A LIFE ON THE EDGE.

With his gay-straight love story The Next Best Thing, out director John Schlesinger pushes Hollywood's limits--a skill he perfected 30 years ago

At 74 years of age, John Schlesinger looks much the same as he did when he received the 1969 Academy Award for Best Director of the only X-rated movie ever to win an Oscar for Best Picture, Midnight Cowboy. (The film's rating was later softened to an R.) Schlesinger's bald pate, white beard, benign exterior, and politely understated charm belie a compelling cinematic vision that continues to drive him to make edgy and sophisticated films about controversial and often uncomfortable subjects.

While awaiting the release of his newest feature film, the legendary director took time to muse on its place in the arc of his career. "The Next Best Thing is about an unconventional family," Schlesinger says, "about how far one can exist outside the realms of convention and make things work." The story centers on a straight woman who turns to her gay best friend for comfort after she's been dumped by her latest boyfriend. Commiserating over cocktails, the two fall into bed. The surprising result is a child, whom they decide to raise together. The film follows the couple's vicissitudes, compromises, and joys in creating their unique family and chronicles the upheaval that results when one of them falls in love.

At first glance this major studio effort starring Madonna and her on- and off-screen best friend, Rupert Everett, might seem to have little to do with Schlesinger's cutting-edge ethos. After all, Hollywood has made lots of progress toward openness about homosexuality since Schlesinger directed his controversial 1971 classic Sunday Bloody Sunday, which also dealt with a gay-straight love triangle. During that shoot, screenwriter Penelope Gilliatt asked Schlesinger to film the kiss between actors Peter Finch and Murray Head in long shot in silhouette. Schlesinger held his ground and shot a closeup, but not without witnessing visible discomfort from his crew and, later, from his distributors.

In contrast, The Next Best Thing appears to be a testimony to Hollywood's new infatuation with gay-themed movies. And so it comes as quite a shock to hear Schlesinger reveal the difficulties he had in making the picture. Throughout production, the veteran filmmaker says, he found himself in constant disagreement with Paramount Pictures, who urged him to water down the film for mainstream audiences. With the support of his stars, Schlesinger fought for the film's integrity. But the experience left a sour taste in his mouth.

"When I made Sunday Bloody Sunday, there was no question about nudity," Schlesinger recalls. "Now people are squeamish about it. There is a scene where Rupert is in bed with another man and a phone call comes. There is a flash of a naked ass as he gets out of bed. Paramount made great objection to that, I suppose because it implied that there had been two men in bed together naked. It was really much freer 30 years ago. I've come away feeling we're lucky to have done what we've done."

Schlesinger decided to direct The Next Best Thing because "it was about something," which, he dryly notes, "so many films aren't." Throughout his career the Oxford-educated director has been drawn to stories of human relationships. And as a gay filmmaker he has always included truthful portraits of gay characters in his work. In The Next Best Thing, Schlesinger--a veteran Los Angeles observer--brings his own bemused view of the city's gay community to the screen. "This is an intimate film about two people," he says, "and I wanted it not to be cliched. I wanted to capture the atmosphere of gay life in Los Angeles frankly--but not West Hollywood, not the gym culture."

As the director of Midnight Cowboy and Sunday Bloody Sunday, Schlesinger had always assumed that his own homosexuality was self-evident and never saw the point of coming out publicly. But in 1991, when gay activists attacked his friend Ian McKellen for accepting a knighthood, Schlesinger and a group of British colleagues identified themselves as gay in a public letter of support for the openly gay actor. Schlesinger has never looked back.

"I think it's important for people to come out, though it should not be de rigueur," he states. "People should not be outed, and they certainly should not be pilloried for not coming out. There are those people who feel that success may elude them if they do come out. And in some cases it would, which is dreadfully unfair. So I feel that coming out can help those people who are unable to do so themselves."

Schlesinger, who was honored last year by the Hollywood Film Festival and in 1997 by Outfest, Los Angeles's annual gay and lesbian film festival, hopes that The Next Best Thing will appeal to both the gay community and movie fans at large. But he's not spending much time worrying. Fully recovered from a recent heart bypass, Schlesinger will soon be heading to Milan's La Scala to direct another edgy project--Benjamin Britten's opera about child abuse and suspected murder, Peter Grimes.

The FILMS OF JOHN SCHLESINGER

WITH THE FAMOUS one-two punch of Midnight Cowboy and Sunday Bloody Sunday in 1969 and 1971, John Schlesinger broke open mainstream filmmaking's closet door as no director before him. His long, productive career includes an impressive array of projects, from the gay-beloved Julie Christie starrer Darling through a series of crackerjack thrillers (Marathon Man, Pacific Heights) and smaller-scale human dramas (Madame Sousatzka). Schlesinger has also ventured into top-tier television, including the ground-breaking An Englishman Abroad, a true story about gay spy Guy Burgess, and the warm, quirky, and pansexual comedy Cold Comfort Farm, a British TV film released theatrically in the United States. His work as a director includes:

* Terminus (1961)

* A Kind of Loving (1962)

* Billy Liar (1963)

* Darling (1965)

* Far From the Madding Crowd (1967)

* Midnight Cowboy (1969)

* Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)

* Visions of Eight (1973), "The Longest" segment

* The Day of the Locust (1975)

* Marathon Man (1976)

* Yanks (1979)

* Honky Tonk Freeway (1981)

* Separate Tables (1983, TV feature)

* An Englishman Abroad (1983, TV feature)

* The Falcon and the Snowman (1984)

* The Believers (1987)

* Madame Sousatzka (1988)

* Pacific Heights (1990)

* A Question of Attribution (1992)

* The Innocent (1993)

* Cold Comfort Farm (1995)

* Eye for an Eye (1996)

* The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998, TV feature)

* The Next Best Thing (2000)

Price is a screenwriter and author of Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography.