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(with special thanks to Sandra!)

'BEAUTIFUL THING'
They love each other. They´re neighbours in a suburb of London. They´re youngsters with doubts and itches. One of them is surer: he depends too much on his mother, hates soccer and hates a neighbour who spends all day impersonating Mama Cass. The other one is sporty, his father beats him and he still can´t assume his homosexuality. Among jokes and touches of bitterness, the film makes of this off off London stageplay a delicious bet for love without prejucides nor fears. Presented in Cannes and San Sebastian, it didn´t get the audience success it deserved. Those who come out will keep it as a treasure in their personal video library.

LunaLlena Video. Price: 1.995 pesetas.

Another English jewel, only a more positive one. This extremely modest film shows two boys´ increasing closeness; they´re neighbours in a working-class suburb in today´s England. One of them is hypersensitive, argumentative, and not very fond of P.E. classes. The other one is sporty, shy, and suffers the abuses of his less than charismatic family. Something so beautiful, sincere and endearing will bloom between them that no one will be able to deny. And they won´t want to hide it. The list of charming characters is completed by
an understanding mother, an infatuated hippy and a girl next door who is completely nuts. A delicious surprise which has become a cult film wherever it´s been released.

With one of the most original, tender and emotive endings in recent years, this delicious urban tragicomedy about teenagers who discover their homosexuality is inspired by a stageplay which had an overwhelming success in London´s off off. The director, Hettie MacDonald, maintains the free and
initiatic spirit of the play while she´s unable to hide her love for the characters: Jamie, a clever boy who´s sure he doesn´t like football, but football players; Ste, a sporty jock who stoically endures his father´s
beatings while he longs for a little love; Leah, the crazy neighbour who considers herself Mama Cass´ reincarnation; Sandra, the modern mother who watches The Sound of Music on TV, unaware that her son is frolicking with his friend in his bedroom... Charming and bittersweet, Beautiful Thing
("algo bonito" would be a possible translation) is a statement in favour of
coexistence and the assumption of one´s sexual identity without fears nor prejudices.

LunaLlena Video. For Rent.

-All the above: El Pais de las Tentaciones

It´s beautiful to embrace like this

This film was one of the pleasant surprises at the Filmmakers Fortnight in Cannes Film Festival 96. Hettie MacDonald, theatre director in London´s West End, made her film debut with Jonathan Harvey´s screen adaptation of his own stageplay with a style similar to Ken Loach´s. The movie is a funny comedy, with a touch of dramatism, in favour of sexual coexistence in which two boys discover their homosexuality. Mamas and the Papas´ fans will love the soundtrack.

-Fotogramas

Glen Berry gives Scott Neal a massage

A tale of first love, this delicious independent comedy tells of the relationship between two teenagers who discover their homosexuality in a London working-class neighbourhood.

Based upon a stageplay Jonathan Harvey opened in London´s off off, Hettie MacDonald´s first film (who also directed the stageplay) became the big surprise in last Cannes Film Festival´s Filmmakers Fortnight. (All winner films will be released this month)

The theatrical origin of the plot is revealed in the story´s structure, which turns both main characters into neighbours in the same Thamesmead block, in South London. There are no secrets between them since gossip is the food which feeds their curiosity.

Jamie is going through an identity crisis: he skips school, he hides at home and has painful quarrels with his mother, although he loves her a lot. Ste is sporty, good-looking and reserved; he seems a tough guy, but he suffers neverending beatings from his father and brother. Both of them meet in the walkway and also agree about their constant arguments with Leah, a black girl who considers herself Mama Cass´ reincarnation, an obese singer who died drowned in heroin. Jamie likes Ste, and the day his neighbour stays over in his bedroom he can´t control his desire to caress his skin, and with the
excuse of a massage... The scene of their first encounter, which takes place in Jamie´s bedroom while his mother is watching The Sound of Music´s umpteenth rerun on TV, deserves to go down in history (not just the history told in The Celluloid Closet, dedicated to gay-themed films).

Vital, optimist, cheeky and lively, Beautiful Thing is a song to young love, to the freedom of sexual choice. Strongly supported by hilarious dialogues, appealing characters (and more than competent actors), the film leaves you with a smile plastered on your face from the very beginning (you take it home with you afterwards) and offers the alternative of resorting to imagination and humour as a way to survive.

-CINEMANIA OCTOBER 1996

Many films that tackled homosexuality, both male as well as female, as the axis of the story or just mentioned briefly, have been released this season. This fact may be due to two motives: fashion or lack of creativeness. It also could be that the number of people who´re not attracted to the opposite sex has increased. In any case, it is plain that homosexuality means a greater sensitivity towards life and people, a different way of "understanding" the others. The Sum of Us, The Birdcage, Gazon Maudit, Pédale Douce, Uomini, uomini, uomini, Antonia´s Line, Robert Rylands' Last Journey or Beautiful Thing - among others, I´m sure I´m leaving a few others out - have dealt with homosexuality. More latent, more openly in films directed by women: Gracia Querejeta, Josiane Balasko or Hettie MacDonald. Don´t ask me why. The reason may be obvious or very complex; it beats me. Women are more sincere and straight forward when they have something to say. And they show it accordingly. We men have more turns, are more false, shameful and fearful of facing our problems, analyzing them and being criticized for it.

The most surprising and charming of all - it surprises you, especially, when you expect nothing of it - probably is Beautiful Thing, a small comedy, dirt-cheap, cheeky and ironic, modest and cute. Hettie MacDonald shows us that movies, just like real life, are wonderful and that it depends a lot on the way you see it. The closeness between the boys who live the forbidden affair comes from their frustration in their interaction with the others. At least one of them seems to be gay as a response to the treatment his classmates give him. His beloved´s discovery is also the expression of the tenderness and all of the hidden feelings he keeps in his mind when he arrived to his friend´s home all bruised as a consequence of the beatings he suffered. His sensibility accidentally comes out when his friend caresses his back. From a world where he is clearly excluded he suddenly finds himself in another world where emotions replace monotony.

Beautiful Thing is indeed beautiful because it answers to many of the things that are worth living for. As Woody Allen reminded us in Manhattan´s ending, there are many reasons for staying alive and all you have to do is dare to find them. Otherwise, Hettie MacDonald´s film is a breath of fresh air, of happiness, because it deals with real and everyday characters, with the ordinary problems that haunt us, with the outward fears, with what people say and with the miserable existence of the nameless people. Every character in the film helps, but above all, its humour, sarcasm, irony and solidarity. When you come out of the movie theatre after watching Beautiful Thing you have the feeling that out there things are different. It´s just a feeling, but it is more than enough to create a state of euphoria unthinkable in cinema today. Because Beautiful Thing shows that, unfortunately, this world could be very different. A simple wish would suffice.

-David Ezquerra.