A Single Man (2009): Did you see this film? Your impressions?

I really loved the orange trees in Juliane Moore's home. How would I do this?

It was a long Gucci ad.

Way too much "fashion" but Colin is wonderful.

Great movie. Very stylish. And Nicholas Hoult showed his cute ass.

the set design is gorgeous. Firth's and Moore's homes were perfection.

SPOLIER ALERT:

Confused about the ending.

Stylish, yes, but also very sensitively directed. I thought Ford did justice to the Isherwood novel. There’s also a knowing use of some very typical Los Angeles locations.

R6 He dies.

The houses featured in the film were just as much the stars as Firth and Moore.

For people who know Los Angeles, Christopher Isherwood lived on Adelaide Drive in Santa Monica. I was a guest there a number of times when I was young. As far as I know, Isherwood’s boyfriend/husband still lives there.

R10 I should have mentioned that Isherwood’s other half was/is the artist, Don Bachardy.

I did not realize Bachardy was still alive.

Love the movie but it has some differences to Isherwoods original story. But my most favorit thing is the entire soundtrack.

Nick Hoult was at the zenith of his twinkish beauty.

Matthew Goode was especially good.

Beautifully filmed but I bust out laughing at the end. The rest of the audience were wiping away tears. I guess I’m missing a sensitivity chip.

I know that I did see it as I am a Colin Firth fan, but I honestly don’t remember anything about the film.

Tom Ford is better at making sunglasses than directing films.

I'm with r17. I remember thinking Colin did an admirable job, and that it was about a gay couple (one of which dies) and the fallout. Julianne Moore was strikingly stylish.

That's really it. Oh, and I lived in SF at the time and saw it at a theater in Japantown that featured a bar. No, I didn't get drunk lol.

I’d loved the book so I approached the movie with trepidation. I remember being surprised by how much I liked it. Found Colin Firth heartbreaking in this; Julianne Moore, OTOH, was fine but I’ve been more impressed by other performances of hers.

I haven’t seen it since but I think I’d enjoy the trip down Memory Lane. On many levels. I lived in Los Angeles for a few years way back when. No, there was zero overlap between the characters’ lives and mine. But sometimes I miss LA. At least, the LA of my memory.

I fell for it. Thought it was a sensitive exploration of grief, and the style, while beautiful, was used to underscore the emotions of its characters and the garishness of LA at the time. So, not just ornamental.

This piece of the score is just gorgeous.

R12 I wasn’t sure if Bachardy was still living, or not. I googled his name to see if he was still alive. He’s 88 years old. He and Isherwood were guests at my parents house when I was young. My father was in the film business, and Isherwood occasionally did touch-up work on scripts, as I recall. I was too young to be a social friend of Isherwood and Bachardy at that time. However, in my late teens and early twenties, I worked out at the Bruce Conner/Al Hinds gym in West LA. Isherwood was also a member there and that’s where we became friendly.

Couldn't get through it, even for another of my fantasy girlfriends, Julianne Moore.

It was just too slow. Sorry.

"Bruce Conner/Al Hinds gym in West LA."

oh if THAT steamroom could talk.

That’s cool, Dickie Greenleaf/r22! Any stories from those days?

The movie was memorable to me because it was the first time I ever saw Jon Kortajarena.

I think I liked it at the time, but I don't remember anything about it.

R25 No, no special stories that I can share. DL really isn’t the best forum for that kind of thing. Just a few inconsequential things: the gym where I became friends with Isherwood was a place for serious workouts, though not Gold’s-level bodybuilding. It had a section for women, separated from the men’s area by a wall. All I can remember of Isherwood there is him standing and talking with other people; I can’t remember ever seeing him actually working out. We were both members there for YEARS. One of the last times I saw Isherwood was when a group of us went to see a revival of West Side Story at the old Fox Theater on Lincoln Blvd. He was uncharacteristically quiet that evening. Isherwood and Gore Vidal were known to be good friends. I knew Gore and his nephew, Burr Steers, but never saw them in the same company. That’s all.

[quote] Beautifully filmed but I bust out laughing at the end. The rest of the audience were wiping away tears. I guess I’m missing a sensitivity chip

This is off-topic, but you’re not alone R16. I’ve been in a few very serious venues (melodramatic films, deeply somber presentations, etc.) and have experienced what seemed to me in the moment as highly awkward or inappropriate behavior like this and have always wondered why someone would do that in such a setting.

Laughing audibly at a sobering or traumatic moment for other people seems incredibly insensitive. Is the offending person simply unable to contain themselves? Or, they just don’t give a shit?

it's on Hoopla, free. Check it out.

I liked it but left me somewhat cold, while i loved the book. Sometimes ramping it all up to luxury, gorgeous scenery and angora sweaters does not work. I remember in the book the role played by Julianne Moore was sort of a hippy like woman living in a run down house, not this diva creature out of a thirties ballroom. I think it didn’t help the movie, it turned it into an advertisement.

The score is effective, but not one I listen to very often. Abel Korzeniowski is the composer. I would love to hear Thomas Newman, or even the late Elmer Bernstein's scores for this film.

Colin Firth was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award but lost to Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart.

Too Tom Ford

Any Vidal stories r28?

Joyce Dewitt woulda been purrrrrrfect as any character in the moveeeeee.

R35 I used to share anecdotes about well-known people on DL but I’ve stopped that since there really isn’t a serious audience here for that kind of thing. My grandfather and father worked in the film business so I was exposed to quite a few famous people, but the mood on DL is that it’s just gossip, and suspect at that. I will say just two memorable things about Gore Vidal, both of which I have previously related on DL and are part of my lasting memory of him. I once had dinner with him and 8 or 10 other people at Musso & Frank right before the Oscars one year. Most of us were smugly sure Brokeback Mountain was a shoe-in for best picture. Gore sat there smiling wryly as we all pontificated. He finally spoke and said there was no way it would win against “the votes of all those technicians who live in Sherman Oaks.” He also mentioned Whoopi Goldberg’s campaigning on behalf of Crash. He was right, of course. This was Gore, the clear thinker. But it was only a few years later that he began indulging in crackpot ideas and conspiracy theories. Some of these I heard first hand, but most I just read about. He became a very unpleasant person and not someone I could associate with. It was also at this time that he turned on his nephew and changed his will. That’s it.

Reading between the lines, I think Vidal became very depressed after Howard died, he was bitter that he was forgotten by the world, and descended into alcoholism and dementia. He seemed to have suffered from internalised homophobia and from the after effects of a narcissistic and unloving mother, thus the grand egocentric act he put on was borne out of insecurity.

R38 I agree with everything you wrote about Gore Vidal. I think he was very bitter that he didn’t get the critical acclaim he thought he deserved and, deep down, he realized that he wasn’t a great writer. He was particularly vindictive towards Truman Capote because he realized Capote was a great writer who was held in high esteem by the critical community. I’m sure Gore was secretly pleased that Capote squandered his talent and destroyed himself as a writer and person. In what was a very odd reaction, Gore actually seemed affronted that Capote had the temerity to die in Los Angeles, which Gore considered to be his town.

Capote was the better writer, but he was effeminate, so in Vidals terms he was a 'fag'. Vidal saw himself as a masculine all American boy aristocrat. Vidal was great at political theory, and a good entertainer, but not the greatest writer. He destroyed himself really.

What did Vidal write that was actually good? Wasn't he pro commie?

Vidal's non -fiction is good but his fiction is lousy.

They're just a couple of fags

Seriously, does anyone here have orange trees in your house? I would like to do this, if it is possible. Tell me how.

R44, thank you for bringing this thread back to what REALLY matters.

The film was one long fashion ad.

This guy tells you how but he is boring to listen to.

[quote] It was also at this time that he turned on his nephew and changed his will.

Yeah, but that was for reasons that are well known to him.

Nicholas Hoult looked pretty, but he was so wooden.

Jamie Bell was originally cast in Nick’s role, and I would have rather had him. He’s not as pretty as Hoult, but he is a better actor and he would have brought more sexiness, heat, and charisma to the part. Oh well.

[r45] your welcome

Nikky Hoult looked like a girl from the 1950s in this shitty movie.

I’m enjoying all of this. Everyone keep going.

I saw it on a flight from Beijing to Chicago. Four times. One of the hardest cries I’ve ever had. And Firth was breathtaking.

I saw it a month after my partner of 23 years died. So it made quite an impression.

I imagine if Tom Ford were to shoot himself, he'd also do so in a sleeping bag so as not to leave a mess.

Hoult is so cute but they shouldn't have made him do that ridiculous accent, wear bronzer or dye his hair. Cast someone else if you want a sun-kissed Californian.

Enjoyed the movie, mostly for Colin Firth.

Gay reddit has a very prudish obsession with age differences. They think a 20 year old dating a 28 year old is pretty much the same as child molestation.

I usually chime in and tell them about the age difference between Isherwood and Bachardy. That shuts them up for a while.

I'm guessing there are very few actual gay men posting on reddit these days. It's probably mostly teenage girls larping as gay men.

The movie was annoying as shit. The ending - OH COME ON!!! It was miserable depressing all the way through and then we get that. Gay men are never allowed to be happy on screen. Puke.

Shifty movie

[quote] Colin Firth was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award but lost to Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart.

He won the BAFTA though. In fact him losing for A Single Man is probably what helped him win the Oscar the next year for The King's Speech. At the BAFTAs, he won both awards so he won twice in a row.

Julianne Moore deserved a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

He was great in both movies, r61, but I felt his Oscar was a make up for not having won it for A Single Man. He was incredible in that movie.

for the 2010 BAFTA Colin was up against

Andy Serkis – Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll George Clooney – Up in the Air Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

The scene in the movie where the hot sailor Matthew Goode is introduced at the bar was so well done -with Blue Moon playing in the background.

[quote]He was great in both movies, [R61], but I felt his Oscar was a make up for not having won it for A Single Man. He was incredible in that movie.

The King's Speech was overrated. It was OK, but not so fantastic that it deserved all the award nominations that it got.

That said, Colin did a good job with the material he was given. But I agree, the Oscar he got was really for A Single Man.

Being a Colin Firth fan, I enjoyed King’s Speech, r65, but it definitely does not live up to the hype on rewatch.

I saw it and thought it was very stylish and fairly well cone, but I was highly annoyed with Tom Ford for manipulating the story to make the main character's story into grief porn. The most significant changes, among many smaller ones, are that he was *not* planning to kill himself and his late partner's family did *not* reject him or bar him from the funeral.

um, "well done," not "well cone."

Paint drying.

[quote]Being a Colin Firth fan, I enjoyed King’s Speech, [R65], but it definitely does not live up to the hype on rewatch.

Couldn't agree more! Rewatched it recently and was scratching my head wondering why everyone had raved about it so much in 2010 when it came out. It had its moments, but really wasn't deserving of awards nominations.

Julianne Moore was excellent as usual

Seeing Hoult say "yes... Sir..." to Firth, I'll have to admit, got me hard.

[quote]Julianne Moore was excellent as usual

Seriously?

I saw it recently. I thought it was boring.

How is Julianne's English accent?

I wanted Moore's pink cigarettes.

I remember when this came out Tom Ford talked a lot about Julianne Moore's character being somewhat invisible to the opposite sex and women in general losing their sex appeal when they hit a certain age.

I don't know what age her character is supposed to be. Late 40s maybe? I remember listening to that interview thinking: MARY!

Don't talk about our Julianne Moore like she's yesterday's catch of the day!

Julianne interview.

Great performance. But it looks like a perfume commerical.

A very thoughtful review of the movie with reference to the book.

The poster is like what Joe and Mika think they look like….

R7 Isherwood didn't write 'a novel'.

It was a short story, almost a monologue.

He dictated it extemporaneously to a Dictaphone and a typist after consulting with that other overblown blowhard Gore Vidal.

R10, R11 And did he lay a hand on you?

Or did he pay you money to pose for him in your underpants (without touching)?

[quote] Love the movie but it has some differences to Isherwoods original story.

What were they? I had trouble following the VERY flimsy plot.

[quote] It was a long Gucci ad.

Too long. American homosexual (and Baz Luhrmann) movie directors are OK on the visuals but utterly inept at handling characters.

Thank goodness this movie had a genuine English thespian in the star role who obviously did all the work.

[quote] Sometimes ramping it all up to luxury, gorgeous scenery and angora sweaters does not work.

The character in the original story, George, is old, unloved and unlovable who wears dowdy clothes.

The movie version has handsome big-jawed Colin Firth wearing clothes as stylish as Milan couture.

I’d love to see more of the Julianne Moore character, that would make an interesting women’s picture.

I saw the movie first, then read the novella. I was struck at how modern and full that short book was. I thought the movie was a postcard of the book. I was disappointed that the anger of the book was lost, things were made bland. The book has a very diverse cast (and it means something through creating a larger world in which our hero moves)- lost in the film. The two main characters in the film are not attractive in the book. They were glamorised so much as to be unrecognisable. One on the neighbours of Colin Firth's character informs him that her children refer to him as 'that man' (in doing so gently chiding him for being an old crank). The Juliane Moore character is an unpleasant drunk. How the fuck did we get from what I felt was a vibrant slice of life to such a soppy weep-fest? I suppose it happens through 'stylistic choices'.

Powerful story of grief and homophobia. It made me a little mad because the Firth character was not stronger.

When I was a child I recall feeling the same about a beloved grandmother who completely collapsed in every way a person can collapse when my grandfather died. She never came out of it.

What did people think about the added suicidal plans that weren't in the book?

No one else seemed to notice, R90. It pissed me (R67) off. You might also consult the piece at R80. That change had major ramifications.

Yes. I remember watching it when it premiered. It was a very good movie.

[quote] How is Julianne's English accent?

A bit spotty, as always.

Boring.

I enjoyed the film immensely, the ending I never saw coming, and found it moving. Moore tried a bit too hard to be a posh Brit. I loved the way the film looked and Firth played his role perfectly. A humane film, and worth watching. His relationship with the student was ultimately touching.

Charley was decidedly different from the book and much more glamorous. Nicholas Hoult is much hotter than the way the guy is described in the book

R90 Dumb emotionalism from the amateur-director.

Exactly. He shunned deeper themes and instead amped up the sentiment.

I don't remember much of this shitty movie but it was apparent to be nothing more than an ode to Tom Ford's own shorn and bleached anus. A microcosm of fake celebrity worship in general. A bunch of nothings and nobodies in love with their own shorn and bleached anuses in lieu of having anything of marketable skills or value.

R82 Are you sure you’re talking about the same book the rest of us are? My paperback copy of ‘A Single Man’ is 192 pages. Isn’t that long enough to be considered a Noel , if only a short one? I certainly wouldn’t call that a‘short story’.

^ ‘novel’, not Noel.

Yes, it is a novel. A novella at a stretch, though it's named as a novel everywhere I've looked. Definitely not a short story, and definitely not a difference to act superior over, r82.

Colin wins his BAFTA.

Why hasn't the Cancel Culture Generation banned this Isherwood story yet?

it contains a Chinese character named Alexander Mong!

has anyone seen orange trees in a person's home? How the fuck did this go out of style?

It is done.

My family had orange and grapefruit trees when I was growing up.

R107 Did your servants bring them into the house in large pots when they bore fruit?

Yes and when they polished the floor they had to move the trees.

[r107] Tell me everything

Orange and grapefruit trees need full sun.

Google says the calamondin orange (Citrofortunella mitis) can be grown indoors but its fruit are small and sour.

do you bring bee into your home? it seems a bit high maintenance.

did this character wheel these orange tree in after sundown? Is this what you have to do? So it is really growing orange trees is a moveable pot, right? Is this doable?

^ It's doable if you're a handsome, stylish well-groomed actor living in a stylish well-groomed house wearing stylish well-groomed clothes in a stylish well-groomed movie by an amateur director.

i also like colin firth's house. A cabin in the city. The set direction and design was great.

colin firth = so handsome

R106 Nice. Latinx are known to love those kinda trees. They need several in their homes.

I remember there's a passage in the book where he's observing the nuclear family who lives near him out of his bathroom window while taking a dump. That didn't make it into the movie.

Colin should have won the Oscar for this rather than The King's Speech IMO

I loved it. Beautiful performances, music, sets. Tom Ford needs to make more movies. He brings an aesthetic that's missing from other Hollywood movies.

He did make that one with Aaron Taylor Johnson taking a shit on his front porch toilet, r119. Now [italic]there's[/italic] an aesthetic.

It was absolutely disgusting R120, took me til the stills of Aaron's big swinging pendulous gorgeous cock were released for me to wank to him again. Tom Ford has a lot to answer for.

I like to imagine the casting couch sessions Tom Ford had with Nicholas Hoult and Aaron Taylor Johnson.

I doubt it for either. Nicholas was very popular after Skins and it wasn't like A Single Man was a big budget star-vehicle. Tom may have added in the nudity though for his and our viewing pleasure. I wonder if he let him wear a cock sock

R82 Oh, come on! A Single Man is a novel by every definition. It’s carefully crafted and written. It most certainly wasn’t “dictated extemporaneously” nor was it “a monologue.” Either you don’t know what you’re talking about or you’re confusing it with something else entirely.

R82, R124 OK, I’m the snob who’s whining about this small story and I’m the snob complaining that Isherwood isn’t a proper novelist.

Look at the words in the movie poster below. That’s the opening sentence of his Berlin Stories of 1939. Isherwood acknowledges he’s a passive person reporting on things that he sees.

I say he’s passive though I don’t know the sexual details of his decade-long relationship with Wystan Auden in which they wrote three plays together. But everyone who knew them could easily tell which one of them had the powerful intelligence and which of them was the intellectually-lightweight twink.

If you look at his publishing list you’ll see the first two publications report on his childhood, the next two report on his Germany holiday with Auden. His next one is pure autobiography, talking about himself. His next three are talking about his investigations into mysticism. The next one after the war recounts his experiences in a film studio, then more travel diaries. The two stories from 1954 and 1962 is another self portrait but he actually attempts a cast of characters and attempts a plot.

‘A Single Man’ arrives in 1964.

He was anointed as ‘a gay guru’ in 1966 which gave his publishers license to bring out more journalism and more regurgitated versions of what had came before. In 1971 he brought out a 528 page volume discussing his mother and father.

And after that even more diaries.

I say that ‘A Single Man’ is OK as it is— it’s a longish short story or a movie scenario which can be read in 150 minutes. But I (and Graham Greene) can’t consider it as a ‘novel’ which in our opinion includes some intellectual content and some careful cause-and-effect plotting based on the interplay of believable, two-dimensional characters.

[quote] staring Colin Firth.

Doesn’t he realize that’s rude?

r125 Are you on the spectrum by any chance? In any case, you need to remember where you are and get a fucking life!

R125 Although I don’t agree with you at all, I appreciate the care you have shown in your detailed response. You’re probably aware that E. M. Forster said young Christopher Isherwood held “the future of the English novel in his hands.” Unfortunately, if he held it, he proceeded to drop it.

Perhaps the pentultimate example of how to do orange trees in your home - check out the Orangery Palace in Sansoucci Park , Potsdam, Germany . Built by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. You can probably pick up some effective tips from that.

Tom Ford needs to make another movie.

I’m far more interested in what he will turn out next, rather than Sam Mendes or Joe Wright, but here we are.

I actually liked Nocturnal Animals, although I am in the minority.

A bit twee.

I haven't seen A Single Man in many years. I have fond recollections of the film, and kinda don't want to spoil those by watching it again with a more critical (cynical?) eye.

[quote] A bit twee.

Yes, and the word 'stylish' has been used ten times in this thread.

this movie is free on the Hoopla.

[quote] I really loved the orange trees in Juliane Moore's home. How would I do this?

You need to copy King Louis XIV!

It was like window shopping.

Nocturnal Animals was a much better film.

[quote] It was like window shopping.

It was like a 90 minute clothes advertisement.

It’s set in the 1960s? You can’t have sex with your students now (appropriately).

He didn't sleep with his student

He was lusting over his student for half an hour.

If a student looks like Nicholas Hoult I think it would be weird not to lust after him. In the novel I don't think he has much lust for Kenny, I really need to reread!

Ok R140 on 2023 it's not permitted to suggest that your student undress so that you can gaze upon his naked body. Which is getting sexual with your student.