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Excellent but underrated film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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

"Homosexuality is not a topic at all in this movie", Rainer Werner Fassbinder answered in his last interview to Dieter Schidor, "the topic is the identity of everyone and how he gets it" (Robert Fischer, Fassbinder Über Fassbinder, Berlin 2004, p. 621). Querelle, therefore, depicts an Utopian new world, the word "Utopian" having its proper sense, since: "the Brest, as described by Genet, it a totally invented one, it does not exist at all, except perhaps in a bar in Texas" (Fassbinder, Loc. Cit., p. 619). In "Der Bauer Von Babylon", directed by Schidor - a film that, broadcast only once by the German TV, should be put as a special on a new edition of "Querelle"! -, Fassbinder added that, for the first time in his career, he filmed the whole movie in the studio. Fassbinder's art director and Oscar-winner Rolf Zehetbauer had crated a wholly artificial and artistic environment, a ship-like island with the bar in the center. The question why Fassbinder did not decide for any real landscape, he answered: "Because every real environment has something holy". It turns out that what is holy is not holy because it is untouched or untouchable, but it is holy because it bears traces of others who have left them in this particular place, building, table (so-to-say relics, as in the Catholic church). Hence, in a last consequence of Fassbinder's idea, if you choose any establishment to open your set, it always also transports the memories of all those who had been there before. If you walk through the alleys of Vienna - auteur and Nobelpreis-nominee Heimito Von Doderer remarked -, you breathe the smell of the centuries that are in the walls and under the streets. (In this way, metaphysics of everyday-life is born.) Which place you ever choose for your film, it has this "inherited defect" of been metaphysically immersed. The holy is that which bears the traces and therefore will never be yours alone, yet you will never be alone either, if you chose to reside in such places. On the other side, the profane is the untouched, it is profane because it does not bear any traces and thus will not connect you and the centuries past into a "holy" cosmos of memories which only establish you as a part of history, the common history namely of you and the place of your destination. Therefore, it does not astonish that all apocalyptic scenes in Fassbinder's work (e.g. the 14th part of "Berlin Alexanderplatz") are places, where the traces (signs by their very nature) come back to live like it is said to be happen on doomsday. For his "Epilog" to "Alexanderplatz", Fassbinder even had a gigantic cemetery constructed on the set in Geiselgasteig, where the graves open after Biberkopf enters this street, known to him well from his former life, but whose traces he never had seen before. Now they manifest themselves and dance a dance macabre with him as their center.

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

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.