Dublin Film Qlub continue their 2017 season with a post-Paddy’s Day phial of ‘Poison‘

Next to be screened in Dublin Film Qlub’s 2017 season is Poison (Todd Haynes, 1991) on Saturday March 18 at 2:30pm.

The film is a partial adaptation of Jean Genet’s 1946 novel Miracle of the Rose, which is purported to be an “autobiographical book”, Dublin Film Qlub explained in a statement.

“Poison is inspired by gay maudit Jean Genet (who also made a brief appearance in ‘Violette’ in this season of the Film Qlub), and it borrows one scene from ‘The Miracle of the Rose’, a purportedly autobiographical book set in the Fontevraut prison (there’s no evidence that Genet was ever there) in France during WWII, which reviews the joint beginnings of Genet’s career as a burglar, and as a homosexual,” Dublin Film Qlub explained.

“Genet’s work smashed the demand on gay men and women to adopt the highest standards of civility in order to compensate for their depravity. Here was a criminal, who considered his profession as a thief a sacred calling. Here was a homosexual, who though of himself as a lucky man.”

Genet also made a short film which celebrated anonymous gay male sex in 1950, A Song of Love.

Poison

Dublin Film Qlub highlight the film’s “idiosyncratic” nature, which is organised into three parts, one of which includes a sexual encounter in a male prison.

“The film ‘Poison’ is an idiosyncratic and compressed history of homosexual representation, organised in three-parts: ‘’Hero’’, about a seven year old who shots his father for no apparent reason, ‘’Horror’’, about a heterosexual mad scientist who is transformed by an experiment into a psycho-killer leper, and ‘’Homo’’, about an ambiguously presented sexual encounter in a generic all-male prison.

“Despite its haphazard look and feel, ‘Poison’ takes very seriously the various ways in which homosexuality has reached the media, considering in turn how gay people have been crucified by tabloids, poked at by B-movie horror films, and fleshed out by porn.

“Poison embraces them all. Fantasy, satire, horror, erotica, thriller, comedy, science fiction, drama, romance. There is room for everything in ‘Poison’, because even in the little choking space left between the walls of homophobia, there is always enough room to soar.

Check out the trailer below:

When & Where?

Do you want to taste this sweet Poison on Saturday March 18? Then swing by The New Theatre in Temple Bar, Dublin 2 from 2pm (movie starts at 2:30pm).

Membership to Dublin Film Qlub costs €8 for the day, and there will be free tea, coffee and biscuits for your enjoyment.