Senza Esorcismi: Cruising (1980) di William Friedkin tra contestazioni infuriate e attrazioni fatali

In the summer of 1979, established director William Friedkin was filming his next movie, Cruising, on the streets of the Greenwich Village in New York City. The gay community anticipated that the movie would be "the most oppressive, ugly, bigoted look at homosexuality" (A. Bell) ever filmed, and several activists organized a massive opposition to the shooting, first, and to the opening in theaters nationwide, the following year. This essay attempts to capture the complexity of this cultural moment through an investigation of the film’s reception in local and national press. It also questions the late appeal of the film and its appropriation by present-day audiences in terms of both its stylistic and thematic features. Bavaro argues that both the film’s ostensible formal incoherence and lack of closure, and its brave treatment of gay sexual practices, may have an unexpected resonance within contemporary queer culture.