Jean is a lesbian, but she still has one foot in the proverbial closet, much to the chagrin of Viv, her new lover. Passionate about her job as a physical education teacher, Jean nonetheless keeps a low profile at work. It’s that we are in England, in 1988, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has just introduced Article 28 which, among other things, makes it illegal in schools to promote “the acceptability of homosexuality as so-called family relationship”.
In other words, after homosexuality ceased to be illegal in 1967, homophobia was once again the law. The film Blue Jean revisits this infamous page of history with, as a figurehead, a remarkable Rosy McEwen.
This debut feature film written and directed by Georgia Oakley is so meticulously detailed that one would think it was shot during the era portrayed. Everything is there, from the grain of the image to the perfectly representative costumes and hairstyles, which never veer into caricature (the 1980s easily lend themselves to caricature, be it intentional or not).
Here, sociopolitical criticism is in the foreground, not in the background. Georgia Oakley shows the concrete consequences of Margaret Thatcher’s homophobic policies. The filmmaker thus uses excerpts from the archives of radio news bulletins or television programs which, in fragments, illustrate how targeted hatred comes to be accepted and trivialized in a society.
The film is also a heartbreaking portrait of a woman. A tormented heroine if there ever was one, Jean is the prisoner of a paradoxical situation, of a “ catch 22 “.
Indeed, the more Jean represses who she is in order to continue practicing her profession, the more she alienates her lover, Viv. Endowed with a militant temperament, the latter proves to be understanding and empathetic, but she refuses to be a shameful secret.
At the same time, the fact is that if a colleague or a pupil of Jean learns that she is a lesbian and denounces her, and a measure like article 28 was a tacit invitation to inform, Jean will be excluded from the network.
Precisely, when a new student victim of homophobic bullying (by a gay colleague who has internalized homophobia, another consequence of such a social climate) sees Jean and Viv in a gay bar, nothing no longer go.
Sweeter than bitter
As a hunted beast who hides her anguish under a disguise of socially acceptable femininity in the professional part of her life, Rosy McEwen delivers a powerful performance. His acting is also incredibly meticulous: those fleeting flashes of panic in Jean’s eyes, that impassive face sometimes so forced that he almost trembles…
Herself grappling with a paradoxical situation, Georgia Oakley had the choice between a happy outcome, but which risked being dishonest in view of the events depicted, and an unfortunate conclusion, no doubt realistic, but which could then have been accused of defeatist. With sensitivity, and without compromising the accuracy and sharpness observed upstream in her film, the filmmaker opts for an in-between that is more sweet than bitter.
Brief, Blue Jean turns out to be an inspired, felt, and sadly relevant work. For anyone who has short memories, Florida passed its so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law just last year.