New gay realism: representing queer male perspectives in contemporary British cinema

This thesis examines the emergence of a paradigmatic shift in the representation of gay male perspectives in contemporary British cinema, which I have entitled New Gay Realism. It argues that a series of contemporary films have revitalised realism and queer cinema by centring the everyday experiences of gay men. Through detailed analysis of five case studies - Weekend (Haigh, 2011), My Brother the Devil (El Hosaini, 2012), Lilting (Khaou, 2014), God’s Own Country (Lee, 2017) and Supernova (Macqueen, 2021) – the thesis marries issues of queer representation with issues of realist representation, examining how realism comments upon and forms perceptions of gay men. Responding to the experimentation of the New Queer Cinema and the tendency towards superficiality in the 2000s, these films invoke personal, intimate images of male romance via a less experimental but more contemplative approach to queer representation. Fostering meticulously constructed sensory, textured, and immersive realist worlds that foreground the physicality of their characters’ everyday experiences, these films seek to forge deeply emotional connections with audiences. To address how empathy, intimacy and authenticity are constructed, the thesis makes use of statistical analysis, foregrounding poetic uses of cinematic form such as shot duration and scale. It also examines the films’ production contexts, including authorship and casting decisions, to interrogate notions of authentic representation. By engaging with controversial and timely casting debates within the joint ethical contexts of queer and realist filmmaking, it explores tensions between authenticity and ethics, addressing concerns related to the representation of marginalised individuals. Through its simultaneous operations within and subversions of established traditions of realism and the romance genre, the thesis asks whether the use of the realist romance, bound to heteronormative ideologies, negates or limits New Gay Realism’s radical potential. Ultimately, it argues that, despite their adherence to homonormativity, these films are driven by a quietly radical impetus.