Retro Reviewing: "Lost and Delirious"

Yea for Retro Reviews!! I am always excited hear your take on movies!  I definitely thought this movie was a little over the top, and nothing like my catholic school experience (although I wasn't at a boarding school, my mistake apparently)  Danielle, I can feel you with the K-12th grade catholic school education, I was in the same boat, only it was all girls for my last 4 years (which was sadly not as exciting as it may seem, it wasn't exactly the hotbed of lesbian activity that one would hope for with that many girls concentrated in one place) 

I'm not sure  what was more off putting and cheesy for me, the falcon or the sword fight... I think I'm leaning toward the sword fight. 

I am excited that you guys are doing Gia next! Katie, I am surprised that you haven't watched it and I think that you will like it, there is one segment that made me nearly burn a hole in my DVD at that point!  Got I love Elizabeth Mitchell!! 

Anyway, thanks for yet another awesome retro review!!!

I could only really get through 2 and a half minutes.  

http://lesbiandaily.blogspot.com/ <---Check it out. :]

I've loved the movie for ages, though it can be very hard to watch. Half the time, I turn it off before Paulie and Tori break up, and just pretend that none of the bad stuff happened. ;)

One thing I'll never understand though, is why so many lesbians feel that being dumped for a man is so much worse than being dumped for a woman. What's the difference? You're dumped either way. I've never actually been involved in a breakup, but I'd think that it either happens because of communication problems, or because one person has problems with committment. Unless the dumper does a sudden L Word-esque turnabout in their sexual orientation, I don't think the gender of the third party would have much to do with it.

______________________________________________________

"The state does not belong in the bedrooms of the nation"- Pierre Trudeau

It's Pauline's story. A lonely girl who had to self-destruct, because she didn't receive the love from her mother. The love that is so essential and holds you together under any circumstances. Mary, the mouse, finds this and thanks her deceased mother for giving this fundamental love. Pauline falls apart, when Tori rejects her. Tori was "the only one that loved her". Now she has nothing to hold onto. Her world ends right there. Only if she knew she's just begun the long journey called life and there was future for her...... I guess this movie wants to portray the purity and the narrowness of the mind of a teenager, which we (who are no longer teenagers) all once possessed.

I like Pauline. Her love for the wounded falcon, sword fight and eventual rejection of the world. Maybe I relate to her.... 

Right after I figured out I'm gay (while watching Imagine Me & You, actually).   REAAALLY bad choice, as it turns out, for a girl looking for happy-ending lesbian movies.  Great movie, though.

Aww, I liked the Shakespeare.  Maybe it's just the sappy romantic in me.  Some points were a bit cringe-worthy, and the falcon just got boring after a while, and I spent the rest of the night crying, but overall, 4.5.

Piper Perabo makes a sexy butch.  I find it so surprising, but she was HOT.

And please, do wear the schoolgirl outfit.  I think everybody agrees.

i liked this movie too, but i didn't like the fact that it turned out to be such a "greek tragedy" towards the end, but it's a good movie after all.

looking forward to the Gia review!

This movie is pretty split within the lesbian community, doesn't it? Either you love it or you hate it. Personally, I LOVE IT. It is depressing, but it does depressing SO GOOD. Being a person who went to boarding school during my formative years certainly helps with my liking of the movie. While it could be over the top at times; I remembered there were a few moments where I wanted to slap some sense into Pauline, overall it's an excellent movie. It captured the feeling of young love, the heartache & desperation very well I thought. 

And the love scene is BEAUTIFUL, my fav out of any films/tv shows. The scene stucked in my head for days when I first watched the film, with Me´ Shell Ndegéocello 's 'Beautiful' getting constant repeat on my Ipod. Lovely.

Nice job ladies. This was a funny episode. The 'sword fight' re-enactment made me laughed. 

LOL on the LAD summary you guys! Short and straight (no pun intended) LOL! The re-enactments are hilarious!

The first time I watched this was too depressing so I didn't like it... but when I watched it again, I finally understood and felt the emotions of what Paulie was feeling and totally loved it (after crying buckets of course, heheh!) I also studied in a Catholic boarding school and relate to Paulie's character. I had a g/f but she was str8 after all so it was devastating especially as a teenager where emotions are running amok everyday. So Paulie's actions in the movie were realistic. She didn't know how to handle her devastation over losing Tori so her poems, sword-fight and even her bird friend were the only way to deal with the pain, and eventually death so to end it all. It's depressing but true especially when you look at the statistics of teenagers or people commiting suicide because they're gay. Teenage angst is and always will be a part of life and for the gay teens, it's even more of a dilemma coz of the burden of coming out of the closet or not. Piper was just AWESOME! Okay, everybody in it was, but Piper's performance definitely did it for me! Also loved her in Imagine Me and You! Oh la la!

Also, the movie is totally different from the novel "Wives of Bath" by Susan Swan... The book was more intense and dark than the movie. In the book, Paulie really did dress up as a guy and I think if I remember correctly even killed someone and I think she went to prison or something... (been a long time since I read it) but I loved the book too. It was a novel that you just had to read straight (again, no pun intended, LOL) w/c I did in I think 4 hours! LOL!

My two cents... Anyhoo, excellent retro review on LAD! ;)

Lost and Delirious is a tricky film to review. That it is a revisionist film is often missed as the skeleton of the doomed lesbian film is used.  However the film reverses almost every aspect of such exploitative cinema while holding onto the framework.  What starts as Mouse's journey into boarding school life becomes Paulie's descent.  However Paulie's descent is seen as undeserved.  Instead of the lesbian being punished for being a lesbian, the lesbian is destroyed by external homophobic forces.  Meanwhile Tory's behavior with a boy is shown as being unnatural, an act designed for show.  The artificiality of Tory's behavior is contrasted with Paulie's honest behavior.  The decision is not between Paulie and a boy for Tory.  It is between Paulie and Tory's family and at the dance the family wins (in a sharp scene at a dance, Tory makes her decision - she wavers for a moment before looking at her Father - then she rejects Paulie a final time).  Tory is the repressed lesbian and when she tells Paulie she will never love anyone like her before leaving her, she is making a statement that the closet beckons.  That Paulie cannot understand this is the most devastating element of the film. Paulie sees the boy - used by Tory in as opportunistic vein as possible - as the enemy when the enemy is familial pressure (importantly Tory's brother goes to a nearby school and her sister goes to the same school).  When Paulie kills herself, Tory cries out but it is too late.  She is not left having overcome the lesbian temptress of the doomed lesbian film but instead having lost the one person who loved her for who she really is.  She rejects freedom and so her story ends almost as tragically as Paulie's.  A brilliant example of emotional cinema which properly goes to the umpteenth degree with a phenomenal performance by Piper Perabo. 

Favorite scene - the look on Paulie's face as she peels an orange in the classroom (and sees Tori talking to another girl - possibly about what her and Paulie have been doing). 

Importance of Mouse - Mouse is heterosexist at the beginning.  When her and Tory run into the boys, Mouse pressures Tory about the boys even though she knows Tory is with Paulie.  Tory calls out to Paulie as the scene ends emphasizing what Tory feels in her heart.  Mouse later states Tory is not gay to Paulie and that she likes boys.  This happens despite Tory explaining the truth to Paulie (that she must reject Paulie for external reasons).  Only when Mouse is rejected by someone (her Dad) who loves her, does she understand Paulie. 

Of note in terms of heterosexist reviews - some critics took it to task that Paulie acted out but did not notice, for obvious reasons, Tory's far more disturbing behavior.  Tory accuses Paulie of rape to her sister which is an incomparably cruel act.  That Tory walks away crying after she has done this reinforces that she is both deeply in love with Paulie but aware that she will do anything, including ruining the person she loves, to protect herself.  This may be the most important scene in the film.    

(First comment, little hard cause I haven't written in english since I was sixteen or something. Just to explain errors and weirdness in my writing that may be pretty obvious for anyone but myself.)

I like this movie, even though i don't like sad endings. Because....It's like when you see yourself in a character and then she dies in the movie. And then it happens with several movies and books, and you start to get a little upset. I wish someone could make a film about how the struggling person actually turns out well in their life for once. (Maybe I just haven't seen the right ones?)....

Btw:Why does everyone look at the bird in the ending?

I can't wait for next time when you review Gia!!!

 I just love that film!!!!!!!!!!!! 

and Jolie was brilliant in it, as was Elizabeth Mitchell.  

I absolutely loved the movie; and by the end I was like weeping hysterically. Even though the ending was frustrating and depressing, I thought the whole storyline was beautiful and captured the intensity, and heartache of young love.

And is just me, or did anyone else wonder why that ‘mouse’ girl or the teachers didn’t do anything to stop Paulie committing?

2 Minutes of the retro review. I have seen LAD a million times. I love that movie.  

http://lesbiandaily.blogspot.com/ <---Check it out. :]

Great review as always. Loved the sword fight reenactment and the WAH WAH moments! Very good movie, but yes a little bit of a downer, but as you all said the acting and production was excellent. Haven't seen Gia so will try to find it in readiment for next time.  

I do love these reviews! You all ways make me smile... cool..

Lost and Delerious.. the good thing about having a new girlfriend is you get to watch all your favourite movies again on the sofa ..and I watched Lost and delerious last weekend so it's fresh in my mind ..initially I felt it was gonna have a really tough time following Desert Hearts and well it did because although it's a great movie it's not quite in the same class. Having said that... it's a heartfelt piece of work ..Piper does a brilliant job of Pauli.. I know what you mean about the shakespeare, but then we're talking teenagers here and at that age ..hell I was this hysterical.. and Pauli is dramatic and over the top by nature... catholicism is over the top and hysterical by nature too

there's a lot of symbolism and quoting going on in this film  I'm thinking here of Linsey Andersons IF okay so IF is not a gay movie but  ..the same piece of music is used.. the tribal sanctus type thingy ... the religiously overpowering boarding school setting is the same ..the emerging sexuality and the rebellion and climax of that film from the rooftops of the school is also mirrored in Lost and Delerious. 

And of course birds are always symbols of the soul or spirit.. hell I nearly committed suicide over a girl in my 30's and yes you get hysterical and you behave in really really stupid and emabarrassing ways... Lost and Delerious reflects this ..it's embarrassing to watch at times not so much because it's cheesy more because you can see yourself in Pauli and recognise the pain and downward spiral into desparation and self hatred... believe me it does happen and it happens just like this...

 Best moment? well this had both me and my girlfriend reaching for the tissues.. it's when Piper / pauli realises it really is over, I forget exactly where but the camera closes in on her face and she is just breaking down ..hell we've all been there ..and can feel that hurt .. ah it gets me everytime..

 It's hysterical, at times it's cheesy and just so wrong , yet Lost and Delerious wins me over everytime ..

 Nice reviews girls ..

This movie really makes me cry... I felt the pain inside... i feel like... ugh... really unexplainable...

It really touches my heart... how she got pain... how she expects... and how she wanted to be loved back...

For me, it's one of the best L movies i ever saw...