Still from Olivia (courtesy Icarus Films and Distrib Films US) The novel was said to be semi-autobiographical for Bussy, who had been educated in France’s “Les Ruches” girls schools run by Marie Souvestre. Even under the well-known publishing house Hogarth Press (founded by Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard Woolf), the idea of attaching real-name authorship where the content involved lesbianism, and one involving school headmistress and her pupil, was unthinkable, and so the author was presented as written by the eponymous protagonist of Olivia when published. Olivia belongs in discussions with Death in Venice, Maurice, and Carol in great film adaptations of queer literature and hopefully this release boosts its reputation in that regard.Īs with many works of literature on gay subject matter at the time, Olivia by Englishwoman Dorothy Bussy was published pseudonyomously in 1949. The film presents a negotiation in how an incredibly skilled filmmaker was able to - despite numerous obstacles - film queerness. Icarus Films is set to release this on home video in the United States, (in its original release in the States, it was censored and renamed with the dour title The Pit of Loneliness) that will include a run in New York at Quad Cinema starting Friday, August 16. It is a landmark in lesbian film representation that had for too long been censored and ignored for reasons that are unfortunately obvious. Jacqueline Audry’s Olivia feels shockingly sensual, generous, and alive. Still from Olivia (1951) (courtesy Icarus Films and Distrib Films US)
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