by Mattie Lucas
Cinema from a Decidedly Queer Perspective
Wicked | 2024
Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked the musical debuted on Broadway in 2003, becoming one of those rare crossover stage hits that reverberated beyond the typical audience of Broadway fans and theatre kids and into the general consciousness. Yet despite its popularity, it's taken over 20 years to bring this Broadway juggernaut to the screen.
In 1931, F.W. Murnau made his final film, Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, on the island of Bora Bora. It was partly inspired by Robert Flaherty's 1926 documentary, Moana (no relation to the Disney film). Tabu would ultimately be Murnau's final film, he died in a car crash before the film was released. Both Tabu and Moana were examples of ethnographic films that sought to bring exotic locales to life for audiences of the silent era. I found myself thinking about both of these films as I watched Miguel Gomes' latest film, Grand Tour.