Wie man sein Leben lebt (TV Movie 1975)

Wie man sein Leben lebt: Directed by Jack Gold. With John Hurt, Liz Gebhardt, Patricia Hodge, Stanley Lebor. The life and times of Quentin Crisp, an outrageous and flamboyant homosexual, coming of age and growing into old age in conservative England.

“The Naked Civil Servant is a TV film based on famous gay wit Quentin Crispu0026#39;s autobiography. John Hurt gives a characteristically committed, outstanding performance. His Crisp is both a bon vivant and a serious, determined man who, underneath his outrageously camp exterior, is anything but frivolous, flamboyantly using his wit and dress like weapons as a defence to the repressive, smug and specious attacks from the mainstream English establishment and society, which regards his sexuality as criminal and deviant.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHurtu0026#39;s Quentin Crisp is an unlikely crusader, made appealing not only by his inspiring moral force in facing prejudice, abuse and rejection with honesty, courage and an uproarious sense of humour, but by the fact that he never loses his belief in humanity, living his life undaunted and surrounded by friends who he treats with warmth and compassion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJack Goldu0026#39;s direction is wonderfully theatrical and so suited to Crispu0026#39;s eccentric world, and the dialogue is incandescent. Nevertheless, the filmu0026#39;s narrative, as it ranges over Crispu0026#39;s long life, is episodic and at times sketchy. Also unnecessarily, Quentin Crisp himself appears in a sort of preface at the beginning of the film.”