The fruits of film

>> Montreal writer Tom Waugh launches The Fruit Machine

By MATTHEW HAYS

It's difficult to know where to begin when discussing Concordia film studies professor Tom Waugh's latest book, The Fruit Machine: Twenty Years of Writings on Queer Cinema. It's an extremely eclectic selection of Waugh's musings on cinema, in particular his specialty, the queer stuff. One thing is certain: anyone with virtually any interest in thoughtful meditation on film--gay or straight--won't want to do without this volume of lucid commentary on the medium.

The varied approaches Waugh has taken to film are reflected here. They include articles that were originally printed in Jump Cut, Cinéaste and The Body Politic, as well as a broad range of community publications (many of which didn't survive). This is a clear reflection of both Waugh's academic prowess as well as his clear commitment to community-based, grass-roots activism.

It's a fine time capsule, this. Take Waugh's scathing indictment of both The Road Warrior and Porky's for their nasty negative image representations. The critic ends this 1982 piece with a call to arms indicative of the period, pondering whether or not another Cruising-style wake-up call of protest to the folks down in Hollywood is in order.

The Fruit Machine will also specifically appeal to Montrealers, as there are pleasing intermittent reminders of Waugh's roots. His essay reflecting on the gay lives and work of Quebec cinematic demigods Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra should be required reading for all students of Canadian cinema. And I took particular delight in his swipe at the Gazette in his 1981 Caligula write-up. Due to the Gazette's "free publicity," he writes, the film cleared $55,000 in its opening weekend. He chastises the Southam paper for "never hesitating to suck up to U.S. industrial cinema while systematically ignoring gay cinema."

Through it all, Waugh's bitch-fag sensibility makes for some good scorches. He refers to the Toronto-based gay rag Xtra as "Toronto's market-savvy defanged version of The Body Politic," and announces at one point that "three new Canadian/Québécois movies about lesbian couples have just surfaced in Montreal, and at press time Mariel Hemingway is still nowhere in sight."

Ultimately, Waugh's anthology wins with both style and substance. It's a look back, through the eyes of one of the most prominent gay film scribes in the world, at the revolutionary changes made in the cinematic representations of queer folk.

The launch for The Fruit Machine (Duke University Press, pb, 312pp, $26.95) will be held at L'Androgyne on Sunday, April 9 at high noon