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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.
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Credits
- Production company
- Crisp City
- Original title
- Resident Alien