re. the prison rape thread: Today's Globe and Mail review says _American
History X_ includes a heavily aestheticized rape scene that plays like gay
pornography.
 
The same thing might be said of the rape scene in Jean-Claude Lauzon's debut
feature, _Un Zoo, la nuit_ (1987), where the whole scene is shot through
with beautiful blue light and body-sculpting shadows. This is just one
instance where Un Zoo bathes itself in a kind of homoerotic homophobia,
using male-male sexual violence as a source of visual pleasure and a
launching pad for a long string of retaliatory moves against the film's only
gay character.
 
Lee Parpart
York University, Toronto, Ontario
 
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