LGBTQ+ themes and characters have grown more prominent in Hollywood over the first two decades of the 21st century, moving out of the fringes into the mainstream. That has resulted in some fantastic films in the last 20 years, including some of the most visually stunning.
Great cinematography, direction, and costuming choices all lend themselves to striking visuals. Each of these films features a unique and powerful style, setting them apart from most movies. Here are the 10 most visually striking LGBTQ+ films of the 21st century, so far.
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino, quickly establishes a vivid color palette and classical European tone that might be familiar to fans of Anthony Minghella’s underrated late 90s thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Soaked in color and style, this film takes place in the summer of 1983 in northern Italy. Everything in the movie is in aqua tones – the sea, the sky, and the clothes. The breezy love affair between Oliver and Elio (played by Timothée Chalamet), was doomed to last only the summer.
120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) (2017)
Robin Campillo, a French-Morrocan director, created this vivid movie from 2017. A more or less cinema verite style charts the story of Sean Dalmazo (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), a member of ACT UP, an activist group in the gay community aimed at defending the rights of people with AIDS in mid-90s France.
The style of the movie varies, with several club scenes that flash with vibrant color, a dark palette that suddenly explodes in strobe effects signifying the flickering nature of the moment.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
A byzantine and challenging (as always) neo-noir classic from writer-director David Lynch, Mulholland Drive soaks in its mood and atmosphere.
A strange set of circumstances brings together Betty (played by Naomi Watts), an aspiring actress, and a nameless woman who eventually goes by Rita (Laura Harring). Their uncertain journey twists and turns through a dark Los Angeles, sometimes saturated in vivid reds and blues, as their love affair morphs and inverts, leaving questions as to its existence.
Blue Is The Warmest Color (2013)
Not surprisingly, the most significant visual component in a movie called Blue Is The Warmest Color is the color blue itself. The movie, co-written, co-produced and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, tells the story of a passionate love affair between Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a French teenager and the slightly older and more experienced painter Emma (Lea Seydoux).
Blue recurs throughout the film, in the club where the two women meet, their clothes, and most importantly, Emma’s hair. The color disappears as their relationship loses its intensity.
Carol (2015)
In keeping with its story of quiet and suppressed emotion, Carol is a movie with a muted color palette (a product somewhat of the fact that it’s shot in super 16mm) that is absolutely brimming with color and style.
The movie follows the unexpected and socially dangerous relationship between Carol (Cate Blanchett) and Therese (Rooney Mara) in the far less progressive 1950s. Brilliant costumes abound, fringed with color, but the mood and temperature of the film, directed by Todd Haynes, struggles to get out of repressed grays.
Moonlight (2016)
A landmark film for not only queer cinema but Black queer cinema, Moonlight contains vivid and striking moments of dissonance in both color and sound.
Perhaps the best example of this occurs when the character of Paula screams at Little (without a sound) in slow motion. At the same time, violet light covers half of her face, recalling the moonlight key to the film. The scene recurs later in the film, this time with sound, but at a disorienting 48 frames per second.
Tangerine (2015)
Like Moonlight, Tangerine takes its name from its predominant color, a sun-soaked mood that lingers as the film takes place over a single day. The sun slowly sets, and the tangerine hue grows and grows.
The cinematography is all the more impressive, considering the film was shot on Apple iPhone 5S smartphones. The story follows Razmik (Karren Karagulian), a cab driver on Sunset Blvd. (recalling old Hollywood glamour), struggling to come to some kind of accord with himself and the world around him.
Hedwig And The Angry Inch (2001)
A grungy, independent movie if there ever was one, Hedwig and the Angry Inch brings the electrifying stage show by actor-singer-writer-director John Cameron Mitchell to the screen. Robust color seeps through nearly every frame, as Hedwig struggles to find fame and recognition as a musician.
Elaborate set pieces with brilliant costumes accompany renditions of Hedwig’s songs, and the story walks the line between fact and fiction, real and surreal, especially as it crashes toward its dramatic ending. An animated sequence further erodes the line at the end.
Portrait Of A Woman On Fire (2019)
One of the best films of 2019, Portrait of a Woman On Fire (brilliantly directed by Céline Sciamma) bristles with natural light and vivid color. The simple story of a painter who comes to a remote island to create a portrait of another woman for her prospective husband softly and carefully becomes a passionate love affair between the two.
The gorgeous setting, with stark cliffs and a foreboding sea, serves as a backdrop to a story that is as fretful and then uninhibited as its characters, who find, for a moment, a lifetime of love.
The Handmaiden (2016)
Mulholland Drive is a labyrinth of uncertainty. The Handmaiden is a universe. This outstanding Chan-wook Park psychological thriller divides the complicated story of two women into three distinct parts.
Nothing is as it seems and that carries over into the visual style of the film. Fragments of visuals emphasize the puzzle-piece nature of the film. Rose petals in a bath, lollipops, and other assorted instruments create a world of doubt and wonder.
