This is my first movie review ever. But I felt I had to, after seeing the 8.0 score, which I felt was surprisingly low. (Oh, I do so hope that that comment does not conflict with the guidelines.)I'm almost 70 years old and have been a long time ally of the LGBTQ+ community. Yet I only recently discovered Quentin Crisp...it was via a TV talk show interview with Tilda Swinton that led me to the movie Orlando, which led to Quentin and, of course, The Naked Civil Servant.What a moving story of this brave man. Occasionally he comes across as pompous, but more importantly he was true to who he was at time when that was very difficult and even dangerous. I gave it a 9 (rather then a 10) only because I don't know that any film can be perfect. Having said that, if I were to score just John Hurt's performance I'd be tempted to call it "Perfection". I must look into more of Hurt's work.

This was broadcast on American TV (with absolutely no fanfare) on one summer night in the late 1970s. I was just idly switching channels and started watching by accident. It's a movie about Quentin Crisp--a gay man who came out in the 1920s. He introduces the film and then it starts--done in documentary style it traces his life. The first image is of him as a young boy dressed in woman's clothes admiring himself in the mirror. I've never had a desire to wear women's clothes, but being a closeted high school kid when I saw this it had QUITE an effect on me.The film follows his life, how he found others like him and his fame and fortune. It doesn't sugarcoat things--he comes across as vain and pompous sometimes and he is very brutally threatened in one scene. Still it shows how he survived and lived life on his terms. It was liberating--for me at least. Remember--this was the era when "Boys in the Band" was considered an accurate representation of gay life! This was WAY ahead of its time--for TV. I'm shocked that it was even SHOWN on American TV (albeit VERY quietly--and late at night). John Hurt is superb in the title role--he sounds, looks and acts like Crisp did! An excellent TV movie--still relevant today and beautifully done. A 10 all the way.

I had the good fortune to meet the late Quentin Crisp several times. This film is a delightful and moving story of his evolution as a human being.Like Oscar Wilde, he was the brunt of jokes and nasty stories because he dared to be himself -- and, to use his own word, a very "autre" self indeed. John Hurt does a wonderful job showing us the spirit of a man who didn't grovel to the conventions of society and dared to give the world a free spirit.The ironic conclusion of the film is an observation by Crisp himself that the "autre" which was once his alone became the commonplace of the late 1960s and early 1970s.This is an unusual film worth seeing for the performances as well as for its lessons in living. We are who we let ourselves be. We can be who we desire to be, or we can surrender to the drab molds of the society around us.

Long before it was fashionable to come out of the closet, Englishman Quentin Crisp did so. He was rather effeminate, also wearing make up which made him stand out even more.This is his fascinating story, marvelously portrayed by John Hurt. (P.S. The queenly Quentin plays the kingly Queen Elizabeth I in the movie "Orlando")