The most important theme of Rappaport’s latest film is the discrepancy between the public figure Rock Hudson – the star, the Don Juan with his Hollywood airs – and his homosexuality and private life. An actor plays Rock and provides a commentary on a series of sequences from Rock Hudson films, from the hyper-romantic and sugary films with Doris Day and Tony Randall to the more serious roles such as those in films by Douglas Sirk. Rappaport makes the best possible use of video techniques by slowing passages, freezing them and investigating them again, in doing so magnifying gestures and expressions to mythical proportions. He constructs the personality of a public figure who, liberated by death, looks back on his career with a repentant sense of humour. For instance, he has Rock say of his role in Pillow Talk: ‘It’s okay to be gay as long as you’re a straight pretending to be gay. But what if you’re a gay actor passing for straight playing the role of a straight pretending to be gay? Whew!’The film has been well received in the United States is. Armond White of Film Comment wrote: ‘By travestying Hudson’s trashy movies, Rappaport asserts non-insulting fantasy and personal, artistic integrity. And a better cinema.’
