly sexless. They come across like twelve year old girls, not mature enough to pretend they have any of these feelings. This is stressed even more by the casting of older men in female roles, at once an insult to women and to gay men. Any film in soft focus is considered "beautiful" today and this one is particularly ugly with fantastic scenery badly photographed and endless shots of lakes and cottages that add nothing to the setting. The prison scenes are strictly 1960's bad theater of the absurd. This play on film presents a convoluted jilted lover plot worthy of a daytime soap pretending it is saying something important about homophobia. Indeed who is the true villain here? The jealous lover who killed for his love and became a priest in his atonement or the selfish and closeted Simone, who was dumping his true love after one beating from dad. It is Simone who is the sinner here but the writer would rather not see that and blames some smitten waiter for all the crimes of humanity. Apparently Simone paid for his real sins by ageing really badly, a punishment only a gay man would understand. Even with it's drag queen women and naked girly-boys, LILIES is not good gay cinema. But it sure is queer.

A beautifully made film. The way the movie flowed like quicksilver between the prison and the past was unbelievable. It was also great how the male actors, a la mode Shakespeare, played all the female roles. What was so good about that was that they didn't do so as hyper-female drag queens but simply as actors. after a while the viewer forgets that sex of the actors and focuses on the characters. I was surprised that this illusion held up despite several removals from the narrative when we are transported back to the present and the prison chapel and we see the actors as they really are. somehow the film keeps us from being jarred out of the movie and we once again are transported back to 1912. a profoundly moving story.

This is a film of rare and astonishing brilliance, and unlike anything I personally have ever encountered before. It is exquisitely photographed and edited, and the acting is first rate all round. The all-male cast portraying both men and women might be off-putting for some, but it is performed so expertly that one forgets this detail - it is a film that magnificently transcends gender. In particular is Brent Carver's resplendent turn as the `mad countess,' the gentle, guileless mother of one of the young heroes. The story is a heartbreaking tale of love, jealousy, and ultimately, of Judgement Day, of the Day of Reckoning. That its storyline is about gay love should not put off heterosexual film goers, because the theme is timeless and universal. A bold and brilliant ‘must see.'

This film stands out in my collection as the most beautiful gay love story on film so far. It's lyrical story-telling is accented by it's Romeo & Juliet-inspired forbidden love theme, while avoiding any political message that plagues today's current stream of gay love stories. With it's gorgeous location, haunting sound-track and surreal moments of simple tenderness, Lilies succeeds at simply being a beautiful film.