Querelle

Audience Reviews

View More

Luke L Mar 9, 2018 Jean Genet was a contraversial author and this is film version of one of his books, 'Querelle De Brest' was something of a groundbreaking shocker when it was first released in the early 1980s. The film was notorious as one of the first movies with an overtly homoerotic theme to achieve reasonable financial success at the box office. It concerns the exploits of the eponymous sailor Querelle who, while on shore leave in brest beomes embroiled in the seedy, underside of the city. he is trying to arrange a drug deal and bases himself in the local bar where his brother is engaged in an affair with the female owner. Her husband has a predatory relationship with the clients in the bar, playing dice to gamble on whether he beds them or not. During an argument, querelle murders his partner in crime and manages to frame a stevedore with whom he is having an affair for the crime. As a story, it is uncomfortable and morally suspect with none of the characters particularly likeable. They are all flawed and immoral but the saving grace is that querelle himself has a charisma and sexual dynamism that makes him an intriguing character. The whole mood of the film is highly stylised with a surreal, unnatural set bathed in a swelteringly hot orange glow. The language is not naturalistic and whole production feels like a filmed version of a theatre performance. This deliberate ploy by director Rainer Werner Fassbinder frequently pays off and makes the whole movie memorable and distinctive. It has, however, not aged well and this is largely due to the clunky editing and an initially moody score that quickly becomes tedious and intrusive. As the lead, Brad Davis looks the part but doesn't quite have the screen presence or gravitas to pull off the highly stylised dialogue and at times, it is quite obvious he doesn't have a clue what he is supposed to be talking about. Jeanne Moreau fares little better as the fragile but manipulative brothel keeper lysiane as, for me, she needs to show a lot more emotional brittleness when speaking. This film is not going to be for everyone, in fact, I'd go as far as to say most people will hate it. However, it has a place in movie history and gay movie history in particular and though it has been surpassed and bettered by subsequent movies dealing with similar themes, it is still deserves a chance. See more

Read all reviews

Querelle

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING