A Very Natural Thing- 1974
An important film in the history of American gay filmmaking, "A Very Natural Thing" is considered the first feature film on the gay experience made by an out gay man to receive commercial distribution. Many scenes were filmed in the Pines.
Written, produced and directed by Christopher Larkin and starring Robert Joel, Curt Gareth, Bo White, Anthony McKay, and Marilyn Meyers.
Somewhat modeled after the film “Love Story” it is the story of a 26-year-old man, Jason, as he leaves the priesthood and moves to New York City in the hopes of finding a meaningful gay relationship. One of the first films about gay relationships intended for mainstream, commercial distribution, its original title was For as Long as Possible. It was released to lukewarm reviews in 1973 and given an R rating by the Motion Picture Association Of America.
The film begins as a mini-documentary of New York City's 1973 Gay Pride parade and rally, with a young lesbian unabashedly declaring, "being gay is a very natural thing." The action cuts to the protagonist, David (Robery Joell), going through the ritual of being released from his vocation as a monk in a monastery.
A Very Natural Thing was seen as the gay response to Love Story (1970), the film famous for the phrase, "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Similarly, Mark tells David, "Love means never having to say you're in love," and a montage of the two men rolling down a leaf-covered hill, quietly lying together at home, and being in love mimics a montage of the heterosexual couple in Love Story.
Some gay film critics felt that film was not political enough: that the characters were too apolitical, too middle class and that, by rejecting the philosophy of free love or sexual liberation, the film was rejecting what some gay activists felt was a necessary value of the new gay liberation movement. Larkin responded to the criticism by saying, "I wanted to say that same-sex relationships are no more problematic but no easier than any other human relationships. They are in many ways the same and in several ways different from heterosexual relationships but in themselves are no less possible or worthwhile.” Incidentally, Vito Russo, who wrote The Celluloid Closet appears in A Very Natural Thing. The film was not financially successful, and the director, Christopher Larkin, moved to California, where in 1981 he published the book The Divine Androgyne According to Purusha. Larkin committed suicide on June 21, 1988.
1999
It celebrated its 25th anniversary with a DVD release in 1999.
