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COMING OF AGE IN SPAIN Spain in the 1980's is the Spain of the post Franco period, where the constraints of the long years of fascist rule have been thrown off and where the exurberance of a newly-found freedom is especially evident in the arts. In 1987, Madrid hosted the premier of Federico Garcia Lorca's only openly homosexual play, The Public, which opened last week at the Theatre Royal in London. The self-exiled novelist, Augustin Gomez Arcos, author of the powerful allegory on Franco's Spain, The Carnivorous Lamb, is only now receiving deserved recognition for his haunting masterpiece. And in cinema, Pedro Almodovar's Law of Desire seems determined to top other gay movies in its sexual explicitness. It is one of the handful of gay movies on show in the forthcoming Third Dublin Film Festival, and basically concerns the all-consuming, D.H. Lawrence-style possession of a lover's body, soul and mind. Pablo (Esebio Poncela), is a prolific young writer/director whose lover Juan has left him and who is seduced by Antonio into a demanding and threatening relationship. Pablo's sister Tina had a disastrous affair with her father when she was a boy and subsequently had a sex-change operation. Since then, no man has been good enough for her, so she embarks on a comparatively fruitful relationship with a female model (played by famous Madrid transvestite Bibi Anderson). The film is a frenetic and irreverent social satire, whose characters consume sex and drugs like "wide-eyed children finally allowed to pillage a forbidden sweet shop" and who exude, and laguish in, the melodrama of those possessed rather than distressed by life. It is an original and stylish analysis of the politics of desire, a desire which, according to Almodovar, "is the need for someone to work his or her way down to your bones, that all the possible delights of your body be their favourite dish, that the mere fact of holding you in their arms makes you forget all those metaphysical, social, political and economic problems ... which threaten today's world. But desire is not only that. In absolute terms, one wishes to possess the very soul of another." Stephen Kirby, writing for Australia's Out Rage, sums up the prevailing attitude of the world-wide gay community regarding the Law of Desire when he says, "The joyous sleaze and giddy romanticism of their lives reminds us of the way things used to be before the sexual and economic "Big Chills" hit the West. If you see this movie for no other reason, see it to remember the way we used to be." Peter Hussey

Included in this feast of celluloid are a number of films which are of special interest to gay viewers. Michael Thornhill's The Everlasting Secret Family is one of these, beginning at 2.40pm on October 28th in the Screen 1. It looks, with surreal originality, at the shrouded homosexual society in contemporary Australia, centering around the relationship between a gay senator (Arthur Dignam) and his young lover (Mark Lee). Dignam and Lee give fine performances and John Mellion is quite brilliant as the elderly judge whose tastes run towards bondage and masochism. The Fruit Machine is set in Liverpool and follows the story of two seventeen year old boys; Eddie (innocent and on the run from home) and Michael (streetwise and a hustler who lives by his wits). Both desire, for different reasons, to escape their lives. The land of milk and honey is portrayed by Brighton on the South Coast of England. The escape is further forced on them, when they witness the gangland murder of Annabelle (ROBBIE COLTRANE), the transvestite hostess of the Fruit Machine Club. Fearing for their own lives, at the hands of hired killer (BRUCE PAYNE), they are thrown into the arms of gay opera singer (ROBERT STEPHENS) and his manipulative business manager (CLARE HIGGINS). Both of these characters shamelessly exploit and use Michael but he in turn, understands the approach seeing them only as a meal ticket. Eddie, the dreamer, oblivious to the corruption around him, sees only the beauty and quality of life. He is totally unprepared for the arrival of the ominous killer. Echo. It will be on view on Monday, October 31st at 6.10pm at the Screen 2. This year's festival sees six major films from the period 1959 to 1968 grouped together in a special season Out of the Past, which have been out of distribution for decades or which had their release held back for more than twenty years. One of these is The Manchurian Candidate with Angela Lansbury in the role of the powerful and oppressive matriarch. Federico Fellini's autobiographical masterpiece La Dolce Vita can be seen in the Screen 1 at 2.20pm on November 1st. It provides a sensational view of the decadent 'sweet life' of Rome's society, where a journalist (Marcello Mastroianni) finds himself incapable of fleeing from the glitter of the Via Veneto and the allure of the uninhibited orgies he so deplores. At 4.20pm on October 30th Caleb Deschanel's beautiful and gentle version of Robinson Crusoe has its Irish premiere in the Screen 1. Crusoe centres around the gradual transformation of Robinson from slave trader to guardian of human dignity, with Aidan Quinn in the leading role. The House of Bernada Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca is translated to the screen in Mario Camus' film of the play. It works quite brilliantly, both honouring and transcending its origins. Irene Gutierrez Caba dominates as the widowed and gloomy matriarch Bernada, who tyrannically controls the lives of her five eligible daughters. It can be seen in the Screen 3 at 4.40pm on October 30th. Other highlights include prizewinners from this year’s Cannes Film Festival; Clint Eastwood's Bird (a study of the lives and times of the tragic jazz player Charlie Parker), A World Apart (a brilliant condemnation of apartheid). Thou Shalt Not Kill and South. Peter Greenaway's Drowning By Numbers can be seen at 8.30 on October 27th, and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne will be shown at 5.40pm on October 28th. The Law of Desire will be on view on October 29th at 2.00pm in the Screen 1. For a complete listing of the Festival's offerings, check out the full programme brochure, which is available for £1.50 at the Booking Office (Unit 25, Royal Hibernian Way, Dublin 2). Inquiries regarding ticket prices, concession rates, bookings etc can be made at (01) 798001.