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theHandpuppet

(19,964 posts)
Sat Aug 23, 2014, 03:24 PM Aug 2014

John Lithgow and Alfred Molina's 'Love Is Strange' Is the Love Story of the Year

Gosh, I hope I get to see this!!

The Daily Beast
Entertainment
08.20.14
John Lithgow and Alfred Molina's 'Love Is Strange' Is the Love Story of the Year

Few film love stories are as profound, rich, and devastating as the one between Alfred Molina and John Lithgow in ‘Love Is Strange.’ It just happens that their characters are gay, too.

It almost feels sacrilegious—and maybe even a little bit gross—to call Love Is Strange profound, or important, or a painfully necessary film.

An achingly beautiful chamber piece about an older gay couple whose lives are upended by financial downturn, Love Is Strange is remarkable because of an insistence on not making its headline-grabbing and boundary-pushing elements—this is the story of a same-sex relationship set against the backdrop of the legalization of same-sex marriage—seem remarkable at all.

In fact, played with all the lived-in heart, soul, affection, and hostility of a couple that’s been together for decades, the story of George (Alfred Molina) and Ben (John Lithgow) could very well be called Love Is Normal.

“It’s a story about a relationship and the fact that they’re gay men, in a way, is almost irrelevant,” Molina tells me, a sentiment that’s certainly echoed by his co-star. “It’s just a beautiful portrait of love, taking the sexual part out of it,” Lithgow says. That matter-of-factness is what makes the film so great—and the circumstances behind its bleak narrative so infuriating and timely....

MORE at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/20/john-lithgow-and-alfred-molina-s-love-is-strange-is-the-love-story-of-the-year.html

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John Lithgow and Alfred Molina's 'Love Is Strange' Is the Love Story of the Year (Original Post) theHandpuppet Aug 2014 OP
I heard an interview a couple of days ago with John Lithgow on the radio. LeftofObama Aug 2014 #1
Unfortunately it probably won't come out here to the back of beyond theHandpuppet Aug 2014 #2
Two great actors BrotherIvan Aug 2014 #3
96% on the Tomatometer - it's a DO.NOT.MISS. Skittles Aug 2014 #4
du rec. xchrom Aug 2014 #5
John Lithgow Talks Gays In Film, His 'Defiance Of Prejudice' & Robin Williams theHandpuppet Sep 2014 #6

LeftofObama

(4,243 posts)
1. I heard an interview a couple of days ago with John Lithgow on the radio.
Sat Aug 23, 2014, 03:51 PM
Aug 2014

This sounds like an incredible story and one I would love to see. What piqued my interest is that it goes beyond the typical love story and into the problems that many of us face. This one's a must see that's for sure!

theHandpuppet

(19,964 posts)
2. Unfortunately it probably won't come out here to the back of beyond
Sat Aug 23, 2014, 05:08 PM
Aug 2014

It looks as if we'll have to wait for the DVD but it's most definitely on our list of movies to watch!

BrotherIvan

(9,126 posts)
3. Two great actors
Sat Aug 23, 2014, 05:52 PM
Aug 2014

I will definitely put it on my list. It's funny because Alfred Molina is amazing as Joe Orton's miserable lover in Prick Up Your Ears. Can't wait.

theHandpuppet

(19,964 posts)
6. John Lithgow Talks Gays In Film, His 'Defiance Of Prejudice' & Robin Williams
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 09:22 PM
Sep 2014

Great interview!

PrideSource
Between the Lines
John Lithgow Talks Gays In Film, His 'Defiance Of Prejudice' & Robin Williams
By Chris Azzopardi
8/29/2014

(excerpt)
During a recent chat with Lithgow, the actor discussed being touched by the gay community's response to "Love Is Strange," the underrepresentation of LGBT people in film, and his groundbreaking turn as a trans woman alongside Robin Williams in "The World According to Garp."

"Love Is Strange" is resonating with the gay community on a very personal level, especially now that many of these longtime gay and lesbian couples are able to wed. For you, what does it mean to be part of a film that means so much to the gay community?

It's extremely moving to me. Even if the whole same-sex marriage issue had not become such a major issue of our times, this would still be a very, very moving film just by virtue of the fact that it is a portrait of a 40-year-long relationship. And since it's a 40-year-long relationship between two gay men, there is such a history there: They've been through 40 extraordinary years; they've seen the terrible scourge of AIDS in the '80s and '90s; between them they've lost scours, if not 100s, of friends; they've somehow survived, and they have seen the sort of awakenings of freedom - this slow emergence from second-class citizenship through these gay marriage initiatives. The great thing is, it puts a human face on it. You see real people. These are the people who are really directly affected by it, and I just find it terribly moving.

The narrative hones in on these vignettes of their life together, which says a lot about relationships - that, no matter who's experiencing it, love is love...

... and it's complicated and it's messy, but they are the luckiest people in the film because their relationship has survived and they're inseparable. They're so essential to each other....

MORE at http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=67791

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