#passing strangers

[pierppasolini]

Passing Strangers (1974) // dir. Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.

#Robert Adams #Passing Strangers #Arthur J. Bressan Jr. #my caps #my edits #*arthurjbressanjr

[framesdump]

Passing Strangers (Arthur J. Bressan, Jr., 1974)

#passing strangers #arthur j bressan jr #queer cinema #1974 #c

[itsstreetlove]

Passing strangers

December ~ 2022

#photographers on tumblr #original photographers #street photography #passing strangers

[mizonia]

#arthur j bressan jr #queer cinema #passing strangers #robert carnagey #filmmaking #jenni olson #jefferyolmsted #vintage gay #passing strangers 1974 #robert adams #writing #gay men #gay love #queer vintage photography #1970s #san francisco #love #gay boys #lgbt cinema #gay cinema #most beautiful man #most beautiful scene #Youtube

[legendarytragedynacho]

Ultravox (Post John Foxx Era) - Passing Strangers (From 'Vienna' album)

#ultravox #passing strangers #music video #music #musician #rock #musica #rock music #techno rock #blitz kids

[watching-pictures-move]

Put On Your Raincoats | Passing Strangers (Bressan, 1974)

There's a joy of discovery that colours much of Arthur J. Bressan's Passing Strangers. The movie is about a courtship between an older gay man and a younger man who meet over a classified ad. (The title refers to a passage from a Walt Whitman poem which the older man used for his ad.) The younger man, who still lives with his parents, has only recently begun to enter the gay world, so to speak, and the first half, which is structured around their correspondences over mail, sees him, among other things, visit a porn shop and catch a movie at a porno theatre. In other movies, both mainstream and pornographic, these locations might be depicted with a certain tawdriness, but here, the movie evokes the thrill and self-actualization this character feels as he enters these places, emphasizing not just what he's watching, but his reactions as he processes them. (I did chuckle as he walked by the racks in the porn shop and one of them was titled "incest". Also, the porno theatre advertised a double feature of Nymphettes and Fuck Me, Fuck Me. I did not look up whether they were real movies, but laughed when it advertised itself as "San Francisco's oldest art cinema.) I'm perhaps making this sound a bit clinical, but the experience is anything but.

Much of the power of this movie comes from how these characters navigate their environments, first separately, in the B&W first half, and then together, in the vivid colours of the second half. The movie takes a certain poetic approach, trying to abstract the central courtship into pure feeling, but this element gives it a certain tactility. There's one especially thrilling scene early on when the older man explains his cruising routine, and we see him on the street, engaging in a complex interplay of connecting glances and subtle gestures, and the movie climaxes with the characters visiting a gay pride parade, which provides not just documentary interest but the emotional peak of the movie. I admit that by the end I was quite moved.

Now, this is a gay porno, and as a straight man there's probably a cap on how much I can enjoy the movie in that sense, but I did appreciate the way Bressan's camera captures the beauty of the characters' bodies. (I will note that I found a key sex scene ran a tad long, but it was also central to the emotional crux of the movie, so maybe I should suck it up.) This does fall in the great pornographic tradition of amazing soundtracks, with one early synth funk track that especially caught my ear. And I should note that one of the characters wears a Canadian tuxedo, proving once again that it's a good look in the right hands.

The movie is a sort of mirror image to Forbidden Letters, which I would suggest chasing this with. (Both films were recently restored and released together on Blu-ray, and can be rented likewise on Vimeo. The transfers look gorgeous.) That movie also has both B&W and colour sequences, and is also structured around a series of letters, but is undercut by a certain melancholy. If Passing Strangers is about evoking the feeling of falling in love, this is about evoking trepidation and dread that your relationship might never really be repaired. It's about two gay lovers reuniting after one of them did a stint in jail, and even the happier moments are coloured by the psychological toll from being in prison and having to hide that he's gay to protect himself. It also draws much of its effect from how the characters navigate their spaces, but the result is instead dehumanizing. The most potent image in the movie is a shot of both characters masturbating but in separate cells, the incarceration of one of them making the other struggle to even conceive of them truly being together even in his fantasy. I am not sure I can describe just how powerful I found that image, but the composition with the wall between the cells running down the middle of the frame and the gritty B&W wide angle cinematography made quite an impact on me. This is a pretty downbeat film (the one moment of levity comes from the frank advice given to one of the heroes by their female sex worker friend), and perhaps I found it a touch ponderous at times, but I still found the overall result pretty moving.

#film #put on your raincoats #movie review #passing strangers #forbidden letters #arthur j. bressan

[thegayjoker]

top scenes i feel normal about

#i genuinely think its the most heart-achingly romantic scene in any movie ever #passing strangers #arthur j bressan jr

[ktheqw]

The Shovel

Not one for gardening you feel compelled to wear Chanel a showy pearl necklace

An upmarket designer wheelbarrow bedazzled gold shovel Odd looks from passing strangers

#candkwords #gippsland poets #creative writing #vss365 #gardening #designer #bedazzled shovel #bedazzled #passing strangers #microstory #poetry story #gold shovel #my writing #stories of tumblr

[slowandsteddie]

Steve, has a seizure and passes out

Steve, wakes up in the hospital

Steve, immediately clocking the worry on Eddie’s face and unable to look away

Steve, forcing a smile: “sorry for being so dramatic. I was just bored and wanted out of the house.”

Eddie, making a choked sound

Eddie, glancing at Dustin who has very red eyes

Eddie: “you know you could have just asked me to take you on a drive.”

Steve, snorting: “we do that all the time. I wanted something different. This car made a cool noise.”

Dustin: “Seriously, Steve?”

Steve, pouting: “I just wanted to go in the wee-woo wagon.”

#Stranger Things #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve stranger things #eddie stranger things #steve x eddie #shitpost #seizures #passing out #humor as a coping mechanism #incorrect quotes #based on a real conversation

[bigskyandthecoldgun]

based off this post i made a couple days ago lmao

words: 2.1k

Generally speaking, Steve Harrington is a pretty good boyfriend.

He takes Eddie out, never lets him pay for stuff if he can help it—hell, he’s even bought Eddie flowers before. And Eddie’s not complaining, because it’s hard enough to find another queer man in Hawkins, let alone one willing to date him. So Steve is his first boyfriend, and Eddie hasn’t had much (read: any) experience with dating.

But he’s pretty damn sure by the time they hit the three-month mark that Steve’s staunch refusal to hold his hand is unusual.

It’s not like Steve isn’t affectionate. More often than not, Steve’s arm will be around his shoulders or his waist, and there are no shortages of kisses anywhere and everywhere. But Steve won’t hold his hand. And he hasn’t let Eddie give him a handjob. Which—the latter isn’t as much of an issue, because maybe Steve’s just not a fan of handjobs, and that’s fine, Eddie’s not an asshole, Steve’s more than entitled to say no to stuff like that.

Though, Steve’s got no problem putting his hands to work, so what is it about the idea of holding hands or Eddie touching him in the same way that makes Steve so weirdly uncomfortable?

Eddie’s first thought had been that Steve might just not like holding hands. That the clamminess of another palm in his gives him the same kind of sensory ick that Eddie gets from getting adhesive residue on his hands. But Steve holds hands with Robin all the time with no problem, so it can’t be that.

His second thought is that Steve might be so used to being the ‘man in the relationship,’ so to speak, that he doesn’t think Eddie would want to be as handsy. But, again���doesn’t explain the hand holding thing. Because Steve had definitely held hands with girls he’d dated in the past, if Eddie’s high school memories aren’t failing him.

So what the hell is it?

What’s so unthinkable about being touched by Eddie?

And Eddie tries not to read too much into it, because he’s more than aware that both he and Steve have some internalized stuff about being queer, and maybe Steve’s just working through that. He tries not to read too much into it because Steve is a good boyfriend, save for this one weird thing, and maybe they’ll get to a point where Steve will tell him why he doesn’t want to hold hands or have Eddie’s hands on his bare skin for more than a minute or two.

They’re making out on Steve’s couch one night, Eddie’s hands on Steve’s waist and Steve’s hands already halfway through undoing the button on Eddie’s jeans. Eddie starts to tug at Steve’s shirt to get it untucked from his jeans. “C’mere, wait, lemme touch you,” Eddie breathes, and Steve grins against his mouth before backing away. Eddie blinks, utterly confused. “What? What is it?”

Steve just laughs, shakes his head, and dives back in for another kiss. “You’re funny,” he murmurs against Eddie’s lips, and Eddie feels a weird tug in his gut, because something’s wrong, and Steve’s acting weird again about Eddie touching him.

He thinks it’s funny.

Thinks it’s funny that Eddie wants to touch him.

Well, firstly, ouch. Secondly, that’s a real jerk move, but he’s torn between telling Steve off and getting off. He ends up going with the better option, because Steve might be acting like a jerk, but he’s a jerk that’s jerking Eddie off, so…better than nothing, Eddie supposes.

He doesn’t bring it up again for another three months, resigning himself to have his hands redirected from Steve’s bare skin and remaining steadfastly un-handheld. And, sure, y’know, he might be able to attribute it to the fact that they spend a lot of time with people who don’t know they’re together yet, but that possibility is quickly eradicated when Steve suggests that they tell the rest of the Party about them.

“You sure you wanna do that?” Eddie asks, brows raised skeptically, because for a guy who won’t hold Eddie’s hand, Steve’s pretty gung-ho about airing their business to the rest of the group.

Steve just tilts his head, a cute little look of confusion on his face. “Why wouldn’t I?” he asks, like the idea of him not wanting people to know about him and Eddie is crazy. Steve blinks, the confusion turning to concern. “I mean, unless you’re not ready. I don’t want to pressure you—”

“You can tell them,” Eddie cuts in, fidgeting with his rings. “I’m—yeah. Yeah, you can tell them.”

Maybe this will finally give Steve the push he needs to get over himself and hold Eddie’s goddamn hand before Eddie goes crazy and gets shipped off to Pennhurst.

Or…maybe not.

Because Steve still won’t hold his hand. Or let Eddie touch him.

The one time Eddie had managed to get his hands on Steve’s bare skin, he’d spotted Steve itching at the spots Eddie had touched in the bathroom later that night, the door only open a crack. Which is pretty dramatic, even for Eddie’s taste. Is the feeling of Eddie’s hands on him really so awful? Christ, Eddie’s getting sick and tired of this shit.

Eventually, nine months into their relationship, Steve blatantly moves a hand away from Eddie’s during a movie night when Eddie tries to take hold of it. In front of their friends. Eddie sucks up his wounded pride and corners Nancy in the kitchen later, after the first movie is over and they’ve been sent to get snacks while Steve and Robin argue over what movie to play next, wondering if he should even be asking her.

“Something on your mind?” she asks, because he hasn’t come up with anything to start with yet, and Eddie sighs.

“Is—okay, did Steve ever—when you guys were dating, did he ever, like, not hold your hand?” he asks, and Nancy tilts her head.

“I mean, sometimes…? It was only because I was wearing rings, though,” she says, like that makes perfect sense, like Steve just has some ring-phobia or something, and Eddie bites the inside of his cheek. Nancy gives him a little smile. “You wear yours all the time, so I don’t know why you’re so surprised.”

Okay, so, weird ring-phobia it is.

That’s the new working theory, and when he and Steve bunk in Steve’s room for the night, Eddie makes a show of carefully pulling his rings off and setting them on the bedside table. There’s a couple of green marks on his fingers where the clear nail polish he’d coated the interiors in has chipped away, and he rubs at his bare fingers absentmindedly as he climbs under the covers. He takes a deep breath and laces his fingers with Steve’s, ready to have Steve pull his hand away for the umpteenth time.

Instead, he’s met with a surprised, pleased little hum. “You took your rings off,” Steve notes, relief clear in his voice, and Eddie nods, trying not to let the feeling of triumph show on his face too much. Steve grins at him and presses a kiss to Eddie’s cheek. “That’s a nice surprise.”

“What, you don’t like my rings?” Eddie teases, keeping the genuine curiosity in his voice to a minimum, and Steve’s brows furrow.

“What? No, no, I love your rings, Eds,” Steve tells him. He lowers his voice. “I think they’re pretty hot, actually.”

Okay. Okay, so a wrench has been thrown into the ring-phobia theory.

“What, are they too cheap for his majesty’s royal fingers?” Eddie jokes, putting on a goofy, poorly-done British accent, and Steve’s nose wrinkles slightly.

“I mean, they are costume jewelry,” Steve says. “Nickel-plated, right?”

Ah.

So…it’s that Eddie looks, or even feels, too cheap.

Jesus. He hadn’t thought Steve would be that shallow.

Eddie swallows. “Uh, yeah, they—they are. I can stop wearing them, if you…” he trails off, not really sure what to do with this new information. Cheap to the touch, apparently enough to make Steve wrinkle his nose at the thought of Eddie touching him with his rings on.

“What? No, no, you don’t have to. I’m good, I can deal with it,” Steve says, like it’s supposed to be reassuring, like it’s such a big sacrifice for him to deal with how inexpensive Eddie’s taste in jewelry is, like their relationship isn’t serious enough for Steve to get over himself.

It’s just his rich boy upbringing, Eddie reminds himself. Even Wheeler’s upper-middle-class jewelry wasn’t enough to beat that expensive taste.

Evidently, the conversation had stuck in his boyfriend’s brain, because on the morning of their first anniversary, Eddie is given a long, velvety black box with four Sterling silver rings. They’re exact replicas, design-wise, of their nickel-plated counterparts, and Steve looks so proud of himself, so pleased with his gift idea, and Eddie barely stops himself from frowning.

“Oh,” Eddie says, a little hollow, “um, thank you.”

“You like ’em?” Steve asks, and there’s such a hopeful look on his face that it just pisses Eddie off more. “I just figure—y’know, because, I mean, I can’t hold your hand if you’re wearing costume jewelry, so—”

“Yeah, no, I, uh—I got that,” Eddie says with a strained smile. “Thanks, Steve.”

Steve’s brows furrow. “I feel like you’re mad at me,” he says, and he says it with humor, but there’s genuine worry behind it. “Did I screw up your present that bad? Were you dropping hints and hoping for something else?”

Eddie’s jaw clenches. “It’s…the present is fine, Steve,” he says.

“You don’t like them,” Steve mumbles, gnawing on his bottom lip. “I mean, it might take me a lot longer to save up, but is—would you, like, prefer titanium or steel or something? I didn’t really think you were a gold kind of guy, but it’s fine if you are, I just didn’t know—”

“Why do I have to prefer anything?” Eddie snaps. Steve blinks at him. The look of pure confusion on his face is a little infuriating, like he can’t even fathom why Eddie might be upset, and Eddie’s eye twitches. “Look, just because you’re all high and mighty about what jewelry is worthy of being seen near you—”

“Woah, woah, what are you talking about?” Steve asks, alarmed.

Letting out a frustrated groan, Eddie slams the box down on the coffee table and stands up to stomp around the living room, pacing back and forth. “You won’t let me hold your hand o-or even touch you, like you’re so above cheap shit that you can’t bear to let it touch you, and I’m so sorry that I’ve offended the sensibilities of his highness with my ‘costume jewelry,’ but Jesus, Steve, you can’t even get over yourself on our anniversary? I’ve seen you act like me touching you with my rings on gives you hives or some shit, like it’s just so terrible that it makes your skin crawl—”

“It does,” Steve says, a little subdued, eyes wide with shock, lips parted, “I’m allergic to nickel.”

Eddie pauses mid-stomp.

“You’re what?” he squeaks.

Steve blinks, and a long silence stretches between them. “I’m allergic to nickel, Eds, everybody knows I am,” he says. “I can’t hold your hand if you’re wearing nickel-plated stuff, but you really like your rings, they’re important to your look, so I wasn’t gonna be a dick and tell you to take them off just so I could.”

Recontextualizing every interaction of his year-long relationship he’d tried not to read too hard into is…a lot to experience in a little under thirty seconds.

“Oh, dear God, I’ve been an asshole,” Eddie mutters. “I thought you wouldn’t let me touch you because—but it was just—”

“Yeah, an itchy dick is not a good feeling,” Steve says, a nervous little laugh bubbling out of him. His face falls a little. “I—did you think—?”

“I’m so sorry,” Eddie blurts, horrified. “I am so sorry, Steve, oh my God—”

“No, no, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you didn’t—I must’ve seemed like a total jerk, Eddie, I should’ve told you outright, but I guess I figured you already knew,” Steve says, shrugging helplessly. “But, no, it’s nothing like what you said, I promise, I’m just—I’m allergic.”

Eddie immediately yanks the rings from his fingers and fumbles to get the box open, swapping them out for the silver ones, which he jams onto his fingers as fast as humanly possible. “If I got my head out of my ass sooner, I swear I would’ve found replacements the second I knew,” he says, and Steve laughs.

“I know you would’ve,” he says, all fond and soft, “you’re good like that.”

“Let me make it up to you? I can touch you all I want now,” Eddie says, waggling his silver-covered fingers in front of Steve’s face.

Steve interlocks their hands and leans in to kiss him, slow and sweet. “Looking forward to it, Eds.”

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve x eddie #stranger things #my fic #also my prompt #i guess it's a prompt? #it was more like. a passing idea #but still

[pierppasolini]

Passing Strangers (1974) // dir. Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.

#Robert Carnagey #Robert Adams #Passing Strangers #Arthur J. Bressan Jr. #my caps #my edits #*arthurjbressanjr

[framesdump]

Passing Strangers (Arthur J. Bressan, Jr., 1974)

#passing strangers #arthur j bressan jr #queer cinema #1974 #c

[itsstreetlove]

Birmingham  ~ New Street

September ~  2022

#photographers on tumblr #original photographers #passing strangers #black and white photography #birmingham #street photography

[morganski-19]

Steve seeing something on tiktok and trying it on Eddie

Steve: You know what I kinda really want right now, an orange

Eddie: Do we even have the oranges?

Steve: I’m not sure

Eddie: *getting up* Let me check. Nope, be back in ten

Steve: *to the camera* I was not expecting him to go that far

Ten minutes later

Eddie: *comes back to the apartment with a bag of oranges* Do you want peeled or sliced

Steve: Peeled

Eddie: Ok

Steve: *looking at the camera* I think he passed

Eddie: *handing Steve a bowl of peeled orange slices* Passed what?

Steve: Nothing

#and the comments are like #omg couple goals #the bar is finally off the ground #that is so wholesome #specifically robin’s comment > #eddie you big sap #eddie’s response > #shut up #since everyone is doing this #i’m hopping on the band wagon #steddie #stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #modern au #orange peel theory #eddie would pass the orange peel test with flying colors #prove me wrong #incorect quote #stranger things incorrect quotes #steddie incorrect quotes

[randomly-not-knowing]

#april fools 2024 #april fools #boop #we are two strangers passing in the night #but goddamn will we boop

[sarcasticassian]

Steve pulled out all the stops for Eddie's birthday when he worked with Erica to create a oneshot D&D campaign and managed to get everyone to join in (some blackmail was involved) and Robin secretly worries about Steve being disappointed or upset if Eddie doesn't do something similar for his birthday, everyone knows Steve's and Eddie's hobbies don't really align

so colour her shocked when she's yanked out of bed by Eddie bright and early on Steve's birthday and is forced into the closest thing she owns to gym clothes and is marched down to a basketball court that Eddie has rented for the whole day

she watches in amazement as Eddie divides them all into teams, letting Steve pick whoever he wants (naturally he picks Robin first even if she'll be no help) and they split into two teams of six, with Eddie somehow wrangling the position of referee even though he only knows the basics of how basketball works, and the kids don't even fuss that much, there's barely a complainant about how they're about to have to play sports all day, they all seem to be begrudgingly going along with it, apart from Lucas and El who are practically bouncing with excitement

Steve is clearly having the best time, running up and down the court and yelling and cheering, a little red in the face because he hasn't done this for a while but constantly yanking his teammates and even those on the other team into excited hugs and handing out back slaps and high fives like a little puppy, he even tries to chest bump with Robin who gives it a go then immediately regrets it and Steve throws himself at Eddie once the game is over

Robin asks later and Eddie tells her that Lucas was kind enough to sit down and explain the game and the rules because Eddie had been trying to make it up to him over not cancelling Hellfire because of his basketball game and being a dick about it and he'd been going to games with Steve and seen how much Steve enjoyed it and yeah Eddie hates organised sports but a game between the Party and the Older Party is hardly organised so as soon as Steve pulled out a whole D&D campaign for him he knew he had to get on Steve's level for his birthday

Robin gives Eddie permission to marry Steve that day

#Argyle is a secret basketball machine I just know it #Robin yells every time Steve tries throwing it to her #and countless passes are fumbled because the party cannot catch #steddie headcanon #steddie #stranger things #eddie munson #steve harrington #stranger things 4 #steveddie #steve x eddie #eddie x steve