Episode 40: Peter de Rome’s ADAM & YVES (1974)

Bienvenue! This month on the podcast we’re going international by taking a look at two films shot and set in gay Paree. Up first is Peter de Rome’s 1974 romantic comedy, Adam & Yves. If you know the film, it’s probably for at least one of two reasons: that it was Peter de Rome’s first feature-length narrative film or that it technically includes Greta Garbo’s final screen appearance — yes, really. What the film actually captures is something between a pas de deux and a folie à deux — is it a grand romance or it shared delusion? —played as a guessing game of seemingly endless film and cultural references. 

As an Ask Any Buddy first, we’ll be hearing from filmmaker Peter de Rome himself through interviews recorded during the production of the 2014 documentary, Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn. We also discuss the troubles he and Jack Deveau encountered making the film in France, its groundbreaking all-Black orgy, and how this film is remarkably, the first international gay hardcore feature.