BERNADETTE: [to Bob] Believe me, Bob, these days gentlemen are an endangered species. Unlike bloody drag queens who just keep breeding like rabbits.
Hello everyone! I'm back this week with the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert! As you may know, in honor of the Pride Month I'll be covering LGBTQ+ movies in the next weeks - and Priscilla (bear with me the title is too long!) is the second film of this series. If interested to read the first one, I invite you to visit this link before we start! Now, let's talk more about our movie for this week and explore the characters!
Priscilla is written and directed by the brilliant Stephan Elliot. The film tells the story of two drag performers and a transgender woman's journey across the Australian desert to perform their act. While many people think the plot focuses on drag culture, Elliot says that the real heart of the movie lies in seeking acceptance of what drag performers do for a living. I'll talk more about this later on when we'll come to the character Tick.
The film's visual content is also rich as the drag culture was represented beautifully along with flamboyant dresses and exaggerated makeup! Thankfully, the movie's achievement in costume design is recognized by the Academy and it received an Oscar for Best Costume Design in 1995. I learned from IMDB that one of the dresses costs only $7 in the making, which sounds absolutely remarkable to me! Now, let's talk about our three main characters as each of them tells a unique story of their own.
Let's start with Adam, my absolute favorite character in this film. With his diva-like behavior ever since the beginning, Adam is the dominant character of the group. We know very little of Adam's background, except for in one flashback scene where he had to deal with his pedophilic uncle when he was 5. Ever since he was a kid, he carried a mischievous side to him, and that makes the character all fun and unique. I especially liked his bantering back and forth with Bernadette, the oldest one in the group. My favorite scene was when he finally had to confront his reckless behavior with the help of Bernadette after a night that went terribly wrong. It was the scene where Bernadette and Adam started to form a friendship, and also the one where we could see Adam changing for the better.
Let's move forward to Bernadette, the only transgender woman in the group. Bernadette carries a unique wisdom and dignity with her, and whenever someone in the group gets into trouble she is always the one to rescue them. In a well-written essay, the author interprets Bernadette as a classic symbol of demure femininity, which creates a small irony over the conventional women types in the film. With her dainty hand gestures and intentional lilt to her voice, Bernadette creates a woman image consists of affectations. I highly recommend reading the linked essay as it analyzes the gender roles in the film beautifully!
Last but definitely not least, let's talk about Tick! Although Tick appears relatively silent throughout the journey, he represents the key theme of the film. As he meets with his son at the end of the movie, he hesitantly asks whether he'll accept him as a both drag performer and a gay dad. His child's reaction in reply is so pure and heart-warming: he accepts his father without a doubt and even asks him to do an ABBA act for him. Tick's son Benji represents a society that accepts the drag performers as a part of their culture and never alienates them. As Tick builds tension from the beginning of the film whether his son will accept him or not, receiving such a reaction in return makes the audience relieved and satisfied.
Slowly finishing off the post, I'm giving this movie a big 9 out of 10. It was such a fun ride with all the songs, the characters, and the beautiful costumes! I'd like to thank you so much for reading this far, and you're always welcome to leave a comment below or send me your suggestions at: moviesatdawn@gmail.com! You can also follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr, all with the same nickname moviesatdawn. Thank you so much for joining me this week and I'll see you again for another amazing film!
BENEDETTA: That's just what this country needs: a cock in a frock on a rock.
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