Resident Alien
1990 · Documentary · 85 min. · United States
At age 72, writer and melancholy master of the bon mot, Quentin Crisp (1908–1999), became an Englishman in New York. John Foster's camera follows Crisp about the streets of Manhattan, where Crisp seems very much at home, wearing eye shadow, appearing on a makeshift stage, making and repeating wry observations, talking to John Hurt (who played Crisp in the autobiographical TV movie The Naked Civil Servant), and dining with friends. Others who know Crisp comment on him, on his life as an openly gay man with an effeminate manner, and on his place in the history of gays' social struggle. The portrait that emerges is one of wit and of suffering.
Direction Jonathan Nossiter
Cast Peter Walker · Quentin Crisp · John Sex · Felicity Mason · Fran Lebowitz · John Hurt · Sting · Michael Musto · Sally Jessy Raphael · Al Goldstein · Paul Morrissey · Robert Patrick · Penny Arcade · Emile de Antonio · David McDermott · Holly Woodlawn
Screenplay Jonathan Nossiter
Cinematography John Foster · Frank Prinzi
Original title Resident Alien
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Not rated (FilmAffinity)
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