L'homme que je suis

The Naked Civil Servant is a TV film based on famous gay wit Quentin Crisp's autobiography. John Hurt gives a characteristically committed, outstanding performance. His Crisp is both a bon vivant and a serious, determined man who, underneath his outrageously camp exterior, is anything but frivolous, flamboyantly using his wit and dress like weapons as a defence to the repressive, smug and specious attacks from the mainstream English establishment and society, which regards his sexuality as criminal and deviant.

Hurt's Quentin Crisp is an unlikely crusader, made appealing not only by his inspiring moral force in facing prejudice, abuse and rejection with honesty, courage and an uproarious sense of humour, but by the fact that he never loses his belief in humanity, living his life undaunted and surrounded by friends who he treats with warmth and compassion.

Jack Gold's direction is wonderfully theatrical and so suited to Crisp's eccentric world, and the dialogue is incandescent. Nevertheless, the film's narrative, as it ranges over Crisp's long life, is episodic and at times sketchy. Also unnecessarily, Quentin Crisp himself appears in a sort of preface at the beginning of the film.

"Do you intend to spend your entire life admiring yourself?" "If I possibly can." Oh Quentin, you came and you gave without taking. Unless he was taking the michael, which he did, you know, from time to time, in the most wonderfully poised and self-effacing manner. It's not hard to see why this was voted number 4 in the BFI's TV 100 poll: in two words, John Hurt - giving the Bafta-winning performance of his career as the "stately homo of England", enduring the catcalls, pratfalls and furtive dalliances which were the staples of gay life during the pre-and-and-post War years - virtually another planet compared with today's (allegedly) more tolerant society. The legal alien is terribly missed.

I had the good fortune to meet the late Quentin Crisp several times. This film is a delightful and moving story of his evolution as a human being.

Like Oscar Wilde, he was the brunt of jokes and nasty stories because he dared to be himself -- and, to use his own word, a very "autre" self indeed. John Hurt does a wonderful job showing us the spirit of a man who didn't grovel to the conventions of society and dared to give the world a free spirit.

The ironic conclusion of the film is an observation by Crisp himself that the "autre" which was once his alone became the commonplace of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

This is an unusual film worth seeing for the performances as well as for its lessons in living. We are who we let ourselves be. We can be who we desire to be, or we can surrender to the drab molds of the society around us.

This film is the autobiography of Quentin Crisp, a gay man living in the conservative times of 1920's to 1970's.

The story is simple but deep. It portrays It also portrays how people lived in fear and loneliness during those days. A particularly remarkable moment is that, after Quentin's friend is released from he mental institution, his friend pronounced his love for him. Quentin says something to the effect of "This is how lonely he is, and how low I can get". This little sentence means so much. Acting by John Hurt is excellent. This film is really quite remarkable, as homosexuality was still considered as a mental illness back in 1975.

I had a copy of this film back in the early 80s, it's long gone, but I'll never forget its power. I'm not a homosexual, nor had I ever heard of Quentin Crisp before, but watching the film, I was very impressed by his determination to stand up for his God-given right to be himself, whatever that "self" might be. I didn't see it so much as a proclamation of his homosexuality, but rather, an individual determined to live life on his own terms, rather than kowtow to the wants of society. To this fact I strongly relate. Crisp was a man who faced the ostracism of society head-on, and soldiered on through in spite of it. And for that I admire him strongly. After watching the film, I quietly said "Thank You" to Crisp for his forthrightness and honesty.

John Hurt's portrayal of Crisp was absolutely magnificent, and I've been a fan of his ever since. He's the most versatile actor of his generation, having played everyone from Jesus Christ in "History of the World part 1" to the guy in "Alien" who has the little monster jump out of his body to the inimitable Quentin Crisp in this film! However, some of his films are hard to find, given that he's not a household word name as an actor. Too Bad, He's among the best!