A-Comedy: A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (1994)

I kicked off this cinephile adventure with a film I had never heard of before: A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (1994), a British comedy written by Barry Devlin and directed by Suri Krishnamma. It stars the late Albert Finney in the role of… Alfred Byrne! Almost an anagram! I wonder if the part was written with him in mind. Either way, Finney absolutely nailed it.

Alfred Byrne is a theatre and poetry-loving man in his fifties. He works as a bus conductor, performing poetry for his regular passengers, all of them working-class people who are rarely afforded the joys of literature. When the fare inspector comes in and a penniless mom doesn’t have her fare, Alfie pretends that he forgot to have given her her fare. Alfie loves his passengers, and they love him right back.

But Alfie’s affection isn't reserved for his passengers alone. He is also secretly in love with the dark handsome young very hetero bus driver, Robbie Fay, whom Alfie nicknames "Bosie" (played by Rufus Sewell).

Having seen DE PRODUNDIS on stage, the name Bosie immediately rang a bell. It was the pet name Oscar Wilde gave to the great love of his life, Lord Alfred Douglas. And then it clicked: of course! The film's title is borrowed from one of Wilde's plays: A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (1893). I suddenly realized that this film, released exactly a century after the play was first published, is a tribute to Oscar Wilde (who happens to be one of my favourite authors).

One day, a new passenger boards Alfie's bus route, and she quite literally takes his breath away: meet Adele Rice (played by Tara Fitzgerald). The scene is framed like the classic love-at-first-sight moment from a cis hetero romantic comedy. Alfie is in love. But not with the woman (god forbid). He’s in love with art. The instant his eyes fall on Adele Rice, only one thought crosses his mind: he has found his Salome. The woman who could play Salome in the production he wants to direct with a cast of lame ducks.

Adele, however, is convinced that Alfie has fallen for her. She has a boyfriend and sees Alfie as nothing more than a friend. So when he asks her if she’s heard of “the love that dare not speak its name”, she doesn’t realize that he’s coming out to her.

This is a movie about the solitude of queerness and the solace us queer people find in the arts. Even “Bosie” cannot connect with Alfie and complains every time he starts reciting poetry. He doesn’t even know why he is called Bosie.

That’s why I find CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017) by Luca Guadagnino so sublime: Elio and Oliver could speak the same language, have the same cultural references, similar passions and a mutual attraction, on that little island that is bisexuality.

Unlike CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE is not my favorite movie, and yet, I absolutely loved it.

Up next: a drama that starts with B, a queer romance that starts with C, a non-queer one that starts with D