Querelle

CinemaSerfApr 2022

3.5

Brad Davis (sprayed into his tight white canvas trousers!) is the eponymous sailor, enticed into a seamy life when their ship docks in Brest. This proves to be a port where homosexuality is the currency of the day. The losing roll of the dice could cost you more than a few shekels. This is all something that captain "Seblon" (Franco Nero) is aware of - and he knows that sex can be an effective way to stop frustration becoming violence. It'd be easy to write this off as an out-dated queer-fest, but actually there is quite a bit more to it. The journey of self discovery for the young man; the unrequited love for him from his boss, the complex relationship with his equally handsome brother "Robert" (Hanno Pöschl) and the sparing appearances of teh matter man's current girlfriend "Lysiane" (Jeanne Moreau) - the principal attraction in the "La Feria" bar/whorehouse/general den of ill repute - all intrigue. Wassbinder's last film is certainly not his best, and to be honest it has dated rather badly over thirty years, but it has an immersive, theatrically intense style to it and the sex - though not remotely graphic - has a seediness that leaves much more to the imagination and, I reckon, is therefore much more potent and challenging. Somehow our own imagination (and fetishes) are tantalisingly teased and exposed without anything too specific on screen. It won't be to everyone's taste. A film about guys shagging and drug dealing in a French port won't work everywhere, but it's much more of a work of cinema than I was expecting. Though I didn't really get the ending, I found it oddly compelling.