Cruising (1980)

Thursday, January 16, 2020 @ 7:00 PM
Globe Cinema - 617 8 Avenue SW, Calgary, AB
$12 General | $10 Members/Seniors/Students | $40 5-Pack Punch Pass | $99 Season Pass

The highly controversial gay S&M giallo Cruising stars Al Pacino as a policeman investigating murders in New York's gay leather bars.

Directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist), gay S&M giallo Cruising (1980) was considered historically provocative when it was first released in 1980. Starring Al Pacino as a psychologically suggestible young police officer who is tasked with investigating brutal murders in the gay leather bars of New York’s Meatpacking district, the shooting and release of the film were met with an unmatched social furore. The film’s mix of brazen (for a mainstream release) gay content, a based-on-facts serial murder case, and Friedkin’s penchant for ratcheting up the visceral tension quota to high levels guaranteed scandal. Years later, however, this provocative and challenging film remains a touchstone in its incisive look at male sexual duality, social duplexity, and a glimpse into a lost era of New York’s gay history.

-Written by Scott Lang

FOCUS: SEXUALITY

Jean-Luc Godard famously once said “All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.” Film critic Pauline Kael seemingly echoed this statement when she titled one of her books Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Both filmmaker and critic observed the obvious relationship of sexuality and violence to cinema itself, and in both cases the amorous element comes first. Our Focus: Sexuality series explores how sexuality over the course of the last century has paralleled the development of cinematic language. Featuring films from the 1920s up to the 1990s, this globe-spanning series presents key films that consider subjects such as female sexual autonomy, gender fluidity and performativity, amorous power dynamics, and toxic predation. These are firebrand movies, emphasizing how the presentation of sexuality and human relationships on-screen is limited by the specific sociocultural framework of their era. In their emotional and cinematic power, these films are still strongly resonant and provocative today.

About Calgary Cinematheque

We are a non-profit film society dedicated to presenting significant, challenging, and essential works of cinema art in Calgary. During our season, which runs from October to April, we screen films weekly, in curated programs which situate each film in a thematic and historical context. We do this because we believe cinema is an essential form of artistic, social, and political expression. Audiences should be able to engage with a wide range of cinematic expression, not only with what is commercially viable. We believe in the power of sharing these experiences with other people in a theatrical setting and we strive to cultivate a community around that experience.  

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