The Naked Civil Servant
by Jack Gold
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DVD details
Actor: John Hurt, Katherine Schofield, Liz Gebhardt, Patricia Hodge, Stanley LeborDirector: Jack Gold
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Mike Fash
Editor: Mike Taylor
Producer: Barry Hanson
Producer: Verity Lambert
Writer: Philip Mackie
Writer: Quentin Crisp
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 77 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Warner
DVD Reviews of The Naked Civil Servant
DVD Review: fine, intriguing biopic--with excellent acting, too
Summary: 5 Stars
The Naked Civil Servant is a fascinating biopic by the BBC about the life and times of Quentin Crisp, although because it was filmed in 1975 it does not cover his life in the United States after he moved here from Great Britain. However, the movie is still quite good and very engaging; I was not bored in the least. The acting is impeccable: John Hurt turns out a superlative performance as Quentin Crisp; and the rest of the casting was very well done. We truly get the sense of what Quentin Crisp was about and what he experienced; and that's the hallmark of a fine biopic. The quality of the print could have been a bit better in spots but overall it's still quite good.
We see how Quentin's preference for romance with men quickly caused discord between him and his parents from an early age. Mr. and Mrs. Crisp (Lloyd Lamble and Joan Ryan) call in a doctor (Frank Forsyth) to see if Quentin can be "cured" but the doctor disappoints his two parents; Quentin's father was particularly nasty toward him. It's no wonder Quentin left home for good as soon as he was able to! In addition, we see Quentin's countless ups and downs as well as his coping strategies, most of which are the result of his insistence of dressing in a rather flamboyant way, dying his very long hair red and essentially simply being openly gay in a place and time when being gay was completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, Quentin gets beaten up quite a bit; but he also experiences some happiness at parties with friends who accept him for the human being that he is and that's a plus.
We also see some of Quentin's interpersonal relationships with other men. There's the fellow who goes by the nickname "Thumbnails" (Colin Higgins); "Thumbnails" is Quentin's roommate early on after Quentin leaves his childhood home. Some of the men Quentin meets are for brief encounters; one man whom Quentin refers to as "Barndoor" (John Rhys-Davies) stays in his life for almost three years.
Quentin eventually enters modeling; and this is the point at which he begins to refer to himself as a "Naked Civil Servant." No, John Hurt who plays Quentin is not literally naked in these scenes; but John Hurt's costume is scant to say the least.
The DVD comes with a few nice extras: we get a featurette with Quentin Crisp himself; an optional audio commentary and scene selection. There are optional English subtitles for those of us who need them.
I could tell you more of Quentin's life and experiences that you'll see on this DVD; but I don't want to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say that this is a very well done biopic; and the opening brief introduction by Quentin Crisp himself is done in good taste. I highly recommend this film for anyone who is interested in the life and times of Quentin Crisp; and people who are interested in gay life in England when being gay was still considered a mental illness would do well to get this film.
DVD Review: A Must For Suferees Everywhere
Summary: 4 Stars
This film is every bit as evocative as I remember watching as a child in the UK. The amazing story, not only of how someone could be so famous for nothing, but of the struggle to be accepted. This is a terrific movie for gays and straights everywhere. I don't believe that Quentin Crisp made homosexuality acceptable, but I think it would have took a little longer without him. Lastly, if you need any more proof of the brilliance of the man, Sting and Gina X, to name but two, wrote songs about this movie!DVD Review: Quentin Crisp (and John Hurt): A fine combination of wit, honesty, humanity and mascara
Summary: 4 Stars
"Do you think a homosexual elephant has a terrible time of it?" Most of us undoubtedly have asked that question at one time or another, but I doubt if any except Quentin Crisp have asked it with such innocent interest. Crisp was, in his own words, an unregenerate degenerate. He was an English homosexual who saw no reason why he shouldn't be who he was. He was effeminate. He dressed flamboyantly, favoring broad-brimmed fedoras and flowing scarves. He wore make-up and hennaed his carefully coifed hair. He was witty but not malicious. He was willing to take people as they were, and saw no reason why he shouldn't expect the same for himself. Says Sting, who wrote a song about Crisp, "Quentin is a hero of mine, someone I know very well. He is gay, and he was gay at a time in history when it was dangerous to be so. He had people beating up on him on a daily basis, largely with the consent of the public. Yet, he continued to be himself."
The Naked Civil Servant, with a wonderfully nuanced performance by John Hurt as Crisp, takes us through Crisp's life until he was in his mid-seventies. Crisp died in 1999 when he was 90. Crisp apparently knew his own skin even as a child. As a young man, he tells us with innocent frankness, "I had already discovered for myself one fact of life, the only fact of life I've ever fully understood. I have a message for those who, like me, inhabit a world of make believe...sexual intercourse is a poor substitute for masturbation." That has to be one of the great autobiographical lines in English literature.
Crisp is important because he simply would not become what he wasn't. He also seemed to be a remarkably sympathetic person, amusing and perceptive without the burden of seeming to be wise. "Does he love you," a female friend asks about an awkward lover. "You are a woman," Crisp says. "You speak a language I do not understand. If love exists, which is something I wouldn't know, then love is never closing my hand even to the unlovable." He's not only realistic ("The sex was alright in a domestic sort of way, but never share a narrow bed with a wide, single man."), but also practical ("I have discovered a great labor-saving secret. After the first four years, the dust doesn't get any worse.").
For a year he was a prostitute. For years he made a small living as a paid model in art classes. "Being a model requires no education, no references and no previous experience. You have only to say `I do' and you're stuck with it for life...like marriage. I became a naked civil servant." He came to admire America and, at 71, moved permanently to a small bed-sitter in the lower East side. "The great difference between the Americans and the English is that Americans want you to succeed because they feel you may drag them forward with you, while the British want you to fail because they fear you may leave them behind."
Fame comes when he writes his autobiography, "The Naked Civil Servant." The book is turned into a British television movie starring John Hurt, which achieves great acclaim. Crisp finds an admiring audience for his wit and for the honesty of his life. When he is accosted by some nasty children because of how he looks, he stares at them and says, "I defy you to do your worst. It can hardly be my worst. Mine has already and often happened to me. You cannot touch me now. I am one of the stately homos of England!"
Still, when he enthusiastically agrees to have a movie made about him, he says, "Any film, even the worst, is better than real life." He says it with a smile, but it's an unsettling judgment.
I finished the movie with a great deal of admiration for Quentin Crisp. And if anyone doubts that John Hurt is a superb actor, watch Hurt's performance. The DVD looks just fine. The extras include a commentary track with Hurt, the director Jack Gold and the associate producer Valerie Lambert.
DVD Review: The Sublime John Hurt...
Summary: 5 Stars
.
This made-for-television BBC film from the mid-'70s is worth viewing for John Hurt's acting skill alone.
I saw this on PBS' Masterpiece Theater over thirty years ago and was mesmerized.
Hurt was hot off the set of I, Claudius where his portrayal of Caius ("Caligula") is a wonder of the art of acting wherein he combined hubris, langour, madness, and humour--what a confection!
I, Claudius/The Epic That Never Was
Hurt is of course a working actor, and unfortunately he has not always been given the excellent r?les he richly deserves. But, for example, his realization of Montrose in Rob Roy is the purest gold worth any amount of dross.
Rob Roy
Cheers to John Hurt who was born to play Quentin Crisp--"one of the great queans of England!"
.
See too:
Wilde (Special Edition) (Oscar Wilde)
Carrington (Lytton Strachey)
.
DVD Review: Revisiting Quentin Crisp
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Naked Civil Servant"
Revisiting Quentin Crisp
Amos Lassen
Last night I figured it was time to drop in on Quentin Crisp again as I hadn't seen "The Naked Civil Servant" in about 12 years. The film was first broadcast on Public Television in about 1975 and caused quite a sensation. Quentin Crisp was a British gay man who came out in the 1920's and he, himself, introduces the film about his life but with John Hurt playing him. The film follows his life as he found his place in the gay community of the time as well as his quest for fame and fortune. There is no sugarcoating; we see Crisp as he was--flamboyant and arrogant. The movie is as powerful now as it was when it was first shown. We see a man's determination to stand up for his right to be himself and this is what the film is about--an individual who would not give into the standards of society. He was ostracized by many but he did not stop being himself.
John Hurt gives an amazing performance and took the role to heart, Crisp, like Oscar Wilde, was the brunt of many jokes and nasty gossip, all because he wanted to be himself. Hurt gives us the spirit of the man who did not grovel to the conventions of society. In this way, Crisp gave the world a free spirited soul. Hurt's Crisp is a bon vivant and a serious determined man, who beneath his camp trappings is certainly not frivolous. He uses his wit and his dress as weapons against society and the smugs and stabs of the mainstream British establishment and society. Hurt shows him as a crusader who is appealing because of his own moral force in the way he faces prejudice. He has a wonderful sense of humor and he never loses his belief in humanity and lives his life undaunted and surrounds himself with friends. His world is eccentric and he speaks with authority. He busted out of the closet long before it was the fashionable thing to do and he was, quite simply, the most remarkable man. The film too is quite remarkable.
Description of The Naked Civil Servant
The Naked Civil Servant created a furor in 1975 when it premiered on PBS in North America with viewers threatening to yank their support of their local stations. It was a film ahead of its time about a man even more ahead of his time. The Naked Civil Servant is based on the autobiography of Quentin Crisp, a man struggling to live an openly flamboyant, gay lifestyle during a time when homosexuality was against the law in Britain. His outlandish behavior shocked the intolerant pre-WWII British society and provoked frequent homophobic attacks, but Crisp staunchly refused to compromise his lifestyle and went on to become a cult celebrity and an international gay icon, a 20th-Century Oscar Wilde. This colorful, heartwarming coming of age tale is by turns funny and tragic.Between Oscar Wilde and Boy George, Quentin Crisp was the most important gay icon in England. The TV movie The Naked Civil Servant, adapted from Crisp's autobiography and broadcast in 1975, had a significant social impact in the cause of gay rights, and it's easy to see why. Packed with witty aphorism but also unflinching in its portrayal of the verbal and physical abuse Crisp received for being an openly effeminate homosexual; throughout most of Crisp's life, simply being flamboyant was a political statement, one not always appreciated by other gay men who sought to pass unsuspected. The film briskly moves from when he stumbled into London's gay demimonde to his bohemian social world and career as an artist's model to a particularly superb scene when he was put on trial for solicitation. The Naked Civil Servant also brought the brilliant John Hurt, who played Crisp with intelligence and humanity, to wide acclaim. Hurt has since appeared in movies as diverse as Alien, The Elephant Man, V for Vendetta, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but Crisp remains a signature role for this unique actor. The fortuitous combination of Crisp and Hurt makes The Naked Civil Servant essential viewing. Extras on the dvd include a short television piece in which Crisp interviewed Tina Brown when she was editor of Vanity Fair and a sweet, reminiscing commentary by Hurt, director Jack Gold, and producer Verity Lambert. --Bret Fetzer
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