Queerguru are VERY BIG fans of Altered Innocence queer film distributors who are dedicated to releasing LGBTQ & Coming-of-Age films with an artistic edge. Their latest home video release is Uranian Dreams: Two Homosexual Films by Eloy de la Iglesia, a pioneering gay and socialist Spanish filmmaker. Adeptly combining genre and social critique, Eloy de la Iglesia draws fascinating parallels between the political and sexual underground of his time. Releasing on Blu-ray and DVD on August 29th, Uranian Dreams is now available for pre-order at VinegarSyndrome.com.
Older male lust for tender young flesh lovingly pervades these two early films by the Spanish director Eloy de la Iglesia who specialized in many genres of films including the legendary Quinqui films, but is least credited with directing the first two openly homosexual films in Spain: Hidden Pleasures & Confessions of a Congressman.
A highly controversial film upon its release in Spain as the first feature narrative with homosexuality openly discussed, Hidden Pleasures follows Eduardo, a wealthy banker who has a pastime for hiring young street hustlers to keep his bed warm, yet ignores requests from a friend to join the social gay movements. One day while cruising around town he spots Miguel, an extremely handsome teen who has a penchant for women and motorcycles. Eduardo offers Miguel a job and eventually gets closer and closer with him. Eduardo’s building lust and the jealousy of others in their lives create havoc for all.
Fighting for liberty, love, and your secret teenage lover are the themes of Confessions of a Congressman and our protagonist Roberto Orbea is a leader and follower of the ideals of his radical leftist opposition party, but he’s hiding a secret from the party, and his wife Carmen: he can’t resist the cheap beautiful street teenagers that bad-boy Nes throws his way for various pleasures. Eventually, the fascists find out about his proclivities and hire the blonde and angelic-looking Juanito to infiltrate Roberto’s life. But after a while Juanito starts to find his place with Roberto, with politics, and even with Carmen. With the elections fast approaching all three members of this strange throuple will have to decide how much they’re willing to lose to avoid revealing the truth.
These films have been unavailable to view in the United States for nearly four decades. Confessions of a Congressman was last released theatrically in LA in 1984 and in NYC in 1985 at the Waverly. Hidden Pleasures was last released theatrically in the United States in 1986. Connected through various themes, these films are among Spain’s first openly gay films from a period of history known as la Transición, as Spain shifted from Francoist dictatorship to democracy. The home video release will include new video essays providing additional context on the queer themes of the films.
Uranian Dreams: Two Homosexual Films by Eloy de la Iglesia coming to Blu-ray and DVD on August 29th Now available for pre-order at VinegarSyndrome.com
Labels: 1970's, 2023, Altered Innocence, classic, Eloy de la Iglesia, Spanish, Uranian Dreams
