Mapplethorpe

If this was a mainstream cinema release rather than a Gay film festival movie I suspect Matt Smith would have been included in all the major acting nominees for this years awards. Matt Smit gives an amazing performance as Michael Mapplethorpe the famous art photographer for the late 1960's 1970's.

Of course he was a cultural gay icon and the movie does show his famous male erotic photos as well as the beautiful floral subjects he also photographed. It was the era in New York if promiscuous sex when thousands of men died of AIDS including Mapplethorpe who died in 1989 age 42.

Mapplethorpe says in the movie That he wouldn't reach the age of 50 but he hoped he'd be famous before he dies and he was correct on both counts.

The film won 7 audience awards at International Film Festivals and it's easy to understand why as Director Ondi Timoner and the great supporting cast especially Marianne Rendon as Patti Smith and Brandon Sklenar as Edward Mapplethorpe Roberts brother have contributed to make a very interesting and entertaining movie that should be seen by all just not the GLBTQI audiences.

If male erotic nudity in photography or mild homosexual sexual content offends this movie is not for you but as I watched this film I thought of all explicit heterosexual sexual content in films our community sits through and it made me think if one day so called GLBTQ movies will be shown alongside mainstream movies and therefore gain a much wider audience. I also wondered watching Mapplethorpe if the Art and Photography of that amazing psychedelic era of Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol would be viewed as such valuable masterpieces if created today but I guess it's like saying that if a painter today painted like a renaissance master like Leonard Da Vinci or Michelangelo would we think it old fashioned ? We watched Matt Smith yesterday play another famous Gay cultural icon Christopher Isherwood in his 2011 movie Christopher and His Kind in which he plays another very different gay man and I agree with his stance of defending straight actors who play gay characters as far as I'm concerned it's the best actor to suit the part regardless of sexuality and Matt Smith I think is perfect in this role. Hi see it or catch it on DVD or stream release.