It’s that time of year again. Now celebrating its 22nd birthday, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival will screen at the British Film Institute on London’s South Bank from March 27 to April 10, offering queer-themed shorts, documentaries, and feature films from around the world.

The Chinese Botanist's Daughter

You can view a complete list of the films on offer here. Among the ones reviewed or mentioned by AfterEllen.com are the romantic tragedy The Chinese Botanist’s Daughter (pictured above), the American TV pilot Don’t Go featuring Guinevere Turner, and the Oscar-winning short documentary Freeheld, about the fight of dying lesbian policewoman Laurel Hester to see her pension go to her partner Stacie Andree.

There’s also the Taiwanese romance Spider Lilies, the German drama Vivere, the French coming-of-age film Water Lilies, and the South African period romance The World Unseen.

The World Unseen

There’s the 1996 American documentary It’s Elementary — Talking About Gay Issues in School, and its 2007 follow-up, It’s STILL Elementary — The Movie and the Movement. And there’s the HBO film Life Support, starring Queen Latifah as an HIV-positive charity worker (although unfortunately her character isn’t a lesbian).

A program titled "The Face of Another: Imagining Lesbian Desire" offers a chance to see Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring fall in love in Mulholland Dr. It also includes films that explore female relationships but are not so overtly lesbian-themed, like Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and the Madonna–Rosanna Arquette flick Desperately Seeking Susan. … continue reading

I think I want Capone over at Ain't It Cool News to be my new BFF, because he keeps interviewing the coolest women! A few weeks ago it was Loretta Devine. This week, it's Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi.

Scribegrrrl blogged about Persepolis in December but, if you missed it, you should go back and read about this fascinating movie, which I'm chagrined to admit I still have not seen. (But I just decided I'm going to remedy that this week!) Also, if you have not seen it, you should definitely take a moment to watch the Persepolis trailer.

Frankly, I don't know how I've waited this long to see the movie. It looks so incredibly good!

But enough about me. What's actually interesting is to read what Marjane Satrapi has to say about the original graphic novel, the movie and her life. Here are some highlights. (And keep in mind, as Capone noted, “if her English isn't grammatically correct, remember that she is fairly fluent in probably a half-dozen languages.”) … continue reading

You know when you see something and you just have to have it? You want it, you need it. You simply cannot live without it. Well, that’s what I felt the first time I saw the new MacBook Air ads.

How amazing is that? Wait — sorry, you thought I meant the laptop? I mean, sure, it’s thin and all. But what really caught my attention was the song. That light, dare I say airy, tune playing in the background is “New Soul” by French-Israeli singer Yael Naim.

I have to hand it to Steve Jobs; the man can pick some good music. He helped launch the spectacular Feist with her ubiquitous iPod nano commerical. And now, Yael is poised to become Apple’s next big superstar. … continue reading

AfterEllen.com readers outside the U.S. often lament the delays in getting movies and TV series that we write about. But in the case of Hors de Prix (English title: Priceless), the rest of the world is way ahead of the States.

Priceless, which opened in Belgium in 2006, stars the lovely Audrey Tautou, best known to American audiences as Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci Code and Amélie Poulain in Amélie.

Tautou plays Irène, an attractive hooker woman who relies on the kindness of older, very wealthy men. While on vacation with one such sugar daddy gentleman, Jacque, Irène meets Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a bartender who pretends to be a millionaire in order to spend an evening with Irène. … continue reading

The nominations for the 35th annual Annie Awards were announced this morning. Never heard of the Annie Awards? They recognize the year's best animation in several categories, from film and TV to video games and commercials.

This year's Best Animated Feature nominees include fairly obvious choices ilke Bee Movie, Ratatouille and The Simpsons Movie. But I'm more interested in a little gem called Persepolis.

Persepolis is based on the graphic novels (essentially a memoir in two parts) by Marjane Satrapi, who grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi now lives and works in France, and Persepolis features the voices of two French national treasures, Catherine Deneuve and her daughter Chiara Mastroianni. If you're not already fascinated, take a look at this stunning trailer: … continue reading

I was on vacation in New York a couple of weeks ago, when I noticed a film due to screen that evening on the Sundance Channel. Titled French Beauty, it was a documentary on Gallic actresses that took as its premise that "As essential to France's mystique as its wines, haute couture and cuisine is its place as the defining home of female beauty."

Well, no disagreement here. I've often wondered what it is that they are putting in the water to make French actresses so consistently, yet uniquely, ravishing. While the documentary didn't succeed in answering this question, it did get me thinking over some of my favorite French actresses and also reflecting on how many of them seem to have featured in films with either an overtly lesbian or a homoerotic theme.

First there was Catherine Deneuve in 1983's The Hunger.

Deneuve would also go on to star in the 2002 musical mystery 8 Women/8 Femmes, where she has a sexually charged relationship not only with her sister-in-law, played by Fanny Ardant, but also her maid, played by Emmanuelle Béart. … continue reading