Monday, January 30, 2012
EVERYONE KILLS THE THING HE LOVES
Today's gay film, not a favorite, widely despised, and mostly forgotten, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's
with Brad Davis.
Oddly, or not, I liked it.
It is a hash. Based on a novel by the queer prison poet Jean Genet, we see a young sailor, the object of everyone's desires but his own, traverse his homosexual yearnings through the people who hang out at a bar/bordello in Brest.
I am used to Genet's stuff so was not surprised at the focus on the criminal mind, the homoeroticism of crime and murder. The idea that love turns to hateful acts and hate attracts. It is a thug's paradigm.
Hot.
Amusing and always sexy so I guess that means that he is right. Or is he attractive to me because he is so transgressive? Probably.
There is a lot to look at here. It is a movie, after all. The sex is graphic and the thinking twisted.
Franco Nero also stars as an officer who is obsessed about the sailor.
Genet is interested in power games also.
This was Fassbinder's last film. Not by design. He just happened to die between this one and the next one. So it is not a final summing up but then again, maybe he knew he would kick and this is it.
It is a natural pairing. He and Genet. People are not happy about this as they wanted Fassbinder to have a final triumph of some kind.
I think, actually, that this is a sort of triumph in its way. It is scuzzy, perverse, set up as an obvious stage set and not at all looking like a film. It is a thumb in the eye of society and even his own fans.
Jeanne Moreau who plays the whore sings the song several times. "Everyone kills the thing he loves".
No one wants to hear or see that. BUt we do see it, several times.
I would like to see this again sometime with the few other films that were made of Genet's stuff.
On the sidebar, enter a bit about how Fassbinder, Genet and Brad Davis were all openly gay. A tri-umvirate of queerness. Davis is so sexy he melts the film.
Enough said. I am the only person in the world to give this a 5 out of Netflix5 because I do want to see it again.
This is a film clip, not a trailer. Deliciously gay content but definitely SFW.
