Tipping the Velvet

Tipping the Velvet is the film against which I measure all other lesbian dramas and I don't know if it's merely nostalgia for my first film in the genre but I have never found another that touched me so profoundly as this. Yes it is a very adult film and it will deliver on titillation if that's what brought you to it (and no judgement, that's what brought me) but it also a very meaningful and powerful exploration of character and human growth. Not to be missed.

I read two of Sarah Walters' novels in my late teens (this one and Fingersmith), and I have seen the Tipping the Velvet mini-series twice - about a decade apart. It's well done, though it has a bit of that Victorian "preciousness" that strikes me as a little disingenous. I am a big fan of historical novels and dramas set in the 19th century, and I tend to put off by the sillier interpretations that depict Victorian people as some sort of cartoonish parahumans. This has just the slightest touch of that style in the beginning, but it gets better as it goes. Overall the story holds up well in cinematic form, and the visual production is quite beautiful. Rachael Stirling is EVERYTHING. I saw her recently in an episode of an Agatha Christie Poirot mystery released 10-15 years ago and she's just so beautiful, like a cross between Dido and Jewel lol. In my opinion, she was a perfect choice for the lesbian lead in this romantic drama.

This must be the worst thing I've ever seen. A soft * movie for an audience who never watched a film before. The actors are terrible (in a bad way), the music is awful, the scenario doesn't exist really and no actual plot. After awhile you wonder if there's a X100 speed for fast forwarding, in your DVD player. It also seems that in the 1800s they were gay bars, gay women walking around kissing under the stars, old men making sexual offers to boys in crowded areas, that doesn't seem to be the case in 2000!!. Oh! Before I forget, they had didoes too in every house for everyone to use. This isn't the story of a woman evolving under cruel circumstances, this is the tale of a TV channel who wastes money in * flicks. Don't ever watch this. Don't even think about renting it or pronouncing its title.

Unfortunately I really didn't like it. Between the characters and the story lines, I found it quite bad and difficult to watch, which is a shame because I love the fingersmith adaption. Which the books are by the same authors.

I'm doing a thesis on blurring the boundaries: the female cross dresser and am using Tipping the Velvet the book as my main text, any comments on gender and sexual identity, gender and sexual confusion, gender as a performance, gender as a fiction, gender imagery, cross-dressing as an erotic fantasy and as revolution, the effect of the male costume etc etc would be much appreciated! But a bit off the point has anyone seen Sergio Toledo's 1987 film Vera? Its about a young lesbian possibly transsexual cross dresser..I'm dying to see it because I think it'd be really helpful...Does anyone know where I might get a copy of it? I've tried amazon and a few other sites but no luck...