John Greyson | Un©ut / 1997

 the crime of three peters

by Douglas Messerli

 

John Greyson (screenwriter and director) Un©ut / 1997

 

Canadian director John Greyson may be one of the most original and talented of late 20th century LGBTQ filmmakers. His Zero Patience (1993) and Lillies (1997) are both near the top of my lists of favorite LGBTQ works, and I’ve still to see several of his films which are often difficult to obtain in the US, an odd fact since, as this film argues against, rights and permissions (outrageously expensive) to simply watch his films seem to be major problem in getting access to viewing his works.

      One of the major arguments of Greyson’s film is about the dangers of the strict copyright laws, which through the refusal of the Kurt Weill estate to allow parody versions of Weill’s sons from Threepenny Opera—a work itself that Brecht and Weill stole from the 18th century British writer John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, which itself was based on popular ballads of the day—meant that one of his most important works, The Making of Monsters (1991) has seldom been viewed since its first release. Although that film premiered at the 1991 Toronto Film Festival and made the rounds of several LGBTQ festivals following its initial run, the film has remained unavailable in the years since due to copyright issues, as Warner-Chappell, the holder of the rights to Weill's songs, obtained a court injunction against the use of a "Mack the Knife" parody with different lyrics in the film, even though parodies are fully legal under fair use provisions. Warner-Chappell had originally approved the film’s appropriation of the song, but changed their mind after learning that the film contained gay content; even after Weill's songs passed into the public domain in 2001, Warner-Chappell continued to use legal threats to block public screenings of the film, preventing it from being included in the 2012 Greyson retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

     But the issue of copyright and the increasing interest in appropriation and “sampling” plays a much larger role in this film. As critic Gary Morris writing in Bright Lights Journal explains:

 

“Interwoven with…[various] narrative threads are striking interpolations of documentary footage of [Canadian Prime Minister Pierre] Trudeau declaring a state of martial law, artists and writers describing their problems with copyright infringement and sampling, censorship laws, and historical info about circumcision and censorship. Greyson finds rich parallels in real life to the film’s fictional high jinks. Peter Denham’s lust for the Jackson Five is augmented with an interview with John Oswald, who altered Michael Jackson’s video Bad to graft the head of the “King of Pop” onto a Nude Miss America body. Oswald’s sleight-of-hand apparently amused Jackson but the lawyers put an end to it. The film’s fake Trudeau — a comatose old man on a hospital bed — is contrasted with footage of actress Linda Griffiths doing a fabulous gender-bender interpretation of him, a performance that also skirted libel. Artist A. A. Bronson, a vehement enemy of copyright, talks eloquently about his appropriation of Gary Indiana’s famous LOVE logo and changing it to AIDS.”

 

     Morris also speaks about one of the most important incidents of the work regarding the fear of being sued for use of “protected” material—which like many of the kinds of threats of copyright infringement, borders or might be interpreted as outright censorship— recounted by film critic and scholar Thomas Waugh, who has written on several LGBTQ Canadian filmmakers. He shares the story of his historical photographic history of early gay erotic images, something that is still lacking in LGBTQ history. Terrified lawyers troubled over the fact that the people behind the images he

had gathered or even their families might sue if the images were produced as they appeared in the original pictures, demanded that he substitute all faces of the individuals in sexual situations and positions, a computer whiz replacing the faces with images of his own friends and acquaintances. As Morris reiterates:  In one picture from the 1950s, the replacement of a happy young hunk with what looked like ‘a 50-year-old Tory’ made a playful nude tug-of-war into a “political allegory.” In another picture, the computer artist substituted his androgynous girlfriend’s face for the original. So much for historical truth.” Indeed, it destroyed the entire notion of historicity which Waugh was attempting to reveal. These images were not even in copyright, but were still seen as being the property of mostly the dead, even if surely these dead might have wished their gay activities could have been openly expressed during their own day.   

     The copyright insignia, if fact, becomes part of the title of Greyson’s film, the word “uncut” referring presumably to the “original,” the “uncut” version of things before sampling and parody rendered it as something other. It is even more ironic that when Waugh attempted to use the full originals, he was forced like all the others to “cut” and paste, making the work something other than he intended it to be. In a sense those who had sampled, cut and pasted, were no better off regarding possible lawsuits and censorship than the author who was forced to do the same.

     But even more important in this work, that word “uncut” is the central subject of research by one the film’s three Peters, Peter Cort (Matthew Ferguson), writing a work, “The Psychosexual Meanings of Circumcision and the Foreskin,” as his thesis. Having written it all in longhand—1997, the date of this film being at the very cusp of the radical shift from handwritten and typewritten manuscripts to a totally computerized world—Cort takes the manuscript to a typing service inexplicably located on the roof of an Ottawa highrise building, handing it over to the second Peter, Peter Koosens (Michael Achtman), a speed typist who makes most stenographers appear as if they are on a slow boat to China.

      Cort’s handwriting is so illegible however, that he is forced to read out the manuscript to Koosens for the next several days, while a relationship arises between the two gay men and at the same time we learn of the history of the religious and barbaric practice of male and female circumcision, which clearly is another of the filmmaker’s pet peeves which simultaneously reveals the ineptitude and disruptiveness in personal life by yet another of the movie’s various authoritarian forces, this one representing the medical profession. Here too the individual’s life, in this case his or her sexual life is taken over by others and, just as with the lawyers and copyright holders, forces “cuts” upon the already whittled down personal freedoms available. If the copyright law and its lawyers prohibit free expression through the delimiting of cultural sharing and censoring sexual content, so do doctors, rabbis, and tribal chieftains interfere before a child can even know what’s happening with sexual aesthetics and pleasure, while making outrageous claims that circumcision prevents diseases, sexual disfunction, and even homosexuality—none of which have been proven, and some of which are homophobic and, particularly case of women, misogynistic, since female mutilation of the vagina is purposely intended to remove sexual pleasure, which some claim is also true of male circumcision. There also have been numerous incidents, moreover, of inattentive rabbis and doctors removing more that the skin at the tip of penis, sometimes accidently cutting away the penis itself. In one instance quoted, the child who lost his penis was raised as a female.

      As with many theses’ topics, the subject is of personal interest. When Peter Cort had been circumcised as a baby an inexperienced internist cut off a bit too much skin, so that his erect penis now leans slightly to the right. And consequently, he has now developed a phobia for circumcised males, being attracted to only those with uncircumcised cocks, which has great significance with his interactions with both the other Peters. He has supposed Koosens to be circumcised for religious reasons, but this Peter admits that since his mother was Catholic he remains intact.*

      The two become friends, sharing lunch—although Cort spends the entire time continuing to expound on his thesis subject.

      At the bar one evening, Peter Klossens meets up with a third Peter, Peter Denham (Damon D’Oliveira) introducing the new Peter to his own private code, another issue that appropriately appears in a work about LGBTQ, particularly gay individuals, since visual and linguistic coding are extremely important for men who cannot always speak their minds freely in public, and as I have made quite evident in these pages, was one of the major ways that filmmakers were able through the 1940s-1960s to introduce gay characters and themes. The two Peter’s find that using the typewriter keyboard as their crib, they can communicate by taping out messages with their fingers if they carefully watch the position of the fingers as they tap.

      The two quickly become attracted to one another, and soon head off to Koosens apartment for sex.

     There we perceive that Koosens has his own obsession, Prince Minister Pierre Trudeau who, by using cut out pictures has created collaged paintings of the man, one portraying himself and the famed “playboy” together, suggests an intimate relationship with his would-be lover. His love for Trudeau is centered, in part, because of the popular rumors—another way that gay males have of sampling and coding—that having divorced, and despite his having three sons, the eldest of them Justin (currently the Prime Minister of Canada), that Pierre was secretly a closeted gay. At the time of this film, both US and Canadian gay communities were outing a great many celebrities, in part to help make it clear just how gay men existed in all levels of social and cultural life as a partial remedy of the rising hatred gays experienced, in part, because of the community being targeted with the pandemic AIDS.

      Peter Koosens has evidently written dozens of letters to the Prime Minister, in one even offering a massage, in the hopes apparently of finding an opportunity to meet him and engage in some sort of relationship. Although Trudeau appears to never have received these letters, the Canadian police, represented by a female Canadian Police Officer (Maria Reidstra) has read them all and is keeping a close watch on Peter K’s activities. She’s already visited him at his place of employment, and will soon stop by again on his daily walk, often near the Prime Minister’s home, to query him about his letter concerning a massage, which she feels borders on sexual blackmail. She too has taken the personal and made it public, also without permission, bringing the private in the public.

      After sex with Peter D, Koosens awakes to find his lover gone and all of his framed pictures—yet another example of sampling and using images of an individual for the purposes of art—missing from the walls, stolen. He can only presume that while he slept, the police took them to further sustain their imaginary version of his intentions to destroy Trudeau.

      The next evening, Denham meets Cort at the same bar, introducing him to his own secret code, his use of glass beer bottles to create a musical scale which, if properly read by the sounds produces, when connected with their letters, can also communicate words and partial sentences. The code quite intrigues Cort, and the two of them enjoy their musical entertainments, but after a bathroom meetup, where Cort notices that Denham seems to be circumcised, he hurries off, suddenly remembering he has to be up early the next morning.

      When Denham shows up at Koosens office while Cort is reading out his manuscript, the three finally become a trio, Koosens shocked by the fact that Denham carries with him a box of all his missing artworks. He explains that he left a note, which he later discovers has slipped under Koosens’ refrigerator, having come up with a splendid surprise for him. But Koosens remains unsure of whether or not he can trust him.

    That evening Denham once more encounters Cort at the bar, and now realizing that he has avoided him because he was circumcised explains that when he pisses, he always pulls the skin fully back. The two become interested in one another, and Cort follows Denham home to engage in sex.

Denham’s fetishes are even stranger than, it appears, Koosens’ love of Trudeau and Cort’s attraction to uncut cocks. Boxes of Kleenex appear affixed to his walls at various spots and a TV that broadcasts the actions of those within his apartment intrigues Cort as they kiss while watching themselves simultaneously broadcast. We might say that Denham takes the most private aspects of being, the sexual act, and places it in a public forum. They seem to be enjoying one another until Cort pulls down Denham’s pants to discover that in fact he has lied, that he is circumcised. Cort quickly remembers he has another appointment, Denham desperately calling for him to return.

      The next evening as the first two Peters attempt to finish up the typescript of Cort’s thesis, they receive a call from Denham. He asks them to meet him at the bar for a surprise, but because of all the noise they cannot hear him, he finally needs to play out yet another code on the phone board where the sounds of the different numbers signify the time he wants them to arrive.

      When they do so, they suddenly discover that he is broadcasting live and nationally his new art work, itself like John Oswald’s Bad sampling, a combination of newspaper images of Trudeau along with the images of Koosens’ collages and Cort’s television sex making it appear as if Trudeau were somehow involved with all three of the men. At the very moment, presumed to have been caused by Denham’s broadcast, Trudeau falls ill and lies near death. The three are immediately arrested for having created a furor, disseminating false information, and for helping to cause the Prime Minister’s imminent death.

      In a typical Greyson trope, the trial is held as a mock opera—this director uses music, both classical and popular genres in almost all his works, introducing opera and musical theater into many of his films—in which the Police Officer suddenly begins to sing, along with an opera diva / judge, “La Habanera” from Georges Bizet’s Carmen, in what becomes a sort of feminist denunciation of all men and a listing of the sins of the so-called criminals from A to Z. Despite Denham’s attempts to explain that it was all his doing and that other two are innocent, the three are tried together in front of a journey of snails, and found guilty, Koosens and Denham sentenced to an open-air boot camp for 26 years, while Cort gets a 26-month punishment since he was not directly involved, presumably meaning that his body was used but not his own art.

      During the whole time while they are in prison, they are not allowed to speak to one another and forced to communicate only in the bathroom (the notorious meeting place of gay men) and by code, although the Officer has become aware of their taps, which she disallows as well. They are taught, meanwhile, how to “dust” books (all of them collected works of gay men) and analyze body excretions such as nasal fluids left behind by Denham—all with the intent of turning them into detectives when they are finally released.

      As the days pass, Trudeau’s condition, a symbol of his near loss of power in 1979, remains in the same semi-comatose condition so they discover from the illegal newspapers they sneak into camp. When Cort is about to be released, Koosens suddenly disappears from their night watch.

      In Cort’s thesis he mentions the miracle of Christ’s foreskin, saved by Mary, and eventually stolen by the conqueror Charlemagne, ending up in Kölm, among the Cathedrals claiming to have the holy relic. Many claimed that the very sight and smell of the relic had curative effects. St. Agnes claimed that when it appeared before in a vision she tasted it, describing the foreskin as being sweet and smelling of Chinese roses.

       Denham, now truly almost mad, performs his own bloody circumcision, afterwards pleading with Cort to feed it to the sick Trudeau in order to cure him. Cort, who has grown to love Kossens, finally agrees. Freed, Cort slips past the sleeping guard, enters Trudeau’s room, removes his oxygen mask, and slips the foreskin into his mouth.

       Almost immediately, the guard having awaken, enters and shoots Cort, hitting him predictably for this film, directly in the penis, presumably also killing the innocent.

       Trudeau suddenly rises and returns to complete normalcy much like the real Trudeau did after losing in 1979, reforming a government in 1980 which restored him to the position of Prime Minister.

       But just as in real life wherein Trudeau had been hailed as a hero for demanding that police no longer belonged in the bedroom and decriminalizing homosexual acts, after the kidnapping of Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte he also invoked The War Measure’s Act, allowing innocent men and women to be arrested and held without trial. The Trudeau so loved by Peter Koosens in this film results in his and Denham’s imprisonment and Cort’s death. The three Peters have not survived his government despite the shifts implemented by Trudeau’s early protections of homosexuals.

      The film may not be a pictorially beautiful as Zero Patience and Lillies. But in his crazy, purposely campy, and comic multi-layered fictional documentary essay Un©ut, Grayson has taken up a broad range of political, social, cultural, and sexual concerns, demonstrating how institutions work for and against the individual in many different ways. Who else directing LGBTQ films today might be as ambitious as this amazing director? 

 

*I have my own highly unpleasant experience with circumcision. In 1947, the year of my birth, not all children were uniformly circumcised; I was not. At age 13 or 14, after years of chronic coughs, it was determined that I should have tonsils removed which might help the intense coughing spells I went through twice a year. In those days hospitals still used ether, my local doctor who served as the anesthesiologist, gave me what appears as too much ether. I had ether dreams for weeks after, sinking gradually under and under, under even the world as I remember it feeling like in the operating room.

     But even worse, when I woke up, I felt a terrible pain not where my tonsils were, but in my groin, which I quickly discovered featured a penis covered in bandages. What my parents had been unable to tell me, let along consult me about, was that the doctor had also suggested that he take this opportunity to do a circumcision. I was outranged! How could they have not have even mentioned this to me, to explain what might happen? I understand that my poor parents found it difficult to say anything about sex, but I still can’t quite forgive them for not talking to a teenage boy about my own cock.

     Over the years, I too find myself more attracted to uncircumcised penises; however, I married a Jewish boy, so clearly it’s not been a major obsession.

 

Los Angeles, December 10, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (December 2022).