I saw this at Lincoln Center in January 2000, as part of the Jewish International Film Festival. It was wowing, so liquid and strange. That wild, beautiful song they kept playing over Brian's televised face turned out to be "Johnny Remember Me" by John Leyton, one of the first big hits produced by Joe Meek, and a song Brian had named as one of his "Desert Island Discs" when guesting on that BBC show. Debbie Geller came out afterward and answered questions. I was ungrateful enough to ask why there had been nothing about UP AGAINST IT, Joe Orton's screenplay for The Beatles, which Epstein scotched for its endorsement of anarchy, crossdressing, group sex, and anticlericalism. Afterward, in the bathroom, I had an encounter with someone claiming to be Dizz Gillespie, Epstein's gigolo tormentor, who I believe is referenced in the film, and had been described at length in Peter Brown's THE LOVE YOU MAKE. I recognized this as the same man who had been waiting next to us in the queue before the screening, looking very nervous. He'd asked me for a light of his cigarette. A memorable night all around.
This is great and important writing as well as filmmaking. Perhaps The Beatles failed Brian Epstein, their manager and friend, but in the context of 60's gay repression, can they be blamed? Probably not. Although when the five men were riding alone together in an elevator, in response to Brian's question about what to title his upcoming autobiography, later A Cellar Full Of Noise, John Lennon caustically joked, 'How about Queer Jew?' But the famous clips of John and George in tearful shock at learning about Brian's death in the midst of Maharishi weekend that August of '67, spoke the truth: they loved Brian and his loss was the beginning of the end of their remaining together as The Beatles.
I saw this at Lincoln Center in January 2000, as part of the Jewish International Film Festival. It was wowing, so liquid and strange. That wild, beautiful song they kept playing over Brian's televised face turned out to be "Johnny Remember Me" by John Leyton, one of the first big hits produced by Joe Meek, and a song Brian had named as one of his "Desert Island Discs" when guesting on that BBC show. Debbie Geller came out afterward and answered questions. I was ungrateful enough to ask why there had been nothing about UP AGAINST IT, Joe Orton's screenplay for The Beatles, which Epstein scotched for its endorsement of anarchy, crossdressing, group sex, and anticlericalism. Afterward, in the bathroom, I had an encounter with someone claiming to be Dizz Gillespie, Epstein's gigolo tormentor, who I believe is referenced in the film, and had been described at length in Peter Brown's THE LOVE YOU MAKE. I recognized this as the same man who had been waiting next to us in the queue before the screening, looking very nervous. He'd asked me for a light of his cigarette. A memorable night all around.
So interesting. And fits. The only ful US screenings I know of were at Jewish film festivals.
This is great and important writing as well as filmmaking. Perhaps The Beatles failed Brian Epstein, their manager and friend, but in the context of 60's gay repression, can they be blamed? Probably not. Although when the five men were riding alone together in an elevator, in response to Brian's question about what to title his upcoming autobiography, later A Cellar Full Of Noise, John Lennon caustically joked, 'How about Queer Jew?' But the famous clips of John and George in tearful shock at learning about Brian's death in the midst of Maharishi weekend that August of '67, spoke the truth: they loved Brian and his loss was the beginning of the end of their remaining together as The Beatles.
Epstein lived a very complicated life whose concerns and stresses stood in contrast to the musical joy the artists he managed brought to the world.