Querelle
Starring: Brad Davis, Jeanne Moreau, Franco Nero
| Their Write Up | My Write Up |
| "The outstanding foreign film of the (London Film) Festival is undoubtedly Fassbinder's last film, QUERELLE, based on the Jean Genet novel. The film looks unlike almost any other Fassbinder film, and looks almost unlike any other recent film you can think of. The entire film takes place during a kind of blazing golden-red sunset. There is no other time of day. People will know that Genet wrote novels about homosexuality and the film's elements of sexual degradation and the power struggle in all relationships is made very explicit. And that's what's been done so well on screen. But the film is so passionate and so erotic in its own way - so sensual - that it's almost impossible not to be drawn into it. It's rather like suddenly finding yourself in somebody else's wet dream". Scott Meek, National Film Archive | I will agree that this film is surreal, it is,
the constant sunset gives the film a strange feel from the very
beginning. Brad Davis is the gorgeous hunk that denies that he likes
sex with men.
The constant and shiveringly unreal undertone of homoerotica throughout the film gives it a bizarre atmosphere. The men are good looking, the situations erotic without being pornographic, the background has to be watched constantly for new subtleties. If you watch this film only once you will have missed most of what it tries to portray. Watch it three or four times before commenting on it as it will take you that many times before you notice most of the subtleties that are portrayed in the film's backgrounds. Don't know if I like or dislike this film, it just is. |