โQuerelle, a strange blend of sodomy and homicide, is alternately appealing, intriguing and silly. Brad Davis is cast in the title role, that of a seagoing sexpot whoโs desired by all of the principal characters and by several of the minor ones, as well โฆ The action transpires on campy, blatantly artificial sets straight out of an MGM musical from the forties. (The lighting, too, is garishly theatrical). The soundstage is swarming with sweaty semi-nude sailors. The mooring posts on the dock are unmistakably phallic. Even the swooping Art Nouveau ornamentation on the windows is obscenely suggestive. Anything, apparently for erotic effect โฆ we get the feeling that if they upped the decadence by one iota, the screen would start oozing fungus โฆโ
/ Author Paul Roen reflecting on Querelle in his 1994 book High Camp: A Gay Guide to Camp and Cult Films, Volume 1 /
โThe idea of murder often evokes the idea of sea and seafarers ...โ opensย Querelle of Brest, French literary bad boyย Jean Genetโsย notorious novel (written in 1947, published in 1953). Itโs also the opening line ofย Querelleย (1982), the great maverick German director Rainer Wernerโs Fassbinderโs final film (he died of a drug overdose aged just 37 before it premiered) โ which opened in French cinemas on this day (8 September 1982). Starring rugged Brad Davis in the lead role, Franco Nero and then-reigning queen of European art cinema Jeanne Moreau, Querelle is a fascinating, hallucinatory experiment, a powerful study of decadence and a feverish (wet) dream of a movie! Pictured: Davis and Fassbinder conferring during production of Querelle. Now sing along with me: โEach man kills the thing he loves โฆโ
