Compilation/Packaged Set: Looking for Langston
Barcode 712267271627
Release Date 2007
Purchase Date 2017
Store Amazon.com
Condition New

Primary Entry - Looking for Langston
Includes Short Film by Isaac Julien The Attendant

Looking For Langston
bfi / Strand Releasing (1989)
Biography, Documentary, Drama, Music, Queer Themes/Interest, Short
In Collection
#1118
9*
Seen It:  Yes
(8/28/2017 Home)
712267271827
IMDB   6.6
60 mins UK / English
DVD  Region 1
Ben Ellison Alex
Matthew Baidoo Beauty
Akim Mogaji James
John Wilson Karl
Dencil Williams Marcus
Guy Burgess Dean
James Dublin Carlos
Harry Donaldson Leatherboy
Jimmy Somerville Angel
Stuart Hall British voice
Langston Hughes Himself
Director
Isaac Julien
Producer Nadine Marsh-Edwards


A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gaymen during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Langston Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.
Edition Details
Original Title Pas de Deux with Roses
Distributor Strand Releasing
Release Date 2007
No. of Discs/Tapes 1
References
IMDb Voters <500

Notes
Looking for Langston is one of the finest films of this genre I have ever viewed near perfect artististally and cinematically· It is not a biography in the sense of "He was born…, his parents were…, he started writing when… his lovers were …, and he died of…" Looking for Langston is a sensitive meditation on Langston, seen through his poetry ond other writings, the music he cherished, and the men he loved· It is interesting that his sexuality is rarely noted in contemporary articles about Langston, even though it was obviouly central to his gestalt·

The 2007 Strand Releasing version of Looking For fangston is 60 minutes long; apparently the original 1989 version released by BFI was 44 minutes· I'll research further· The original DVD release apparently also included a 46 page booklet, which is not present in the Strand release· It was also a delight not to have had to rant about the closed-captions; font was easy to read and in yellow.