Sagat gay
François Sagat
With a registered name tattooed scalp and Adonis physique, François Sagat has sculpted himself into a persona that, as filmmaker Christophe Honoré proclaimed, “redefines the notion of masculinity.” Chosen by creator Bernard Wilhelm to model his first ever collection during Paris Fashion week, the French born Sagat, a well-known star in the queer film industry, has now gained prominence as an actor in mainstream cinema. Breaking past stereotypes, Sagat represents a new type of leading dude that, up until recent times, would have been incomprehensible.
Throughout Hollywood history, many film stars were closeted homosexuals, from Rock Hudson to Tab Hunter. What would have been once considered unacceptable, the openly homosexual Sagat has stepped out from what was up until recently taboo. In doing so, Sagat personifies the post-sexual liberation attitudes, along with Latino-American, Arab, and European male characterizations, and the tension between masculine and feminine. Sagat’s foray as a male actor in French cinema directly challenges the traditional role of the male--a new model for a principal man.
Sagat: From hard porn to gay zombie
Two films in Contest, but no Optimal Actor Leopard. Not that anyone was counting on it (least of all himself), but the fact remains that the true celestial body here at the Locarno International Movie Festival is François Sagat, the 30-something star of lgbtq+ porn. Like his straight colleague Rocco Siffredi, Sagat has moved from red lights to the intellectual limelight, which in the first days of the festival was shone on him by journalists, fans and the simply curious, giving new fest director Olivier Père the media climax of the 63rd edition.
This is the merit (or fault, for detractors) of two films that couldn’t be more different if they tried, which distribute nothing but the athletic adults-only celestial body and a restriction to viewers under 18, for some scenes that, according to the catalogue, might “offend the sensibilities of some spectators”.
The two films (the second is Christophe Honoré’s Making Plans for Lena) were inaugurated by L.A. Zombie [+see also: Thomas Persson, editor of biannual culture journal Acne Paper, is Interview’s guest blogger this week. The new issue of Acne Paper is on newsstands in Europe; glance out for it stateside in the next month. Here, Persson discusses what didn’t make the, uh, cut: Drawings by Fracois Sagat In the world of same-sex attracted erotica, French porn-star Francois Sagat has become something of a cult phenomenon. A painfully shy lad in his teens, Sagat grew up to be a strong, almost otherworldly muscle vision, representing the extreme end of same-sex attracted body culture. What separates Sagat from his peers is his artistic involvement with designers such as Bernhard Willhelm as adequately as the French fashion label Fade where he can use his skills as an accomplished draftsman. I met Francois in a café by Centre Pompidou in Paris to talk about his trade, the power of body transformation, and why a man should never be afraid of his feminine sides. THOMAS PERSSON: How does it feel to be the subject of so much sexual adoration and worship? FRANCOIS SAGAT: I can’t say that I don’t like it but I think it’s too much. Too much for what it is. I un
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film profile] by Bruce La Bruce, the Canadian champion of extreme queer cinema, who in recycling horror elements of his previous (and most successful) Otto; or, Up With Death Francois Sagat, Uncut