Resident Alien

Resident Alien — Plot

At age 73, writer and melancholy master of the bon mot, Quentin Crisp (1908-1999), became an Englishman in New York. Nossiter's camera follows Crisp about the streets of Manhattan, where Crisp seems very much at home, wearing eye shadow, appearing on a makeshift stage, making and repeating wry observations, talking to John Hurt (who played Crisp in the autobiographical TV movie, "The Naked Civil Servant"), and dining with friends. Others who know Crisp comment on him, on his life as an openly gay man with an effeminate manner, and on his place in the history of gays' social struggle. The portrait that emerges is of one wit and of suffering.

• Release date
• September 14, 1990
• Runtime
• 83 min
• Genres
• Documentary
• Director
• Jonathan Nossiter

Resident Alien — Cast

Quentin Crisp Self Peter Walker The Bum

G

Gilbert Stafford Man on Street

G

Gus Rogerson Street Performer

M

Michaela Murphy Street Performer John Sex Self

F

Felicity Mason Dinner Hostess / Writer Fran Lebowitz Writer