Resident Alien
A documentary film about Quentin Crisp, one of the first unabashed homosexuals, born in England in 1908. Crisp flitted around in women's dresses, with dyed hair and painted nails. He kept himself afloat by working as an assistant in theatres, fashion boutiques, hair salons, and by illustrating and writing books. He attained a late success at age 59 due to the acclaimed TV film adaptation of his autobiography THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT (starring John Hurt).
In 1981 Quentin Crisp left what he deemed parochial England for the warmer and more humane shores of New York, to work as a stand-up performer, author, and painter. There he cultivated his colourful lifestyle and lived as a true bon vivant. Considered by most as a “modern Oscar Wilde”, he was an intriguing character full of “androgynous anarchy” (spikemagazine), who never missed a single soirée, both exalting and turning sheer idleness into a high art. “If I have a talent for anything, it is not for doing but for being.”
Jonathan Nossiter based his debut documentary on Crisp's diaries, portraying him as the toast of NY social circles filled with artist, actor, and journalist friends.
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This film follows Quentin Crisp as he meanders through New York’s bohemian demimonde. He meets Sting, Holly Woodlawn, Paul Morrissey and John Hurt. Hurt played Crisp’s cinematic alter ego in the 1975 screen adaptation of Crisp’s autobiography, THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT. In RESIDENT ALIEN Hurt and Crisp review the film that was to change both their lives. – Quentin Crisp died in 1999.
John Hurt portrays him once again in a new film that continues Crisp’s life story, AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK.
>>> watch trailer on YouTube
details
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Runtime
85 min -
Country
United States -
Year of Presentation
1991 -
Year of Production
1990 -
Director
Jonathan Nossiter -
Cast
Quentin Crisp, John Hurt, Holly Woodlawn, Sting, Paul Morrissey -
Production Company
Crisp City -
Berlinale Section
Panorama -
Berlinale Category
Documentary Film
pictures from the movie
Biography Jonathan Nossiter
Jonathan Nossiter has directed five feature films. The most recent is, "Rio Sex Comedy" (2010) starring Charlotte Rampling, Bill Pullman, Irène Jacob and Fisher Stevens.
"Mondovino", a human comedy set in the wine world, was nominated for the Palme D'Or in Cannes in 2004 (one of only three documentaries ever nominated in the history of the festival) and was released in over 40 countries. A 10 part series derived from the feature, which he also directed and produced, had its world premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2006. "Mondovino; the Series" was released on DVD by Diaphana in France in 2006 and has come out in numerous countries including in the US via Kimstin Video in 2009.
He co-wrote (with James Lasdun) and directed "Signs & Wonders" (2000), a psychological thriller set in Greece, produced by MK2 and Nick Wechsler, with Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgard. It was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 2000 Berlin Film festival.
"Sunday" (1997), a black comedy he produced, co-wrote (also with Lasdun) and directed about a one day love affair based on a case of assumed identity, starred David Suchet & Lisa Harrow. It won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for Best Film and Best Screenplay and the Deauville Film Festival's Grand Prize for Best Film and their International Critics' Prize and was shown in "Un Certain Regard" at Cannes.
He also wrote, produced and directed "Resident Alien" (1991), a feature length comedy mixing documentary and fiction about the end of Manhattan's bohemia, with Quentin Crisp, John Hurt, Sting and Holly Woodlawn.
His non theatrical documentaries include "Losing The Thread" (2001) for RAI in Italy and the Sundance Channel in the US, an hour long film on art fraud, tourism and the elasticity of the male ego in Tuscany (premiere Rotterdam Festival) and "Searching for Arthur", a look at Arthur Penn, for Telepiu's series "Directors on Directors" (premiere Locarno Festival) and "Making Mischief" on the preparations for "Signs & Wonders".
His book "Liquid Memory" was first published in 2007 by Grasset in France (under the title "Le Goût & Le Pouvoir") and won the World Gourmand Award for Best Book of Wine Literature in 2008. It was published in an English language version in 2009 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the US and will appear in England from Grove Atlantic in late 2010. It has been published by Companhia das Letras in Brazil, Eianudi in Italy and in Greece, Portugal and Japan.
He studied painting at the Beaux Arts in Paris and the San Francisco Art Institute and Ancient Greek at Dartmouth College. He worked as an assistant director in English theatre (Newcastle Playhouse, King's Head) and for Adrian Lyne on "Fatal Attraction". A trained sommelier, he's made wine lists for a variety of restaurants in New York, Paris and Rio, including "Balthazar", "Il Buco," "Man Ray," "Roberta Sudbrack" and "Aprazivel".
The son of journalist Bernard Nossiter, he was born in Washington D.C. in November, 1961 and grew up in France, England, Italy, Greece and India. An American-Brazilian dual national fluent in six languages, he now lives in Rio de Janeiro with his wife, the photographer-documentary filmmaker Paula Prandini, twin daughters Capitu and Miranda, born in 2005 and son Noah born in 2006.
-IMDb