The Queer Movie Poster Book

By Jenni Olson

Chronicle Books (2004), $19.95

Much has been written about the role of queers in cinema -- with Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies sitting on the shelves, thus far, as the subject's magnum opus. Now comes Jenni Olson's all-too-brief but so satisfying The Queer Movie Poster Book, which examines homosexuality in film via the industry's visual ad campaigns. Her coffee-table book is fun to pore over, showing movie ads (in chapters ordered by decade) that are at times stunning (like the gorgeous bill for The Fox), clever (the captured bisexuality of Sunday, Bloody Sunday), touching (a lavender-drenched ad for The Children's Hour), or just ridiculous (catch Richard Burton and Rex Harrison acting like absolute dipshits as flouncing fags in the poster for Staircase). Even outside the major studio marketing machine, Olson manages to unearth rare, crudely sketched early gay porn posters that resemble indie rock band fliers that you might find, say, taped to a lamppost on Valencia Street, as well as hysterical, European-style ads for "dykesploitation" flicks. The book does fall a little short on some of our favorites (Far From Heaven or Personal Best, anyone?), but happily ends with a section dryly titled "Guys With Their Shirts Off," which, at last, critiques today's trend toward horny close-up shots of the cleanshaven male torso in the marketing of gay films to gay audiences. Agree with Olson or not, this is a remarkable, colorful read.