THE
diary
THE
diary
HE STARRED IN MORE THAN 60 FILMS, AUTHORED 15 BOOKS AND HAD COUNTLESS COLUMN INCHES DEDICATED TO HIM. BUT AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH IN 1999, THE REAL DIRK BOGARDE REMAINED AS ELUSIVE AND ENIGMATIC AS EVER. NOW, EIGHT YEARS ON, HIS LEGACY OF PHOTOGRAPHS, HOME MOVIES AND DRAWINGS HAS BEEN IMMORTALISED IN THE FORM OF A WEBSITE WHICH ENCAPSULATES HIS LIFE AND CAREER. TORSTEN HØJER MEETS BROCK VAN DEN BOGAERDE, NEPHEW OF DIRK AND MASTERMIND BEHIND THE NEW SITE, TO DELVE INTO THE WORLD OF ONE OF BRITAIN’S BEST-LOVED AND MUCH MISUNDERSTOOD MOVIE STARS.
DiRK
defining BROCK VAN DEN Bogaerde, 48, first met his uncle when he was 17. His parents had handed him Dirk’s address in Provence in case he needed somewhere to stay whilst he toured France. “I turned up with a tent needing a bolthole,” he remembers. “Dirk came walking down to me in the garden and said ‘you can pitch that here’. I said ‘haven’t you got a room?’ We became instant friends.” It was the beginning of a close bond that lasted throughout Dirk’s life – a “soul mates” relationship that ultimately resulted in Brock being entrusted with the legacy of Dirk’s estate. Needless to say, it was an inheritance of overwhelming importance. “He thought that if anyone was going to make something of his estate then it would be me,” he says. “I knew I had to create something that would serve his fans and provide a resource for people interested in his life.” The result, www.dirkbogarde.co.uk, is a 600-page website detailing his film and writing careers. But it doesn’t stop there; for the first time, an archive of photographs, sketches and personal home videos is offered for public viewing. Brock, a filmmaker himself, had expected the project to be completed in eight weeks. In the end it took 18 months. “I found myself really appreciating studying his career, his range and his ability to try different types of work,” he says. “I realised that with the material we intended to put on the site there were gaping holes and that by not including it all I’d be taken to task by people who followed his career.” What now exists is a stark reminder of the importance of that career. Essays praise his on-screen presence and ability to ‘tap into the emotions of his audience’; a list of campaign involvements nod to his charity work; photosets remind us of an influential style icon – the list goes on. It all provides a fascinating glimpse of the private world behind a very public man. But there are still unanswered questions. During his life, Dirk was hounded by the press over his sexuality. Publicly, he never came out, although he spent over 40 years of his life living with his partner Anthony 26 | Issue 45
Forwood in Provence. “I found it very difficult to put into my own words my views on his sexuality,” admits Brock. “I’m not just talking to a gay audience through the site, I’m talking to a worldwide audience of different generations of people. “Lots of people at the time of his death said ‘he can’t be gay’ but he was. I didn’t ever have to ask him or have him confirm it to me. He would have thought it crass of me to ask him that. I was happy knowing what I knew. It was very difficult for him to admit it. It was also illegal for all of his early life. He didn’t feel the need to run around saying he was gay. He was never truly comfortable in his own skin but the important thing was how much he came to accept himself.” Of what remains, there is little (if any) written evidence of Dirk’s view on homosexuality. It is well documented that he burned a large amount of his papers on a bonfire before he left Provence to return to London. There is much speculation over what he actually incinerated; even Brock is unsure whether it was a pile of shopping receipts or personal letters. But one thing is for sure: Dirk did leave some evidence of his sexuality – film. In 1961, Bogarde made the significant step of playing the role of Melville Farr, a married gay man, in the film Victim. Released at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the UK, it was a controversial choice, alienating him from his heartthrob image. “I believe he said what he could through his art,” says Brock. “It was an extraordinary choice of role; in one film, at a stroke, he managed to kill of his matinee idol image and provided a model for young gay men.” It proved to be an important film, both politically and socially. Six years after the
film’s release, in 1967, the Sexual Offences Act was passed and homosexuality was (partially) decriminalised. In 1968 the Earl of Arran, who had introduced the legislation in the House of Lords, wrote to Dirk, acknowledging the part he had played in helping to change public perception of homosexuality for the better (the letter is reprinted on the website.) “Dirk quietly acknowledged Lord Arran’s letter in his book ‘A Particular Friendship’,” says Brock. “It remained part of his personal collection. As usual, he kept a dignified silence.” For a man who had never openly joined the gay rights campaign, it was an extraordinary achievement. “That was the thing about Dirk,” Brock continues. “He always did things in his own way.” Towards the end of Dirk’s life, however, doing things ‘his own way’ had earned him little admiration from many gay men. His reluctance to ever publicly come out, even referring to his partner as his ‘manager’ in interviews, made many regard him with contempt. Perhaps he was a victim of the image he had created for himself, unable to reverse a lifetime of silence about his sexuality. Maybe he was simply settled and content with a secluded life in Provence. Either way, Brock has gone one hell of a way to unravelling some of the mystery that surrounded an icon of the twentieth century. “Before he died, Dirk said that none of this would matter when he was gone,” says Brock. “He said: ‘just forget me’. But he knew his place; he knew he was a star. He was from a generation when being a star really meant being a star. When you went to visit him there was always just the most extraordinary atmosphere. He had star quality. And lots of it.”
DIRK WITH BROCK
To find out more, visit www.dirk bogarde.co.uk Issue 45 | 27