(Photo Credits: Screengrab from Movieclips’ Official YouTube Account)
As Bi Visibility Month comes to a close, it’s important to reflect on the significance of bisexual representation in media. Bisexual individuals are often overlooked or misrepresented in both LGBTQ+ and mainstream spaces, making visibility all the more crucial. To celebrate the complexities and experiences of bisexuality, we’ve curated a list of five movies that showcase bi characters in powerful and meaningful ways. These films offer diverse perspectives on love, identity, and self-discovery, serving as a reminder that bisexuality is an integral part of the LGBTQ+ community.
1. Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, Call Me by Your Name is a coming-of-age romance set in the Italian countryside during the 1980s. The film follows Elio Perlman, a 17-year-old who falls for Oliver, a 24-year-old graduate student staying with his family. While the film focuses on the romance between the two men, Elio is portrayed as bisexual, showing a strong attraction to his female friend, Marzia, as well. The beauty of this movie lies in its portrayal of fluidity, as Elio navigates his feelings for both Oliver and Marzia, refusing to be boxed into a singular label. Call Me by Your Name is a touching exploration of young love, desire, and the bittersweetness of summer romances.
2. Atomic Blonde (2017)
In this film directed by David Leitch, Charlize Theron stars as Lorraine Broughton, a bisexual MI6 agent navigating Cold War-era Berlin in this stylish and action-packed spy thriller. Lorraine’s sexual orientation is woven naturally into the film, showing her relationships with both men and women without making a spectacle of her bisexuality. The film does a fantastic job of normalizing bisexuality in a genre that often overlooks LGBTQ+ characters, while still delivering edge-of-your-seat action sequences and an intricate spy plot. Atomic Blonde proves that bisexual characters can be complex, tough, and not defined by their sexuality alone.
3. Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Directed by Todd Haynes, Velvet Goldmine is a glam-rock-infused film that dives into the lives of 1970s rock stars, bisexuality, and the freedom of sexual expression. The film, loosely based on David Bowie and Iggy Pop, follows Brian Slade (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a bisexual glam rock icon who fakes his own death, and Curt Wild (played by Ewan McGregor), his lover and fellow musician. The film portrays their passionate romance against the backdrop of the androgynous, sexually-liberating glam-rock era. Velvet Goldmine is a celebration of bisexuality as part of a larger exploration of artistic freedom, identity, and the power of music to change the world.
4. Black Swan (2010)
In Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a dedicated ballet dancer whose drive for perfection takes her to dangerous psychological depths. As she prepares for the lead role in Swan Lake, Nina becomes increasingly close to her rival Lily (Mila Kunis), sparking sexual tension between the two. Their relationship blurs the line between attraction and competition, with Nina’s bisexuality becoming one of the many ways she grapples with her dualities as both the White Swan and Black Swan. The film explores the darker side of desire and ambition while portraying bisexuality in a complex, intense way.
5. The Hours (2002)
Based on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Hours is an ensemble drama following three women across different time periods, all connected by Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. Julianne Moore’s character, Laura Brown, is a 1950s housewife struggling with her conventional life and repressed desires. The film presents Laura as a bisexual woman, showing her attraction to both men and women as she contemplates her future. The subtlety and depth of Laura’s internal conflict offer a powerful portrayal of bisexuality as part of a larger narrative about identity and choice. Stephen Daldry’s The Hours also stars Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf and Meryl Streep as Clarissa Vaughan.
Happy viewing!
How utterly ridiculous. These are all old! And where they use bisexuality as an excuse to not commit to being gay. Offensive. And this has nothing to do with being gay, either. It’s insulting.
“Bi-Visibility Month?” Never heard of it, but what a bad idea, just like Gay Pride Month. We need to not be offending people.
Media = $$$ reality not logic topic is saleable
People are going to be offended anyway; that fact that ‘we’ exist.
everyone offends everyone else; it isn’t just us
And/or “everybody hates someone.” But there are a number of anomalies, thank the Creator.
Another act by the LGTBQ+ that divides not only them from each other, but all of them from Straights.
As we all know, “The Community”, unfortunately, is about anything BUT acceptance, tolerance, and inclusion. It’s all about division, hate, and power.
When are “Queer Visibility”, “+ Visibility” and “Lesbian VIsibility” months?
there are only so many ways realistically you can look at bisexuality, these 5 films give you five interrelated ways. they all say the same, relative thing(s) but they portrays such things a bit differently. such bents can be entertaining, educational or both
Seems our friends at A4A missed that Maggie Smith, a supporter of LGTBQ+ issues for years and years, died.
-4 as this is written. The media Press reports that “The Community” adores Maggie Smith must be wrong. The Press is wrong? Gasp.
and I thought June was insufferable
The only thing I have to say about bi representation, is that people just needs to accept what “Bisexuality” really means and stop making or using false labels that branches off of it like “pansexual”, “heteroflexible” etc. The term “bi” means “two” henceforth anyone who is sexually attracted to both sexes- Male and Female. And there is no other type of gender besides the two that already exist since mankind was first created. Society and the media nowadays continues to warp and twists that concept using irrelevant labels to mimic and overshadow actual bisexuals living in the world. I have… Read more »
Wasn’t too long ago that there were Men and Women. And then were Gays and Straights. And then there were Bisexuals and Transexuals and Queers and Asexuals and Pansexuals and Polyamorous and Demisexuals, and Alosexuals. Waiting for the “I’m only attracted to Vegans-sexuals or I’m only attracted to meat eaters-sexuals.”
And “I won’t have sex or even talk to someone of THAT political Party- sexuals.” …Oh wait, never mind. That last one is all ready quite present in some peoples’ profiles.
It’s a forkin’ wonder anyone gets along with anyone else anymore!
That’s true and I agree with you 100%
. . . Shows you how hate is the cancerous contagion of humanity; just how contagious hate is.