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).
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