I've just watched this:
Maybe it's narcissistic of me, but I thought it was excellent. John Hurt was just about perfect.
I think it will always be a matter of regret to me that I never met the other Quentin while he was still alive. I feel like it was intended, somehow, but it didn't happen.
John Hurt really is one of the great joys of the UK acting fraternity
Quentin – The other Quentin has been an interest of mine – a beacon to living your own life in your own chosen way – and very droll humour. I wish I had met him in New York when he was in more comfortable surroundings – until his unfortunate remark about HIV. Happy New Year and I hope you have a good year in 2010. Rob
I know that QC once said something like John Hurt did a better job of playing Quentin Crisp than he did himself, that he had been trying to play that role all his life without success. Presumably, from that point of view, he would have approved of something that was of the surface. He’s an interesting character, though. There’s a great obituary of him here:http://www.salon.com/people/obit/1999/12/03/crisp/I like this bit:But if Crisp was old-fashioned, he was no self-hater. There was as much Sun Ra as Sartre in his resident alien formulation; he clearly enjoyed being a mischievous interloper from another planet, and his vision of homosexuality was ultimately affirmative and romantic.The mix of Sartre and Sun Ra seems spot on to me. He can give the impression of being frivolous, but there are always glimpses of something else behind this (I find). An interesting interview with him here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFPqDUQKmt8I know very well he is considered a bit passe and worse within the Gay community, but, from this distance in time and space, I do have the impression of him as someone with a great deal of poise and integrity, which are not shallow qualities.But I understand what you mean that the film did not show much of the real person. I think it showed a little, though, mainly through John Hurt’s performance.
John Hurt really is one of the great joys of the UK acting fraternity.I’d have to agree with this. I’m not much of a one for picking favourites, but, on reflection, anyone who can play the roles of John Merrick and Quentin Crisp so well and so memorably has to be one of my favourites.Quentin – The other Quentin has been an interest of mine – a beacon to living your own life in your own chosen way – and very droll humour. I wish I had met him in New York when he was in more comfortable surroundings – until his unfortunate remark about HIV. Happy New Year and I hope you have a good year in 2010. RobThank you. Happy New Year. Having grown up (lived all my life) with Quentin’s name, I suppose I could have sickened of the association, but I haven’t. I find it in some mysterious way appropriate. His writing style is not bad, either.
I enjoyed the programme, but not a patch on the Naked Civil Servant. It was too much of a surface run through the later years. I’d have liked a little more about the person underneath the mask, if you know what I mean.