ABSTRACT
This chapter speaks about the importance of A Very Natural Thing to the history of American independent cinema along two interconnected lines. First, it analyzes the film’s relationship with the ideals and ideologies of the post-Stonewall gay and lesbian liberation movement. While its sincere representations of gay male love and intimacy aligned with the movement’s goals of “positive image” creation, the film’s placement of queer characters within conventional romantic paradigms evoked a range of reactions that in turn revealed the complicated dynamics behind what constituted a “good” gay film. Second, it tracks A Very Natural Thing’s circulation, marketing, and exhibition by New Line Cinema, a college-centered independent distributor that by the mid-1970s sought to retain its adventurous reputation while expanding more decisively into the theatrical marketplace. Christopher Larkin’s film seemed like an ideal blending of niche audience interest and crossover potential, but A Very Natural Thing’s mixed critical reception and the assumptions by some exhibitors about its level of sexual content limited its economic viability. In this way, the film illustrates the tensions and possibilities of 1970s-era LGBTQ cinema, even as its naturalistic aesthetic and humanist outlook helped pave the way for future gay titles.
