Pleasantly Surprised : The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - Lauren Collorone

 Let me start off first by saying The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was not at all what I was expecting. Whenever I watch a new movie or hear of a new movie I never look up anything about it because I like to be surprised. When first hearing this movie title I immediately thought it was going to be about some goddess like cleopatra dancing around in the desert and I’m glad I was wrong. I thought all in all this movie was very entertaining and I was utterly shocked when I realized that Bernadette (Terence Stamp) was the same person who played the creepy butler Ramsley in the movie The Haunted Mansion. The range Terence Stamp has as an actor is astonishing. It was also very shocking to find out all three of these actors are straight in real life because their performances were so convincing . Terrance’s performance reminded me of another fellow staright actor named Cillian Murphy. I’m not sure if I've mentioned this before in a previous blog post but the movie Breakfast On Pluto is extremely similar to this movie in the sense that it follows the timeline of a queer transgender person becoming and accepting themselves. In The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert all the characters had to deal with homophobic people. The same goes for Breakfast On Pluto. I won’t give the movie away but main character Patrick (kitten) has to deal with homophobic people at his shows while dealing with the burden of trying to find his mother. If you liked this movie I highly reccomend Breakfast On Pluto. It will definitely break your heart. Parts of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert broke my heart too. Towards the end of the movie in the scene where Adam gets a drink slapped out of his hand and is chased and almost beat up was really heartbreaking. It’s just sad to think of someone getting treated awfully just because they are different and not socially acceptable by other people’s standards. Overall I enjoyed this movie. I have a rule when it comes to movies and it is if you didn't learn something or see something from a different point of view then it wasn't a good movie.  I always like to learn something from the movies I watch and in this movie I learned three things. Friendship comes in all shapes and forms, Love comes in all shapes and forms and lastly do what you want to do and enjoy doing it because life is short.      




             Breakfast On Pluto                           The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert




                                   

Ramsley: The Haunted Mansion      Bernadette: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Comments

  1. Jon VitkaApril 1, 2021 at 8:12 AM

    I kind of do the very same as you do in the terms of not looking up a lot of info about a movie I'm about to watch but, I would read the readings we have before the movie just to give me a slit idea of what to expect maybe. I have to agree on how this movie was very fascinating and completely different to a normal movie. I also have to agree on how sad it was to see him get treated that way in the movie because it scared people at that time who were queer, knowing that this was actually their reality. This is what the world was like back then for them, some very little accepting people and a lot of haters.

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  2. Breanna BumpApril 2, 2021 at 9:43 AM

    Lauren,

    I loved your blog post! I had no idea that the same man played both Bernadette and Ramsley from Haunted Mansion! That's so cool and I never noticed it when watching the movie! I also found it interesting that all three of these actors were straight because they really did a great job in these roles. They were convincing from not only their appearance, but also their mannerisms and emotions. I think they did a wonderful job of showing what it was like to be part of the LGBTQ+ community and the hardships that come with that. I also love your rule for watching movies! I think that's definitely a good rule to have in mind when watching a new movie because even if we do not entirely like a movie, we can still sometimes gain something from it.

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  3. Emily SheedyApril 3, 2021 at 10:39 AM

    Lauren,
    This was a really good blog post. I really enjoyed your comparison of Breakfast on Pluto and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I've never seen Breakfast on Pluto but if it's anything like this movie I'm sure its great! I'll have to check it out I'm very interested in the stories behind figuring out a persons gender identity. I definitely agree that if a movie hasn't taught you something then it's not a good one. Priscilla was a great movie because it really showed true and authentic experiences as a queer person. The uncertainty of if people will like you or not just for who you are is something that every queer person will resonate with. It's a very important story to tell I think.

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  4. Shawn AdilettaApril 4, 2021 at 12:07 PM

    "Friendship comes in all shapes and forms, Love comes in all shapes and forms and do what you want to do and enjoy doing it because life is short."
    If I could get that on a quilt I would in a heartbeat. This was such a fun post to read. I'm definitely going to watch 'Breakfast On Pluto' now thank ya very much for the recommendation. I completely agree with you about the substance of movie; "someone getting treated awfully just because they are different and not socially acceptable by other people’s standards" is a big part of this movie and those words are the perfect sum of that idea. Thanks for the fun blog post :)

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  5. Lauren ColloroneApril 5, 2021 at 11:29 AM

    follow up: After reading my fellow classmates posts and comments on my own post it seems mostly everyone had the same consensus view of this film which is this film was just straight up fun to watch. People seemed to like all the comedy , glitz and glamour like I did. However one thing people didn't like and what I saw were bunch of comments on the topic of the actors being straight in real life while playing queer characters. After reading some posts I thought to myself why didn't they cast queer people to play these characters wouldn't that make sense? Perhaps there auditions were just really really good who knows! It definitely would of been nice to see queer characters play queer characters I think it would have escalated this movie and made it a bit more better but overall the actors did a great job.

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