Querelle
Querelle
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1h 48m
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1982 • Germany
Starring Brad Davis, Franco Nero, Jeanne Moreau
Conjured from the unholy meeting of two iconoclastic queer artists, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final film audaciously raises Jean Genet’s controversial novel to the level of myth. In an expressionistic soundstage vision of a French seaport town—bathed in fiery hues and complete with phallic spires—a strapping sailor and unrepentant criminal (Brad Davis) comes ashore to arouse passion, rivalry, and violence among the libidinal denizens drawn into his orbit. Enacted with dreamlike stylization by a cast of international stars, including Jeanne Moreau and Franco Nero, QUERELLE finds Fassbinder pushing his taboo-shattering depiction of gay desire to delirious extremes.
Up Next in Querelle
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Rainer Werner Fassbinder–Last Works
Directed by Wolf Gremm, this 1982 documentary offers a look at director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s creative process in both QUERELLE and his final on-screen acting role, in Kamikaze ’89, also directed by Gremm.
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Fassbinder in 5: Michael Koresky on a...
In this interview, conducted by the Criterion Collection in 2024, critic Michael Koresky uses five films from across Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s prolific career to chart the director’s evolving approach to visual storytelling, which culminated in his final film, QUERELLE.
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Queersighted: Turn the Gaze Around
This new conversation between critic and programmer Michael Koresky and film and food writer Mayukh Sen, discussing the films in "Queersighted: Turn the Gaze Around", was recorded in 2019.
