Diksha Sundriyal
Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer’ is a period romance drama that transports the audience to Mexico City in the 1950s. It follows the story of William Lee, an American expat living in Mexico, who falls in love with a young man named Eugene “Gene” Allerton. While Lee has had his fair share of sexual experiences, something about being with Gene sparks a light in him. His loneliness and desire for love and affection draw him closer to Gene, who remains emotionally unavailable no matter how hard Lee tries to open up to him. The tug-of-war of the feelings between the duo becomes the central conflict of the story, and the actors bring their characters to life with a sincerity that reflects a lot of what the audience might be familiar with in their real-life relationships. SPOILERS AHEAD.
William Lee and Queer are Loosely Based on William S. Burroughs
‘Queer’ is based on William S. Burroughs’ eponymous novella of the same name, adapted for the screen by Justin Kuritzkes. Published in 1985, it is the sequel to his first book, ‘Junkie,’ and borrows from Burroughs’ life, specifically the time he spent in Mexico City. The character of William Lee is a loose interpretation of the author’s own story, serving almost as an alter-ego for him, while Eugene Allerton is based on a discharged Navy officer named Lewis Marker, with whom Burroughs had a romantic relationship that was a lot like the dynamic between Lee and Eugene. The duo also took a trip to South America, which is also featured in the novel.
Another thing that Burroughs gave Lee was his own struggle with alcoholism and substance abuse, which impacts the character’s story in significant ways. Luca Guadagnino read the book when he was in his late teens and was so deeply impacted by it that he held the desire to turn it into a movie for all these years. Eventually, he partnered up with Justin Kuritzkes, who turned it into a screenplay, bringing not just Burroughs’ plot and characters to life but also accounting for Guadagnino’s cinematic sensibilities, which he became familiar with while working with him on ‘Challengers.’ As far as the soul of the story is concerned, the filmmakers stayed quite faithful to the source material. However, they didn’t want to be limited by this faithfulness and intended to expand upon the story rather than mimic it.
Kuritzkes brought about some subtle changes, like turning Dr. Cotter’s (Lesley Manville) character from a man to a woman, but he also made some significant changes, especially in the third half of the film. The novella, which was not a finished product, ends with Lee and Eugene in the jungles of Ecuador, finding Dr. Cotter but not getting to experience the effects of yage. Instead of having the same ending, the writer and director decided to go forward with the scenario and see what the impact of the trip would have on the couple. Another thing that the filmmakers added to the ending was the surreal dream sequence where Lee comes face to face with the identity crisis that he has been silently suffering from throughout the film.
It has a scene where Lee plays William Tell with Eugene and ends up shooting him in the head. This refers to the real-life incident where Burroughs was playing the same game with his wife, Joan Vollmer, at their apartment in Mexico City. She asked him to shoot a gin glass off her head, but her drunk husband ended up shooting and killing her instead. Interestingly, Lewis Marker was also in the room at the time. Burroughs was arrested for the crime but was convicted in absentia because he fled from America and resigned to the life we see Lee living in the movie. To Guadagnino, the reference to Burroughs’ wife reminded him of Oscar Wilde’s quote about every person killing the one they love. Burroughs did it in his real life with his wife, and Lee does the same with Eugene, though in his dream sequence in a more metaphorical sense than it was for the author.
Daniel Craig Wanted William Lee to Be Different from William Burroughs
With Daniel Craig being the face of James Bond for fifteen years, an aura of machismo exudes the actor. William Lee, however, is an entirely different character, which is why Craig was attracted to him, though he confessed that he couldn’t have taken on the role while he was still playing 007. For Luca Guadagnino, Craig’s past as Bond was an added bonus because of the way the clash of the characters challenges the construct of masculinity. This also played into Lee’s character in an interesting manner.
While Craig knew that Lee was partly based on Burroughs, he did not want to mimic the author. The actor did refer to the footage, limited as it was, featuring the writer, but he did not limit his research to that. He looked at other people from that time period and focused on their manner of speaking and inflections to create his own for Lee. He saw the protagonist as Burroughs’ avatar, so to speak, rather than a pure depiction of him. This thought process allowed him to separate the two and make Lee a different person in his own right rather than just the extension of the man who created the character.
Craig also found it easier to connect with Lee because he could “recognize the pain, the longing, the yearning, the love, the difficulty, and all the faults.” The actor spoke of his own journey over the years to find a way to open up rather than locking himself away, which is where he says “madness lies.” He saw the same struggle within Lee, who hesitates to open up with the man he loves because he fears it might drive the other person away. However, this fear makes him cling more strongly, which eventually worsens things even more.
Luca Guadagnino Wanted the Film to be About More Than Just Homosexuality
While the film is titled “queer,” Luca Guadagnino did not want the film to be limited to its queerness. While the lead characters are in a homosexual relationship, the director’s intention was for the story to be about connection, or lack thereof, rather than their gayness. He wanted the film to be more universal in the way it comes across to the audience, hoping that it “encompasses and communicates feelings that we have all gone through in our lives.” To highlight this aspect, the director added things from his own life in the movie. In particular the scene that takes place during Lee and Gene’s trip to Dr. Cotter.
In the movie, after Lee and Gene consume ayahuasca, a huge bubble comes out of their mouth, which bursts to leave their hearts on the ground. The inspiration for this scene came from Guadagnino’s experience as a child where he once watched his aunt blowing what he thought was “a bubble of cherry bubblegum,” but was actually blood as she hemorrhaged. Additionally, the director also drew direct references to movies like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (whose imprint is clearly visible in the final sequence), ‘The Red Shoes,’ ‘Tales of Hoffman’ and ‘Black Narcissus,’ to name a few. With this blend of fiction and reality, Guadagnino created a film that feels like a fever dream at times but also remains deeply rooted in reality due to its realistic characters and their relatable actions driven by their unstable emotional states.
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