"Daniel Craig's Bold 'Queer' Role: Oscar Buzz?"

Daniel Craig's violent gay sex scenes  in Queer may shock and disturb fans of   the James Bond film, and rumors  about the video are rife on the   Lido at the Venice Film Festival  before the film opens on Tuesday. Five times in 007 Daniel Craig is the star of the   film, which was directed by Luca  Guadagnino, the industry favorite. It stars Craig as American exile and war veteran  William Lee, who has a romance with a younger man,   Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), a drug addict and  recently released Navy serviceman. It is based on   William Burroughs' semiautobiographical  novella about compulsive passion. After first rejecting Lee's approaches,   Allerton finally gives in. In one especially  candid encounter, Craig engages in oral sex. It's really explicit and much different from Bond,  someone tells me. Craig is excellent in the movie. Alberto Barbera, the head of the Venice Film  Festival, stated that he thinks Craig had   "the performance of a lifetime" in Queer " and  that he would be shocked if the British actor   wasn't present at the Academy  Awards the following year. Craig had "a couple of sex scenes that are  quite full-on," Barbera said to a journalist. Guadagnino stated in an interview that "Queer will   be my most personal film." It's an  homage to Pressburger and Powell. "The Red Shoes is a film I've  seen at least fifty times,   and I believe they would enjoy Queer's  many, highly scandalous sex scenes." Although written between 1951 and 1953,  the novella wasn't released until 1985.   A significant portion of it was composed following  the passing of Burroughs' spouse Joan Vollmer,   whom he shot in the head during  a Mexico City drinking party. At the moment, their four-year-old kid was  present in the room. Burroughs initially said   he was attempting to shoot a glass off  her head in the manner of William Tell,   but he later claimed the gun misfired. He fled to the United States and was found  guilty of homicide while he was away. These days, 56-year-old Craig resides primarily   in New York with actress Rachel  Weisz and their young daughter. Despite acting for over 30 years, he  has never been nominated for an Oscar. In addition to the James Bond movies, he starred  in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Layer Cake. Wake Up, Dead Man, the third installment  in the hugely popular Knives Out series,   just wrapped up production. Italian Guadagnino, 53, is well-known  for his roles in Bones And All,   Challengers, and Call Me By Your Name.

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