The sure Cusack

Plus MTV, Iron Women, Coming Out

The most unusual film course in town? Hands down that would be "The Films of John Cusack," Tuesdays at 7 p.m. for eight weeks beginning June 13 at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. It's the second offering of this class by Bay Windows film critic Stephen Brophy; the first, Brophy says, "was the best-subscribed class I've ever had: 13 women, one man."

Brophy first thought seriously about Cusack when Say Anything came out back in 1989 and his then-teenage son told him, "If you want any sense of my world, see it." They'd earlier watched Cusack's The Sure Thing (1985). "I took my son because it was a work about sexual responsibility. Afterward, we talked two minutes about sexual responsibility, then a long time about what a good film it was."

Brophy's favorite Cusack work is Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), which Cusack co-wrote and in which he portrays a hit man. "I saw it four times on release and bought the video, and I watch it at least as much as Harold and Maude, which is my oatmeal comfort movie." At a Big Apple press conference for Grosse Pointe Blank, Brophy asked Cusack a question and added in the anecdote about his son and Say Anything. "After the interviews, Cusack came over and talked to me privately. I liked that -- and he said to say hello to my son."

But don't think this course is just a groupie paean to his beloved actor. "There's a theme explored in Cusack movies: honesty. Either he plays an up-front character for whom honesty is a virtue, as in Say Anything, or, as in Grosse Pointe Blank, he's the reverse. The point there is to discover the real self, below the hit man."

Does Cusack know about the class? Absolutely. "When I got the idea to do it, I contacted his publicist. His personal assistant called back that same day and his publicist sent me xeroxes of a number of Cusack articles I couldn't have found to use in my course."

Not all is John Cusack. Brophy is also leading a Wednesday-evening course at the Cambridge Center on "The Classic Horror Movie." That'll start June 14. The same evening producer/exhibitor David Kleiler will kick off his "Independents Day: The World of Independent Film" class at the CCAE.

Still not enough for June 14? Try the "Food and Film Event" at 6:30 at the Boston Center for Adult Education. A screening of the hilarious 1962 comedy Divorce -- Italian Style, with Marcello Mastroianni and Stefania Sandrelli, is preceded by a catered Italian meal. The $35 mixer includes a film discussion led by Isabella Perricone, an Italian actress and screenwriter.

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American Beauty takes on American Pie in the heated contest for Best Picture at the June 3 Ninth MTV Movie Awards, which will be broadcast June 8. The other three youth-oriented Best Picture candidates: The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, and (a longshot to win?) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Matt Damon, heinously overlooked by the Oscars for The Talented Mr. Ripley, is up for an MTV Best Villain, though he's got formidable competition from Sarah Michelle Gellar's superbitch in Cruel Intentions and the headless, soulless Christopher Walken in Sleepy Hollow. Here's a cool category: Best Kiss -- and two of the nominated are girl-girl, Hillary Swank and Chloë Sevigny in Boys Don't Cry and, again, Cruel Intentions' Gellar, for smooching therein with the virginal Selma Blair. At the MTV Awards, just about anyone vaguely cute could be a winner: hence the Best Actor nomination for The Matrix's Keanu Reeves.

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The biggest box-office hit in Thailand? Glad you asked. It's Iron Women, a feature based on the true story of a volleyball team of gays, transvestites, and straights who won the country's national men's title in 1996. Although Bangkok is the sex-change capital of Southeast Asia, films about such subjects have not been made since the 1980s. This one cost $270,000 and grossed $1.7 million in its first two weeks of Thai release. "Before it came out, everyone told me it was going to be a flop," the film's jubilant director, Yongyooth Thongkonthun, told the Hollywood Reporter. "Gay and sports movies have always flopped here."

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An extraordinary moment in history: November 9, 1989. The world premiere of Heiner Carow's Coming Out, the first film from East Germany to acknowledge gay culture, occurred on the very same night that the East Germans opened the Berlin Wall. I saw the movie in February 1990, at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was presented in the context of the liberation of Berlin, as the wall was being knocked over piece by piece each day. It might seem tame and conventional by Western standards, but Coming Out stood tall and courageous as a mighty symbol of sexual freedom, with its amazing first looks at East Berlin gay bars and East German cruising; and it was awarded one of the jury's special Silver Bears.

Next Thursday, June 1, the Brattle Theatre is offering a rare opportunity to see Coming Out, as part of a benefit screening for the Provincetown International Film Festival. It's paired with Konrad Wolf's Solo Sunny (1980), an East German classic about pop-music culture.

Gerald Peary can be reached at gpeary@world.std.com

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