June Lang
Email June Lang: onthedeuce@verizon.net
This image was supplied by June and is re-produced here by her kind permission.
This photograph is a still from the film "My Lunch with Quentin Crisp".
I first met Quentin Crisp at a film party. He was sitting on a velvet chair drinking a glass of bubbly and he looked radiant. Of course I knew who he was but we'd never met. I said "Hello Mr. Crisp " and he responded hello with a warm friendly smile. I asked him how he kept his skin so beautiful and soft. His reply "Never work ". I had co-produced a film called "Night Owl" and a trailer was showing the next day at the Independent Feature Film Project. I invited Quentin to come. He showed up and thus began my lovely friendship with this remarkable man. We went to lunch and dinner and plays and nightclubs. He liked going to the nightclub Tatou. Later on, as the director and I were still trying to get finishing funds for Night Owl, he would refer to me lovingly as "the patron saint of cinematic lost causes. " In the next issue of his Diary in the New York Native, he wrote, "Miss Lang, when told that I had referred to her in this diary as the patron saint of lost cinematic causes, said that she has no personal objection to the title, but fears that her associates may not like it; I therefore publicy desantify her. We must do nothing to distress Miss Lang, because, among many other gestures of hospitality, she accompanied me last Tuesday to a party given by Mr. Hay at Tatou. ". His wit was astounding and never faltered. Never, even the last time I saw him.
One of my fondest memories is of going to Quentin's room in the East Village near Christmas time. He never celebrated Christmas but he did love to celebrate his birthday. People always sent him gifts and he was going through the packages of fruit and chocolates and books that had arrived that day. We sat on his bed drinking warm Guinness and eating the chocolates.. He tossed the fruit - "why do they send me fruit? Ghastly. More chocolates please ". With Guinness to warm us up from the cold, we sat and talked and ate and drank. Quentin started doing impressions of Greta Garbo and Marlon Brando. Miss Garbo in "Camille", Mr. Brando in "On The Watefront". It was wonderful! That was when I knew I had to capture him on film so I could have him near me forever. We shot "My Lunch With Quentin Crisp" about two years later. I wanted to shoot us at lunch, the way we always were, just chatting, no script, just whatever subject came up. The film "The Piano" had just come out and we started a discussion about Harvey Keitel. At that time he was one of my favorite actors and I loved the film. But Quentin said very slowly and deliberately as only Quentin could - "When Mr. Keitel's agent asks him if he wants to do a movie, Mr. Keitel says 'Do I get to show them my cock' "? I was squealing with laughter. I only showed this film once and only to my closest friends. It's a personal memory and I've decided I'll keep it that way.
The last time I saw Quentin was a few months before he died. My boyfriend Tod and I met him for lunch at a new and trendy place on 3rd Avenue. Quentin was not well. He walked between us and he linked his arms in ours as we made our way to the restaurant. Once inside he ordered a Scotch. Our drinks arrived and we chatted about what he'd been doing since we last spoke and then the conversation turned to his thoughts about death. Quentin contemplated how he wanted to die. He did not want to be forgotten. I assured him there would be no chance of that; that he had indeed left his mark on the world. He thought perhaps he should do something very illegal and go down in a hail of bullets fired by our trigger happy New York policemen. But that had been done and he wouldn't be the first.. His wit and humor were ever present - even in this conversation. I tried to laugh and joke and smile but my heart was not in it. I knew he would not live much longer but I also knew he was ready to go.
Quentin told me many times how much he hated England. After making the film "Orlando" he swore he would never go back. But he did go back to do a show there. And he died there. In my opinon, this was Quentin's way of planning his death. He had always said to people that he didn't want a fuss made about his death, he just wanted to be put out with the trash. Perhaps this was true. He loved people. He loved America. He didn't want to hurt us by dying here.
This image was supplied by June and is re-produced here by her kind permission.
This photograph is a still from the film "My Lunch with Quentin Crisp".
I first met Quentin Crisp at a film party. He was sitting on a velvet chair drinking a glass of bubbly and he looked radiant. Of course I knew who he was but we'd never met. I said "Hello Mr. Crisp " and he responded hello with a warm friendly smile. I asked him how he kept his skin so beautiful and soft. His reply "Never work ". I had co-produced a film called "Night Owl" and a trailer was showing the next day at the Independent Feature Film Project. I invited Quentin to come. He showed up and thus began my lovely friendship with this remarkable man. We went to lunch and dinner and plays and nightclubs. He liked going to the nightclub Tatou. Later on, as the director and I were still trying to get finishing funds for Night Owl, he would refer to me lovingly as "the patron saint of cinematic lost causes. " In the next issue of his Diary in the New York Native, he wrote, "Miss Lang, when told that I had referred to her in this diary as the patron saint of lost cinematic causes, said that she has no personal objection to the title, but fears that her associates may not like it; I therefore publicy desantify her. We must do nothing to distress Miss Lang, because, among many other gestures of hospitality, she accompanied me last Tuesday to a party given by Mr. Hay at Tatou. ". His wit was astounding and never faltered. Never, even the last time I saw him.
One of my fondest memories is of going to Quentin's room in the East Village near Christmas time. He never celebrated Christmas but he did love to celebrate his birthday. People always sent him gifts and he was going through the packages of fruit and chocolates and books that had arrived that day. We sat on his bed drinking warm Guinness and eating the chocolates.. He tossed the fruit - "why do they send me fruit? Ghastly. More chocolates please ". With Guinness to warm us up from the cold, we sat and talked and ate and drank. Quentin started doing impressions of Greta Garbo and Marlon Brando. Miss Garbo in "Camille", Mr. Brando in "On The Watefront". It was wonderful! That was when I knew I had to capture him on film so I could have him near me forever. We shot "My Lunch With Quentin Crisp" about two years later. I wanted to shoot us at lunch, the way we always were, just chatting, no script, just whatever subject came up. The film "The Piano" had just come out and we started a discussion about Harvey Keitel. At that time he was one of my favorite actors and I loved the film. But Quentin said very slowly and deliberately as only Quentin could - "When Mr. Keitel's agent asks him if he wants to do a movie, Mr. Keitel says 'Do I get to show them my cock' "? I was squealing with laughter. I only showed this film once and only to my closest friends. It's a personal memory and I've decided I'll keep it that way.
The last time I saw Quentin was a few months before he died. My boyfriend Tod and I met him for lunch at a new and trendy place on 3rd Avenue. Quentin was not well. He walked between us and he linked his arms in ours as we made our way to the restaurant. Once inside he ordered a Scotch. Our drinks arrived and we chatted about what he'd been doing since we last spoke and then the conversation turned to his thoughts about death. Quentin contemplated how he wanted to die. He did not want to be forgotten. I assured him there would be no chance of that; that he had indeed left his mark on the world. He thought perhaps he should do something very illegal and go down in a hail of bullets fired by our trigger happy New York policemen. But that had been done and he wouldn't be the first.. His wit and humor were ever present - even in this conversation. I tried to laugh and joke and smile but my heart was not in it. I knew he would not live much longer but I also knew he was ready to go.
Quentin told me many times how much he hated England. After making the film "Orlando" he swore he would never go back. But he did go back to do a show there. And he died there. In my opinon, this was Quentin's way of planning his death. He had always said to people that he didn't want a fuss made about his death, he just wanted to be put out with the trash. Perhaps this was true. He loved people. He loved America. He didn't want to hurt us by dying here.