SWOON (1992) | Dir: Tom Kalin. I saw the poster for the movie before I knew anything about it. I was hooked. A great poster design does it every time for me. SWOON was Kalin’s feature debut. He also wrote and edited the film, which is about the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, but it focused on the fact that the men were lovers more than the fact that they were murderers. For this reason, Swoon was part of the subversive New Queer Cinema movement in the early 1990s, of which I became a devotee and admirer. Shot in gorgeous black and white, the film stars Craig Chester (who’s fantastic) and Daniel Schlachet, but also the great Ron Vawter, so memorable as the psychotherapist in “sex, lies and videotape” and his many NY stage performances. The film also spotlights the antisemitism behind the Leopold and Loeb case. I think I saw the film three times when it played the Anjelika and I scored a poster from a friend at Fine Line, which I had framed and hung proudly in my apartment on 12th Street next to Todd Haynes’ POISON. Two great words: swoon & poison. Two great films.
