a single man

simple, clean, elegant. tom ford, formerly the creative mind behind gucci, brings "a single man" to the screen. ford wrote the screenplay based on the novel by christopher isherwood, who's becoming my favorite new obsession. born in england in 1804, friend of auden, woolf , a collaborator with swami prabhavananda on a version of the bhagavad-gita, writer of the screenplay "rage in heaven" starring ingrid bergman, george sanders and robert montgomery and whose short stories about his life in berlin became the musical "cabaret", isherwood was a buddhist leaning gay activist who considered himself to be "a serious comic writer." so "a single man" has many of my favorite things: beautiful clothes, homes and gay men, set in 1961. throw in colin firth (woo-hoo mr. darcy as a gay man!) along with tom ford, the most gorgeous man to pick up a sewing needle, and you have a movie that oprah called "delicious".

"a single man" in the cinematic verson of a buddhist koan, only once death is accepted can one truly live. but don't worry, it's not preachy, it's subtle. the whole story is subtle despite the main character, colin firth living for 16 years in a committed relationship with another man in suburban pasadena literally in a glass house. what's wild to me is that these 2 men live together in 1961 in southern california, while in wyoming 2 cowboys have to fake fishing trips in order to spend stolen moments together for fear of being caught and dragged by their appendages until dead in a ditch or beaten to death with a tire iron (see brokeback mountain).

colin firth gives his best performance to date, probably of his career. any other year, firth would be winning all the awards instead of just being nominated, but jeff bridges is the sentimental pick this season. julianne moore is great as firth's life long friend. i hope that ford finds other storys about which he's just as passionate to bring to the screen. i have heard he's starting his own clothing line which will no doubt be great, but we need him in the medium of film where less is definitely more.