City Cinema Classic of the Month: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Comedy/Drama. 14A, coarse language.
Dir: Stephan Elliott, Australia, 1994, 104 min.
Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp.
Winner, Academy Award, Best Costumes.
Presented in Celebration of The PEI Pride Festival.

“Brilliantly bitchy, fabulously photographed and wonderfully played, this Australian frock opera addresses serious issues with satirical accuracy and profound insight. Tossing the niceties of sexual politics out of the window of a speeding bus, director Stephan Elliott sets about exposing the soft underbelly of the Australian male. Two drag queens and a transgender woman travel across the outback in a dilapidated coach for a gig in that bastion of machismo, Alice Springs, en route finding themselves in all manner of hilarious fish-out-of-water situations. As they gaily bemuse Aborigines, bait vicious homophobes and find kindred spirits among Australia’s diverse immigrant communities, they come to terms not only with their own shortcomings, but also with Australia’s countless contradictions. Ingeniously cast against type, Terence Stamp is a revelation as the hard-drinking Bernadette, but he’s matched all the way by the versatile Hugo Weaving and the dashing Guy Pearce.” —David Parkinson, Radio Times (UK)