Querelle (1982) User Reviews

Open minded, sexual, vibrant and a little confused

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 7/10 · 16 July 2012]

I don't think I quite understood what "Querelle" was about but the good aspect of it is that you at each view you get new things, and it grows on you. Far from being a masterpiece like "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" or "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant", but this is a very good project directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, his last and the one he got some of the heaviest criticism of his career. In a way, the most tragical of all of his works after being forced to cut part of it to get a release in America, probably the first time he ever had to back down and cut something he directed.

Based on author Jean Genet's 1947 novel Querelle de Brest, the movie revolves about Querelle, an Belgian sailor (Brad Davis) who plays with danger with his criminal affairs selling opium and his involvement with male and female, using of his good looks to get what he wants. To him (and to everyone around him) everything's a game in which losing sometimes can be useful (the dice game where he deliberately loses in order to have sex with Nuno, played by Gunther Kauffman). Querelle's a man with many love affairs and relations, center of attention of his own brother (Hanno Pöschl), and their strange "brotherhood", love/hate kind of thing; Nuno, his wife (Jeanne Moreau) owner of a decadent bar where most of the film takes place, and he's treasured from distance by his captain (Franco Nero). The other half of the film explores what can be called of real love between Querelle and a murderer (who is played by the same actor who plays the brother).

The movie is very open when it comes to presenting Querelle's involvements with both genders, specially his sexual scenes with another men, very bold at the time. If the story gets too much on a second plan, since the ideas are somewhat vague, foggy, the high point of enjoyment of the film is seeing Querelle getting well with his mates. For the most part, the movie isn't so exciting and is very confusing with its imposition of ideas one on top of another. What's the story in deeper terms? A man discovering his sexuality, trying new things or he's trying to find real love? Is he testing his moves as a player or he's just a man trying to survive using of his talents? Fassbinder intrigues us more with the whole concept of man being a product of his environment, adapting to his (and others) needs and what he makes here (don't know if the same happen in the book) is a strange fantasy world where everyone is bisexual or have more inclination towards another man, enjoying endless sunsets created on fake sets, surrounded by large columns resembling phallic elements. The script is more like a literary work than a cinematic experience, with several cards expressing Querelle's inner thoughts or the captain's romantic narration watching the love of his life, working all sweaty.

Rainer had his reasons and perhaps we'll never know what motivated him making this film in the way he did, but the artist is deeply immersed in this work, putting elements of his life, his love and all (including a dedication to El-Hedi Ben Salem, one of his partners, who died that year). A little bit butchered, panned by critics and part of the public, a distressing experience to the director who wasn't much in his best moment in life but with career on the top, but sadly he died and this was his last film. Not much of a great swan song but very admirable in several ways. The risk taken by Brad Davis was incredible and unfortunately he paid the price for it, barely appearing on well-known films or great projects. But what a performance! He's really good, very desirable and makes the character be what he needs to be. How many times you've seen a film where it is sold to us someone who is so beautiful and attracts everything and everyone but when you look at, it doesn't cause such effect? Davis was all that.

Here's a tale about immorality, manipulation, the right of the strongest to conquer anything, ultimately about the individuals who kill the things he love. Men, essentially. 7/10

A COMPELLING HOMOEROTIC FILM

[dannyrovira-38154 · 8/10 · 9 January 2021]

German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's final film before his untimely death at the age of 37 from a drug overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills. Adapted from the novel "Querelle De Brest" by Jean Genet this film is a visually striking surrealistic homoerotic fable, which starred the late bisexual American actor Brad Davis who was tragically ravaged by AIDS and died at the age of 41 some nine years after this film's release by assisted suicide. This highly stylized film concerns a handsome muscular amoral French sailor named Georges Querelle, played brilliantly by Davis who injects a raw and animistic complexity into role, he comes to terms was his latent homosexuality when his ship docks in the coastal town of Brest, and he makes his way to a local brothel which is run by Madame Lysiane, superbly played by the late great Jeanne Moreau, whose lover is Querelle's brother Robert, well played by Hanno Poschi, whom he has an odd love-hate relationship with. During his time in the coastal town Querelle will become a murderer and a magnet for a bunch of unsavory characters whom he meets for rough gay sex. Franco Nero superbly plays an officer from Querelle's ship that is enamored with him and worships him secretly from afar, and records his feelings on tape. Good direction by Fassbinder with impressive cinematography by Xaver Schwarzenberger and Josef Vavra. A disturbing art-house motion picture which is not for all tastes.

Chinese Roulette & Querelle

[lasttimeisaw · 8/10 · 24 February 2013]

A R.W. Fassbinder double-feature binge (Chinese ROULETTE 1976 and QUERELLE 1982, his swan song) coincides with a starting point for me to access his oeuvre, as one of the pioneer of modern German cinema, Fassbinder has a burning-too-fast career orbit, as if he was exerting all his energy in cranking out films before his dooming self-indulgent suicide at the age of 37 (with more than 40 works done in 15 years). Yet two films must have its restricted view, but Fassbinder films' mindset nevertheless more or less could be conjectured from them, and his stylish flourish is also mesmerizingly toxic.

Both films could adopt themselves comfortably into a theatrical play not the least courtesy of their (mostly or exclusively) in-door locales, for Chinese ROULETTE, it has a secular tone, 90% of the film takes place inside a rural mansion, with familial secrets, connubial deceptions, mother-daughter hatred, the divide of social strata, vindictive self-destruction viciously unfold and infuse a deleterious corruption even to the onlookers, all is triggered by the innocuous eponymous game. While QUERELLE is projected on more ritualized dark amber light maroon background setting stimulating a claustrophobic oppression of lust and desire within a handful locations (the faux-deck of a ship ashore, the phallus worship Hotel Feria Bar, an underground tunnel for hideaway), a male-dominant sexual obsession mingled with blatant homosexual thrust to an astounding incestuous extremity, brilliantly done via an intuitive candor.

Mirror is a recurrent item in both films, exposes the other-half which reflects the true id inside one's soul, in Chinese ROULETTE the stunning flux of the stationary tableaux interlacing two or three out of the eight characters orchestrates a scintillating picture of a guilt-and-punishment visual symphony with swishy panache; in QUERELLE, mirrors reduce their occurrence but the conscientiously measured compositions transpire an even more ostentatious narcissism with a sultry plume of hormone-excreting rugged contours of male bodies.

QUERELLE is adapted from Jean Genet's novel "QUERELLE DE BREST", whose literature text also introduced through the soothing voice-over of an unknown narrator, the film does stage a sensible amount of poetic license to filter a vicarious compassion through a singular mortal's inscrutable behavioral symptoms; in Chinese ROULETTE, a prose (or poem) soliloquy of androgyny also contrives to reach the same effect (but sounds a trifle recondite when contextualizing it under the film's incumbent situation). Anyhow Fassbinder is a trailblazer in defying the mainstream's prejudices, and very capable of visualize and dissect the tumor of humanity.

The cast, there are 8 characters in Chinese ROULETTE, with almost equal weight in the screen time, but it is the youngest one, Andrea Schober (under Fassbinder's guidance for sure), the crippled girl seeks for revenge to her parents' betrayal and negligence, teaches all of us a lesson (how selfish we are to find a scapegoat for every bit of repercussions happen to us) with such acute insight, fearless audacity and extreme measures. While big name (Anna Karina) and other Fassbinder's regulars (Margit Carstensen, Brigitte Mira, Ulli Lommel) all end up licking their own wounds in the corner.

In QUERELLE, Brad Davis (a real-life AIDS fighter then) is valiant, his masculinity and sinewy physique defies all the stereotyped treatment of gay men in the media, injecting a raw and visceral complexity into Querelle's spontaneous promiscuity and sporadic anger. Hanno Pöschl may fall short to guarantee the vigorous duality required for his two roles, but the gut- bashing combats (or playing) between two brothers fabricate the most erotic intimacy has ever been presented on the screen. Two veterans, Franco Nero is either recording his secret affection in the cabinet or wandering near Querelle from oblique angles; the fading beauty Jeanne Moreau, hums "Each man kills the things he loves", and is lost in her own fantasy of the banquet she can savor.

Personally I incline towards QUERELLE's unconventional approach to kill off the ambiguities of sexual orientation and examine the most primal desire made with blood and flesh, but Chinese ROULETTE achieves another form of success, it maintains a serene aplomb above all the vile assault and bitter turbulence, like the unspecified pistol shot at the coda, no matter who bites the dust, a bullet is never an ultimate solution to all the problems.

Problematic Final Work

[shanejamesbordas · 25 August 2006]

A very difficult film, for many reasons. As a source novel, Genet's 'Querelle' presents a challenge for any adaptation but as this is R.W. Fassbinder's final work, one is compelled to ignore one's initial (poor) response and dig for signs of the vision seen elsewhere in his cannon.

This is a film that unrelentingly refuses to let the viewer in. Narrative is piled upon narrative which is further punctuated by Brechtian title cards containing quotes from a variety of sources (including, of course, Genet's novel). The high stylisation of setting and performance is deliberately off putting and distancing. In this world of almost exclusive homosexual desire, women are severely marginalised which leaves the great Jeanne Moreau with little to do other than warble a rather ridiculous (and ridiculously catchy) pop ditty that uses Oscar Wilde's 'Ballad of Reading Gaol' for lyrics. Here, choice of sexuality is symbolic for how one stands in opposition to social rules and true fulfilment and depth of being comes only in humility and, ultimately, humiliation. Of course, much of this overtly gay posturing can be seen simply as high camp and add an undeniable veneer of silliness which is, quite frankly, hard to shake off.

However, this is a deeply serious film. Maybe Fassbinder was simply looking to upset as many people as he could and the whole point is to alienate the viewer as much as possible, either into anger or submission. It's hard to fully know what to make of 'Querelle' but either way, although stunningly lit, it has little of the swagger or movement of his best work and comes across as rather staid and inert. But, again, possibly that's the point. Confusion and denial as to individual identity leads to frustration and random acts of violence (if only to oneself) and self imploding inertia. It's hard to criticise a film that is deliberate about these points but, ultimately, it is equally hard to like and finding a place for it is no easy task. Possibly a work to admire and provoke rather than one to enjoy.

Fascinating Effort

[harry-76 · 6/10 · 6 March 1999]

This attempt to film Genet is commendable in tackling so difficult a work. Fassbinder's scenery is so obviously studio sets that the film takes on a "filmed play" quality. The color is beautiful, and the cast is very attractive. I had difficulty in following the proceedings, and much of the printed quotatons were puzzling. Some of the fantasy inserts were likewise confusing. But the strong cast made up for many of these weak points and raised the film to a level it would otherwise never have achieved. It is still lesser Fassbinder, but an often fascinating film to watch.

"Your brother is in great danger -- of finding himself"

[evening1 · 6/10 · 29 June 2019]

This meandering film is less a story than a collage of unusual characters, all set amidst a stagy and stilted homoerotic glow.

I am a fan of the handful of films I've seen by director Werner Fassbinder, but I wouldn't rank "Querelle" as among the best of them. I've admired the shoestring-budget look of the German auteur's movies, but this one -- complete with its English script and French mega-star Jeanne Moreau in the cast -- seems to aim higher, while missing the mark. All of the glitz and glamour distract the eye, but add up to little. However, I did appreciate that Fassbinder continued his tradition of examining taboo subject matter.

Here we meet a number of compelling archetypes, seemingly dressed in the wardrobe of the campy Seventies group The Village People. Foremost among them is sultry sailor Querelle (Brad Davis) -- has anyone ever worn an undershirt more sexily? -- who seemingly wants to discover exactly where he falls along the sexuality continuum.

He allows himself to be sexually dominated by the husky owner of a brothel after (perhaps intentionally) losing to Nono (Gunther Kaufmann) in a game of craps. In the type of frank soliloquy that is characteristic of this film, Querelle admits this isn't as painful as he might have imagined. Later, he falls for a construction worker who early in the movie behaves seductively toward a youth whose sister he desires. And, just for good measure, Querelle goes on to bed old Lysiane (Ms. Moreau), co-owner of the bordello, as a way of taking revenge on his brother, Jeanne's lover. Yes, it's a soap opera. But Fassbinder injects originality with some highly charged dialogue (i.e., (Lysiane is quite admiring of Querelle's sexual equipment) of the sort perhaps never previously uttered on Turner Classic Movies, which aired this film.

Perhaps in homage to Ms. Moreau's performance in 1962's classic "Jules et Jim," in which she sang a haunting song before committing suicide, Lysiane also performs a ditty in this production -- "Each man kills the thing he loves" -- perhaps to forestall death from despair.

I first encountered this film in 1982, shortly after its release, when it screened at the Naro Theater, an art-house venue in Norfolk, Va. The story was so viscerally shocking to me at the time that I left the theater prematurely. And it took me six months from DVR'ing this on TCM to give the movie a second try.

There are some stunningly raw sexual scenes in "Querelle," and many will find the language to be beyond-crude. I'm glad I saw this movie through to the end this time around, but it wasn't easy.

Like one of the characters in his films, Fassbinder came to his death prematurely, in the year of "Querelle"'s release. He'd have been only 73 if he had survived -- undoubtedly turning out movies, which, like "Querelle," are impossible to watch with passivity. Fassbinder was an amazing artist and I look forward to experiencing the remainder of his oeuvre.

Queer Masterpiece

[stephenrpearce · 9/10 · 20 February 2007]

Jean Genet's queer theory is still cutting edge and controversial. The film version can't begin to encompass all the ideas in the novel, but it stands on its own. This film is stylized and poetic, raw and crass. Tenderness and brutality blend until you can't tell one from the other. Betrayal becomes an act of affection. Submission is empowering.

Characters travel to extremes in their journeys of self discovery. One man seduces his young lover with lecherous statements about the boy's sister, "Imagine what I'd do to her if I were holding her like I'm holding you right now." The same man later rants in a bar, "I'm all man!!! I even f*** guys!" This dichotomy of gender-play and defiant same-sexuality is at the root of Genet's queer theory. Even someone with no knowledge of Genet's philosophy will be struck by its power in this film.

I'm not sure

[AndrewPhillips · 7/10 · 14 May 2006]

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.

A Brilliant Flow Of Cinematic Poetry!

[starpath · 9/10 · 4 December 1999]

Translating Genet to film is certainly not an easy task since he cares relatively little as a writer for conventional plot and his storyline is essentially the baroque flow of feeling from his inner life. But this film does a masterful job of capturing all the subtle nuance of Genet's poetry in the flow of its' imagery. The mood is intensely introverted and philosophically existential throughout. The sets have the feel of the German Cinema around the time of THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI, and yet the images flow around the angularity of the sets creating a wonderful tension between the characters and their milieu. This is Fassbinder at his very best. And the performance of Brad Davis is outstanding combining a rough, male-like crudeness with the innocence stemming from a young animal's eager naturalness. He creates a character who is forever trying to mask his simplicity, a kind of gothic Angel repeatedly discovering the Vampire stalking him from within. This is in keeping with Genet the writer who displays his suffering poetically, -like a tangle of gilded roses twined about a leper. The whole thing is a marvellous rendering of a kind of languidly sensuous celebration of the darker side of the male psyche. Since Brad Davis also appeared in THE PLAYER, we might say this film is like Huckleberry Finn meeting Nosferatu with a drunken Anne Rice as narrator. Bizarrly brilliant!

Fassbinder's last movie

[Billiam-4 · 7/10 · 12 May 2022]

Fassbinder's last movie is a deliberately nefarious study of homoerotic sensibilities. A quite accurate adaptation of Genet's novel and a sum of the director's artistry: slow-paced, atmospheric, technically brilliant production design with expressionistic lighting and artificial stage settings and quite bleak.

A torture to watch

[gbill-74877 · 2/10 · 16 May 2023]

Fool that I am, I came for Jeanne Moreau. I soon realized I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Suffice it to say, this just wasn't for me. Lame voice over narration, wooden acting, and campy phallus-filled sets set a bad tone early on. The story never developed into anything interesting, as seriously as it took itself, and the dialogue was not exactly profound, to put it kindly. There is an empowerment in the blunt representation of gay desire and sex, but the characters seemed like stereotypes, not real people. The incestual overtones, sweaty sailors, softcore sex, robotic speeches, cuts to lengthy quotes from Genet's original work, and overall lack of any kind of real humanity wore on me, making the 108 runtime a torture. It's a mess, and quite boring under Fassbinder's direction. Even Moreau's banter with Brad Davis towards the end was devoid of emotion (though enjoy):

"You know, I've dreamt a lot about your prick lately." "Yeah? Was it nicer in your dreams?" "No. I'm very satisfied. You have a solid, heavy, massive prick. Not elegant, but strong."

'It's solid, massive, heavy, a beautiful cock.'

[sunheadbowed · 9/10 · 12 February 2017]

Fassbinder's swan song takes everything to the extreme. So much so that critics have never quite been able to stomach it.

'Querelle' is such a stunning work of art on several levels: the Navy dockyard set with its near-sepia hazy opiate yellows and browns (contrasting against the colour of the sailors' outfits, the brilliant whiteness a parody of purity), evoking both sickness and a perpetual dusk of hard-ons, repression, indulgence and violence; the cinematography, some of the best in any Fassbinder film, capturing the actors' reflections in mirrors as the camera coolly observes the lovers they talk to (or 'at') -- lust in an impenetrable frame in which no one can be satisfied and everyone has their own agenda; the incredible erotic sexual ambiance that manages to be both appealing and threatening; the acting (Davis clearly finds this unsubtle role liberating after working in the very gay yet very homophobic world of Hollywood). I find more to enjoy in this film every time I view it.

The critics got it wrong here; perhaps a little too much sodomy for their bourgeois tastes? Let's see.. it has Brad Davis shirtless and sweaty in almost every scene (the one in which he's covered in oil and grease has to be the money shot); it features Jeanne Moreau being dramatic and elegant and making statements about men's 'pricks' (in a role that seemingly couldn't have been anyone else's); it's an adaptation of a work by the brilliant Jean Genet; it's directed by the incredible Fassbinder; it has lines like, 'my cock came out covered in s--t, if you want to know' -- how could all of this equal a bad film? Not in my book.

The film ends with an ode to Genet: 'Apart from his books we know nothing about him. Not even the date of his death, which he supposes to be near.' Fassbinder would be dead before the film was released, four years before Genet. And besides his films, we know nothing about Fassbinder.

'Querelle' is Fassbinder's final 'f--k you.'

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Seamen

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 18 September 2011]

This highly stylized and necessarily homoerotic adaptation of Jean Genet's "Querelle de Brest" goes limp, mostly whenever the annoying narrator interrupts. But is hard to dislike completely with Brad Davis (as Georges Querelle) leading the pack. You know he wants it. While he most certainly does not resemble his frequently mentioned as supposedly look-alike brother Davis, Hanno Pöschl (as Robert and Gil) is the second most valuable cast member, performing a "pas de deux" with Davis that unfortunately lacks a climax. No surprise to reveal the female member of the cast, 1950s beauty Jeanne Moreau (as Lysiane), appears wasted and washed-out compared to 1980s beauty Laurent Malet (as Roger Bataille) and the men. Franco Nero (as Lieutenant Seblon) tries to keep a straight face, looking at things from afar. Drug-overdosing before release, director Rainer Werner Fassbinder kept his distance.

****** Querelle (8/31/82) Rainer Werner Fassbinder ~ Brad Davis, Hanno Poschl, Franco Nero, Jeanne Moreau

Hey sailor...

[onepotato2 · 4/10 · 21 March 2009]

Querelle is an erotic fable about several closeted tough guys loitering around the French Navy port Brest, in some indeterminate timeframe. In a go-for-broke concept, Q shines a spotlight on the latent homosexuality in supposedly straight activities like the military, gambling, fighting, ports-of-call, whore-houses, etc.. It has more fetish imagery for gay men than Ben Hur or the Ten Commandments.

Basically five or six male figures ponder, intellectualize and ruminate themselves into and out of mechanical couplings. Genet's fringe figures (...the most verbal, stylized brutes ever) wrestle with their suppressed homosexual urges, but remain inactive until a suitable pretext can be found to copulate with the guy who's driving them to distraction, or, (just as good) till they find some criminal outlet to discharge their energy. It's all loosely strung together by an occasional narrator who's a few mint juleps away from a coma. It's as fragmented as Petronius' Satyricon, and Genet himself, writing from prison, was always a million analytical miles away from his own experiences. It's no surprise that a Genet film has problems with forward momentum and bogs down in ideas: weird, erotic, complex and spiritual. With the amount of time you'd need to spend viewing and re-viewing this incoherent movie to get something out of it, why not read the book?

Even if you can get past the artifice of the unsubtle stage set (with its faux-masonry phalluses), this would still be over the top; as campy as humanly possible because the acting has been taken to such a strange level of abstraction. "A" will overtly tell "B" what B's backstory and emotional temperament are, as an odd way to get info to the audience ...and the story still ends up emotionally and psychologically diffuse. It feels like a half-hearted dress rehearsal, where everyone has been told to suppress all hints of their motivations.

You could find any number of things here to mock, but for me Brad Davis' bloodless line readings are toxic. Kudos to him for taking on such a difficult project, but as the central figure, his muted performance is just too flat to hold the movie together. His entire audition may have consisted of the single line, "Could you oil up and try on this tank top?" It's a mystery why Rocky Horror became a cult movie with lines shouted back at its absurdities, but this didn't. (...guy in dragon-lady drag? check! ...twinkie in Shirley Temple wig? check!)

Querelle is an experimental, epic piece of erotic deflation, generally too challenging, complex and inert for any audience that it might reach, ...kind of like a Genet book actually. It expects a certain maturity from an audience, to grapple with its dense weave of sexual ideas, but it's also pretty darned silly on its face. You can explore the transcendent aspects of sex and crime by entering Genet's world, or you could just go have some forbidden sex and rob a convenience store ...then ruminate.

a masterpiece

[Kirpianuscus · 27 May 2023]

After its end, easy to define it as a masterpiece. And the motives are so many than you can reduce them to cast - Jeanne Moreau , Franco Nero, Laurent Malet or, off course, Brad davis, to the illustration of the perspective about homosexuality of Jean Genet , to the touch, so obvious to bsessive, of Tom of Finland art , to the poetry, in bitter sparkles or to the crazness of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

In same measure, it is far to be a film for you like or love it but for see it, time by time, having the feeling than you see it , always, the first time.

It is a film making you, for less two hours, its prisoner. For themes, ambiguity , dialogue, who, at first, sounds so forced, for the music, scenes and portraits of characters, for decisions and vulnerabilities , exposed so simple.

In short, a masterpiece. One far to be easy to define, enough being to feel it.

Shame filled desires trying to break free through violence

[HankCoT · 7/10 · 28 March 2024]

At one point, Querelle (the protagonist) literally 'shovels coal' to hide the smell of intercourse he just had with another man, and.. Yeah, every scene with every character is like that ; oozing with self loathing and unsubtle with lustful cravings, all presented in this hyper aware style.

A darkly humorous world constructed of phallic symbols, where innuendos dominate every conversation and violence eases sexual repression. Background paintings and evident stage sets make this film look like an uncomfortable dream, heightened by the players' one note performances. Which gives this borderline pornographic story a bizarre and unique flair, but also weights it down too heavily, feeling repetitious with its themes.

Still, this flick is one of a kind, weird, erotic, and unapologetically so.

Erotic, artistic, wayward

[davidallenxyz · 6/10 · 2 February 2023]

Famously homoerotic, Querelle's many gay scenes (mostly involving Brad Davis's eponymous anti-hero) are not explicit, but have an intensity above anything else in mainstream cinema. But there is an eroticism to the few female characters as well, with Jeanne Moreau's Lysiane also open about her desires. You can tell than Fassbinder loved exploring human sexuality on film.

The "mise en scene" combines the compositions of fine art, the prose of Jean Genet, and an almost completely artificial presentation of the characters and the location. Costumes reflect and define gay fetish wear of the era; the port of Brest and the ship moored in her is very obviously a closed set, complete with exaggerated sexual decoration; and the script (dubbed) is more like a manifesto than a conversation.

This artificiality is accentuated by the cinematography - washed out, often tinted red, and occasionally distorted. I'm not sure if this was intentional, accidental, or the result if a poor quality master being used for the digital transfer, but it adds to the overall "otherness" of the film.

If I had written this review 25 years ago, the visuals alone would have been enough for me to give a high rating. But I value story more highly now, and this is where Querelle falls down. It is little more than a sequence of scenes - and without the narration it would be impossible to follow what is going on. The "twist" at the end is nonsensical, and belongs in a parody reel of European art cinema cliches.

Querelle is intriguing to watch, but empty of meaning.

Each man kill the thing he loves.

[Chaves7777 · 10/10 · 11 March 2007]

"Querelle",which was last work of Rainer, was my first Fassbinder's experience. I think many times before see it, because I didn't know if "Querelle" was the correct film to begin to understand the work of an artist like Fassbinder. But, i decided... and i read a Lot of critics that tell that was a bad movie and a bad work of Fassbinder... i think just the opposite. Fassbinder's "Querelle" is one of the best movies that i have ever seen with this delicate topic of homosexuality.

Fassbinder's "Querelle", based in the novel of the same name by Genet, told us the story of Querelle, a sailor who is going to live an unpleasant conflict among him and the people who surrounds him. Is a tale of sexuality and murder. Fassbinder's "Querelle" is an important anlization of the man's decadence. A man that is able to murder, to sell his best friend, to be a real monster. But Querelle is a man, and at the same time is a selfish monster... like much of us. The movie is too an analization of the masculine thing, and is important have clear that Fassbinder's "Querelle" is not a gay film at all... is the recognition of different ways to love.

I have not seen much of Fassbinder (I hope that my next film, that i want see: "The Marriage of Maria Braun", catch me like this one) but this work with poetic force is one of the most important looks (As i said before) to the human decadence (With "Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma" and "Dogville"). I hope that people that has not still seen it don't be allowed to guide of much of the bad critics. Just see it... and tell us the things that you think. For me, is a real masterpiece.

*Sorry for the mistakes... well, if there any.

Needs more than one viewing...

[leejnelson-683-103195 · 6/10 · 19 July 2021]

I personally feel I missed stuff within that film and that more things could become clearer with multiple viewings... But an interesting story and definitely deep in mind of someone coming to terms with being gay... Or at least that's my take.. lol.

Very personal

[negerfarfar · 10/10 · 27 February 2005]

Feels like Fassbinder is exploring the darker side of human psyche rater than being interested in some linear story-telling - and he is quite good at it. The chain of events which both leads and follows Querelle are surreal and fantastic. The theatrical tone over the picture only adds to the strong sensation of human behavior on the limit of madness and passion. Very demanding and interesting. Brad Davis is flawless in his portrayal of the lonely sailor. Burkhard Driest is also absolutely cut out for his sleazy yet fascinating character- a bribed and dirty cop who befriends Querelle not knowing that the sailor is responsible for the crimes he is investigating.

High Art or High Camp?? Only Fassbinder knows...

[edthewalleyedhyena · 5/10 · 5 June 2005]

Perhaps 'Querelle' is a film that demands a more cultured and broad-minded viewer than I have proved myself to be, or perhaps it is pure enigmatic, overwrought drivel. I will likely never know the absolute answer to that, but I am willing to bet that past and future viewers will fall into these two groups: Those who feel that unclear character motivations, loosely constructed plot-structure and melodramatically poetic theatrics bespeak a larger sentiment, one not blatantly stated in this film; And the second group, who will leave this viewing experience raising their eye-brows in confusion, and possibly having a good laugh.

This film, though wordy, probably operates most effectively in its nonverbal trappings. The sets have a bourgeois richness that is almost tactile, the direction of movement is staged and coordinated like dance in some scenes, and the lighting is one of the best uses of expressionism out side of the American film noir idiom I've ever seen.

The script is an abstract exploration of people's motivations, specifically as they relate to the more carnal side of love, and there is also an underlying, equally abstract, message about the methods and means of self-exploration. All of this is told from the unique perspective of a naive, amoral young man who is, at the time that this film is set, exploring and learning about himself largely through acts of violence, sex and betrayal. Brad Davis' acting in the lead role is a strange mixture of stoic detach and reined-in anger/passion and I can not begin to describe it to someone who has not seen the film.

This film, in my opinion, can not escape the onus of its "high camp factor", One gets the feeling that this is the stuff that John Waters may have cackled at in his formative years. This is not to say it's without artistic merit; it will make a glutton of your eyes with its decadent colours and rich set dressings. Chances are you will love it, or you will laugh at it, but you will surely remember having seen it.

Fractal filthy fun

[ace-150 · 10/10 · 13 July 2007]

I saw this in the theater when it was first released and it remains my favorite Fassbinder film. I frequently find Fassbinder quite preachy, but with Querelle, he just lets the action unfold like a contagious disease infecting the viewer's mind with its rapturous toxins. If the director had tried to turn Genet's "novel" into a linear story, it would have been a disaster. Instead, it's a bizarre mishmash of voice-over narration, written narration and strange, almost ritualized acting. And it's far more erotically charged than any porn film. The visuals, particularly Brad Davis, are so superbly composed that nothing else really matters. Except, of course, Jeanne Moreau singing "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves". Fassbinder makes a compelling argument that sex and violence go together as well as cake and ice cream. If you don't love perversion for its own sake, this won't be the film for you.

"Da De Dumb, Da Da De Dumb" (Madame's lyrics, not my take)

[futurehaus · 3/10 · 19 February 2006]

10 for Camp Sensibility. You normal folks may rate it closer to zero.

Querelle is Super Camp. It puts John Waters' "Female Trouble" to shame. Not even a drag-dripping Almodovar flick can evoke such gaiety. This film is audacious in its "seriousness" and demands you do the opposite. Now, other users have called it Village People-ish, amateurish, High Schooly, etc. but those are understatements. This film is funnier with each viewing. I have most of it committed to memory because my roommate and I in college used to watch it over and over (alternating with Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Law of Desire). I truly love the recycled actors/costumes/sets, the Tea Room Queen On High voice overs, the summer stock saturation of set lighting. And that fat queen buzzing around Jean Moreau is worth hitting rewind for. It's just one big costume party, and you're invited. I think if Fassbinder had tried to make it funny he'd have come short of the laughs that are there now. And, frankly, which of us gays couldn't enjoy 90 minutes of hunky Brad Davis in his silly sailor getup…dialogue be damned? You must love this unintentional satire. You'll be quoting it's lame lines for life.

"Each man kills the thing he loves…da de dum, da da de dum…" (Did Madame forget the lyrics again? I heard that happened to Peggy Lee in her linebacker years.

"I look like her." (Little Gay Roger coming onto Gil, who likes Roger's sister) "Is there anybody else who wants to...me? PLEASE!" "When Madame Lysiane found herself before Querelle, her gaze went to his fly in spite of herself." (It goes down from there) "You? You're just a woman." (Followed much later by, "Look at him! Big Nono, the best stallion that ever existed!") The jilted Lysiane huffs, "You mah ememy!" PLEASE watch this film expecting nothing...and you will gain everything. "Da De Dumb, Da Da De Dumb."

Fassbinders last film,not his BEST but will do as a reminder of what he accomplished in his too short career.r.

[jaybob · 8/10 · 13 November 2008]

QUERILLE is based on a novel by Genet.

Combining the artistry of Fassbinder & Genet into one film is not easy.

The film is a murder mystery,a many part love story (mostly male). Absract images bordering on being psychedelic.

The acting by all is low key & excellent. The main known actors are Brad Davis (he died a few years later from the ravages of AIDS). He was an exceptional actor & is very well missed. We lost this year another actor who had them same superb acting chops. Heath Ledger.

Jeanne Moreau gives another excellent performance as the bar Owner.

Franco Nero plays the ship officer who is lusting after Querille (Brad Davis).

All the other actors are equally excellent.

There are a few sex scenes (male-male) they are done with erotic & are in no way offensive.

The cinematography is quite abstract with beautiful images almost like paintings.

This film is not for all tastes, but for Fassbinder fans it is a must.

One more thing, I have viewed this a few times previously and finally understood the song that Jeane Moreau sings throughout the movie

Ratings: ***1/2 (out of 4) 91 points (out of 100 IMDb 8 (out of 10)

Dreamlike

[bl-2 · 9/10 · 6 January 1999]

When reading Genet, the thought that his books are no good for screen adaptation will frequently occur. Fassbinder's "Querelle" might be able to prove otherwise. Still, the movie seems more like a dream to me, like passing images illustrating a story rather than telling it. Great cast!