Is it okay yet to be queer - as a character in a film, or as a queer actor in real life - in Hollywood, or in Asia?

[reader]

I've been flying Cathay Pacific, ANA and Singapore airlines in recent years and have enjoyed gay-themed movies on all flights.

Cathay Pacific seems to make it easiest to locate by listing LGBT+ selections on line by the month.

https://entertainment.cathaypacific.com/catalog?template=movie&id=23014145

 

[unicorn]

I must confess that it doesn't upset me as much as it used to when they use straight actors to portray gay characters, such as Brokeback Mountain. I guess that view softened somewhat when they started casting more gay actors in straight roles (such as some of Matt Bomer's roles). That being said, most of the time they should be able to find a gay actor talented enough to play a gay character.

[Pete1111]

Another somewhat recent example how it is OK" to be gay and/or play gay,

In Space Station 76,  a straight character was played by a gay actor and a gay character was played by a straight actor.  Love that movie.  I'm not at all affected as a viewer knowing the actor's sexuality is not the same as the character's.  The performances were spot on!   The creators were queer.  A funky movie that didn't get enough hype.  

 

 

 

[forky123]

Actors should play roles. It really shouldn't matter if the actor or role is gay, straight or somewhere in between. There have always been more gay actors playing straight roles than vice versa. Also, thank goodness there are now diverse gay roles to play as against the single gay stereotype.

[Londoner]

Can we discuss the Italian director Pasolini? or is my interest too eccentric for other posters? Like Zeffirelli and the English director of Billy Liar and Midnight Cowboy, John Schlesinger, Pasolini was gay and some (though not all his films ) have a gay  theme or subtext.

He was murdered by a rent-boy in Rome, though there have always been suggestions that it was a political assassination since Pasolini was an active Communist at a time when the party was a powerful  force in Italy.

The films to see? My favourites are Arabian Nights, Accatone, Mama Roma,and- bizarrely- The Gospel According St Matthew, which portrays Christ as a working-class hero. All beautiful and all controversial, often using amateur actors. Then there's  Salo, his final masterpiece, which was banned. I had to join a cinema club to see it and even then it was cut mainly due to scenes of torture that remain disturbing.

Are other people- presumably of my generation- fascinated by Pasolini, both as man and director? In general, the European films of the 60s and 70s remain more interesting to me than Hollywood productions of the same period.