“An Englishman in New York”, a tribute to Quentin Crisp (aka Denis Charles Pratt) opened the Reel Affirmations Film Festival in Washington DC Oct. 15. The film is directed by Richard Laxton and written by Brian Fillis. The production and distribution company, Leopardrama, uses the MGM roar as part of its trademark. Crisp is known for his memoir, “A Naked Civil Servant”.
John Hurt plays the controversial gentleman and raconteur. He would be denied entry into the British Armed Forces during WWII because of his homosexuality, and would emigrate to the United States in 1981 at the age of 73. Hurt’s appearance changes little in the film, up to his death at 90.
Crisp was famous for his little proverbs and aphorisms, some of which created offense, as when he said that “AIDS is a fad”, which his publicist wanted him to retract, not explain. But most of his sayings ring true with appropriate feminine brutality. “Beauty is in the eye of the possessor.” He saw sex and art, for gay men, as separate from “real life” but saw gay men as a people “looking in from without” as if to keep score on heterosexuals. (Again, the “gays are spies” theme from Mulligans.) He had little “ideological” respect for fundamental rights, and said that if most people got what they deserved they would live and die in rags. But his cynicism could be funny. In an opening interview he says he wore drag in order to disguise himself from attackers as who he was.
John Hurt had played Crisp in the Thames Television production of “The Naked Civil Servant” in 1975.
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