Dir. Gregg Araki
1992, USA, 85 min
A postmodern story of l’amour fou propelled by a hardcore-industrial soundtrack, the seminal queer film The Living End explores the sexual and fatally romantic consequences of gay male attraction in the 90s. The film focuses on the dire relationship between a pair of young outcasts – Luke the rootless hustler, and Jon, a freelance writer whose life and stability are devastated when he finds out he’s HIV positive. With literally nothing to lose, they set off on the lam into the desolate, quasi-surrealistic American Wasteland.
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“Like its cinematic siblings, The Living End is very much a product of a specific era – a flashpoint in the social/cultural/political timeline that seems from the vantage point of today like a very, very long time ago. With AIDS robbing the world of an entire generation, the late 80s/early 90s was a period of tremendous despair, confusion, fear, uncertainty – and anger. An anger that propelled people into the streets to yell, chant, march, stage die-ins and generally rage against the machine. Everybody at that time was dealing with their feelings about the pandemic in his/her own way. My way was to make a tiny $20,000 16mm movie – an ‘irresponsible’ rant that was equal parts personal protest, Godard-influenced art film, and ‘Couple-on-the-Run’ genre romance”. – Gregg Araki
