Dir: Sean Mathias
UK 1996, 118 mins, 35mm, Colour
Play - MARTIN SHERMAN
Success at CANNES in 1996
CLIVE OWEN - Max
LOTHAIRE BLUTEAU - Horst
BRIAN WEBBER - Rudy
IAN MCKELLEN - Uncle
MICK JAGGER - Greta - "The Streets of Berlin" , title song sung in opening sequence - Gay Cabaret
PHILLIP GLASS - Music |
One of the highlights of this year's Queer Film and Video Festival is a film called "Bent", which literally wears its heart on its sleeve, or rather a pink triangle. It is an adaptation of a famous play by Martin Sherman which reminded the world that the pink triangle of the homosexual was even more reviled in the Nazi concentration camps than was the yellow star of the Jew.
The film opens in hedonistic style showing the over-the-top partying and lovemaking at a Gay Cabaret in Berlin, but quickly moves to a Nazi death camp where the two central characters are set the task of pointlessly moving a pile of stones from one side of the compound to the other and then back again. Max (Clive Owen) has chosen to pass himself off as a Jew, whilst Horst (Lothaire Bluteau) defiantly and proudly wears the pink triangle.
The events in the cabaret featuring Mick Jagger as Greta, the cabaret's main songstress, are intercut with the story of Max's seduction of a young German officer, in full view of his live-in lover Rudy, and approaching stormtroopers. The stormtroopers break into Max and Rudy's house, capture and kill the young German. Max and Rudy escape and go into hiding. Greta, in contrast, becomes George and returns to wife and family.
Max's attempts to secure tickets for he and Rudy to escape the country fail and they are captured and transported by train to the prison camp.
The warm colours of the cabaret scenes are replaced with cold blue/greys and the starkly bare surrounds of the prison yard. The harshness of the scenery we are witnessing are counter-pointed by the elegiac soulful music the soundtrack composed by Phillip Glass. The harsh and cold place is warmed by the growing relationship between the two prisoners.
If you are going to see Rupert Graves (officer on train) or Jude Law (stormtrooper) or even Mick Jagger (Greta/George) - their roles are cameo ones. it is Clive Owen and Lothaire Bluteau who carry the full weight of the film. Their performance are strong and understated.
This film makes a powerful statement. Although there are one or two places where the film seems telling the audiences what they should think, it is visually beautiful with a stunning and very moving soundtrack as mentioned from Philip Glass. Hopefully a distributor will pick the film up for it certainly deserves wider release in Australia.
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