Thank god gays have come so far that we do so much better than this in our film today. I haven’t seen Berlin Alexanderplatz , and I know for a time this sort of film style was all the rage, but still. I suppose I know nothing of high culture or literature, but I’m glad my gay male friends understand me and women in general a little differently than the people behind this exercise in self-importance. NSFW video of one scene from it that is just too much in this day and age below.
Seriously, there are days I’m glad to have been born in this section of the tragic comedy that is human history. It could be worse.
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I Can Do One Better
Since this is a political blog, I can top this easy. Rambo III.
In Rambo III you will learn about a noble group of Afghan Freedom Fighters called the Mujahadeen/Taliban who are fighting the dastardly Russians. The Mujahadeen are a noble and righteous people who share our love of freedom and democracy. They can be trusted with our Stinger missles and other weaponry.
I think it's lost on a lot of us
what your objection to the scene is. My sense is that the scene is about ritualized debasement but I haven’t seen the film in decades - so what do I know?
Wherein I defend Fassbinder
CD, I take your point as to the betterment of acceptance today of many aspects of being gay, and a betterment of many ways of being gay, although because I can’t get the video to play (not a problem here, my Foxfire just doesn’t play YouTube stuff), but I do think here at Corrente, we should stop short of making assumptions about films and those who make them that we haven’t actually seen.
Fassbinder was a born filmmaker, a genuine “autheur,” who was incapable of committing anything but his own vision to film, and he was never “the rage,” except in the sense that people who take film seriously took him seriously. Let me add that it is also perfectly possible to take film seriously and to love movies; the happy few don’t have to be the enemy of the contented many.
“Alexanderplatz” is an extraordinary 15 hour episode film, done for German television, but a cohesive epic film in total, well worth the attention of anyone who loves films. It’s been remastered and is now available on DVD, and you can probably rent it at Netflix. I believe that Querelle was his last film; I saw it a number of years ago and it isn’t a personal favorite.
A good place to begin experiencing Fassbinder might be “Ali: Fear Eats The Soul,” which was the first of his films I saw. It knocked my socks off. It’s about the relationship between a much younger Turkish guest worker in Germany and a sixty year old German charwoman, the outer prejudice that almost destroys them and the inner tensions within this colonial relationship that are even more difficult to confront.
He also worked with some amazing actors who were unknown outside of Germany until he used them in his films. Another recommendation, “The Marriage of Maria Braun,” which is a penetrating and prescient look at West Germany society.
Let me be clear; I’m not quarreling with CD’s perception about a change she is honoring in how gays are portrayed and how they view themselves, nor even about her take on the embedded clip. There’s no doubt that Fassbinder’s own gayness played a complicated and ambivalent role in his films; I’m only arguing that so did genius.
thank you leah. it's hard to absorb some queer culture
easily and without cringing. same thing with some blacksploitation type stuff, stuff that “the older generation” or “the younger generation” seems to accept. i recall, sort of and only vaguely, the love affair a lot of critics seemed to be having with Fassbinder back in the day. i used to read a lot more film writing than i do now, and people just gushed about BA. but this was interesting to me for what it is today in the queer community. which is- a nice movie to have on in the club, sound off. best observed while not sober, etc.
anyhoo- i’m glad you’re not a fan of this movie. you know how netflix works; it “helps” you pick things you haven’t seen based on which movies you have seen and what rating you’ve given them. i watch a lot of queer film. this kept coming up, in the “if you like X, you’ll like…” suggestion box. it was *painful.* the misogyny, the racism, the stereotypes, the self-important melodrama…seriously, i kept thinking, “how can anyone take these people seriously?” when you’re a filmmaker, it’s easy to make stinkers. but this one said so much about the people who thought it a good idea to translate into a film project.
all i’m really saying is, “we’ve come a long way, baby.” the queer community is making great cultural product today, and as much as i envy them for their clothes, i’m sooooooo glad i was born into this age, and not the previous ones. lesbians must have been for the most part utterly invisible.