Teen Angst and Peter Berlin

Oh lord, doesn't time fly? I've been a little under the weather but I'm still shocked to find it's one whole week since I was last here. I've not really been up to much, but paid a trip to Blockbuster at the weekend and was delighted to find they have finally queered up, with as many as 4 somewhat obscure gay titles in their new release section.

The first film I rented was Another Gay Movie - a puerile, gay piss-take of the whole American Pie coming-of-age comedy. It was utterly hilarious, charmingly candid and also just about the only film I've ever seen where the dykes are getting more bedroom action than the boys. It also features Lypsinka playing herself, playing somebody's mother. My favourite clips are when she leaves a note for her son to say his tea is in the oven, and signs it with a flourish on her own press shot. Best of all is when she comes home to find him shagging a quiche. Toxic with rage she stands shaking as her offspring cringes and apologies ... "I'm not angry with you," she finally splutters, "I'm angry at the crumbs."

My other selection was That Man: Peter Berlin, a documentary about, duh, Peter Berlin. I didn't think I knew who the hell he was when I picked it up, but then I realised I had seen his image many times without realising.

Peter lived in San Francisco in the 70s and became well known about town for walking around at all hours of the day and night in the most outrageous (for the time) queer outfits - skin tight pants and leathers, shirts open to the waist and lots of studded belts, all topped off with an enormous padded crotch. Such notables as John Waters and Armistead Maupin appear in voxpops to talk about how excited they would be when they saw him.

Peter made money from porn photography and also made a couple of films. What I found interesting is that he shot all of his own pictures and produced his own films as, regardless of his shameless image, he was too shy to face a camera crew. Also, despite the sex appeal he oozed, he rarely had sex himself at the time, preferring to draw his audience in and force them to become voyeurs.

There's no doubt that he was a complete narcissist, he loved to be watched and his small flat is entirely covered with photographs of himself. At times he would use a split screen image to produce pictures that showed two versions of himself facing each other. He also describes his perfect man as "someone who dresses and acts like me."

The film uses interviews with Peter, and people who have been close to him, to present an engaging portrait of a young man who moved from Germany to America where he then developed his own persona and lifestyle, using just enough of his talents to get by, but never enough to make him rich and famous.

Peter was courted by Jean Paul Gaultier who wanted to use him as a model and Andy Warhol who wanted to help him with his work. He turned both offers down because it was just too much effort - "oh, I'd have to call them and then they'd have to call me back and then there'd have to be a meeting" - but maybe it's his comparitive anonymity that has allowed him to become a legend.

He's not without a heart and later in the film he talks about the AIDS epidemic that hit San Francisco and how many of his friends died. His chaste approach to sex effectively saved him his life and he is considered to be lucky, but with all your friends gone, he wonders, who's really the lucky one.