A Bit of Scarlet

Featuring five different Sherlock Holmeses, two Oscar Wildes and over 60 different films, Weiss’ very funny and ingeniously cross-edited documentary brings together queer and homophobic moments from six decades of British cinema. While her film is in effect a British companion piece to “The Celluloid Closet” which documented the sorry images of lesbians and gay men offered by a century of Hollywood cinema, Weiss takes a significantly different approach. Weiss’ clip-parade is organised thematically. She intercuts at lightning speed between films of different periods to construct a sense that certain stock scenarios and discourses have recurred across genres and decades. (Sight and Sound)