I'm not sure what Rainer Werner Fassbinder was trying to do with this film. Now I'm not a true art house connoisseur, in fact I have seen very few films in this genre so maybe I am not best paced to review it but I will give it a shot.
Brad Davis gives a charismatic performance in the lead role, he manages to look beautiful, innocent and down right grubby at the same time, so well done to him, not easy to do. The rest of the cast do a good job, I think the trouble is you don't like any of them including Querelle. Actually that's not quite true I did warm to Franco Nero's captain because of his inability to communicate his feelings and desires making him the most sympathetic caricature.
The brutal scenes are all linked to sex and this is the overriding feeling I was left with. Now I know there are many people out there, both gay and straight, who associate sex with violence, but not being one of them I didn't really enjoy it.
That this is a stylised and unique piece of cinema you cannot question, enjoyable it is not, but it is interesting and powerful. If it can provoke a reaction in you, whether that be positive or negative then at least you have experienced something that's made you think, and that does not happen very often in cinema. Oh yes, it is also very orange.
Brad Davis gives a charismatic performance in the lead role, he manages to look beautiful, innocent and down right grubby at the same time, so well done to him, not easy to do. The rest of the cast do a good job, I think the trouble is you don't like any of them including Querelle. Actually that's not quite true I did warm to Franco Nero's captain because of his inability to communicate his feelings and desires making him the most sympathetic caricature.
The brutal scenes are all linked to sex and this is the overriding feeling I was left with. Now I know there are many people out there, both gay and straight, who associate sex with violence, but not being one of them I didn't really enjoy it.
That this is a stylised and unique piece of cinema you cannot question, enjoyable it is not, but it is interesting and powerful. If it can provoke a reaction in you, whether that be positive or negative then at least you have experienced something that's made you think, and that does not happen very often in cinema. Oh yes, it is also very orange.