'Querelle' (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)

I am a pretty huge Fassbinder fan - I consider him way ahead of his time and I'm not even talking about his sexuality, but rather as just an auteur, independent filmmaker. He made something like 50 films including TV and the quality varies wildly based on a lot of stuff - shooting schedules, lack of time, money, his level of drug use, etc - but very rarely does his talent level let a film down - he was insanely talented. Too talented you could argue - he exploded in a million directions at once.

Querelle I think is an example of his drug use getting in the way because he doesn't have control of it. I would say if he had made the film earlier in his career - even just a couple of years earlier - it wouldn't have seemed so experimental and would have a stronger focus. But Fassbinder had made some of his most acclaimed films in the 2 years prior and it sadly went to his head in a cocaine fueled headrush on Querelle - he was essentially indulging himself in every way here.

To me, the most revealing films he made with a gay focus are Bitter Tears of Perta von Kant, Fox and His Friends (masterpiece) and In A Year Of 13 Moons and all of them are a deeply unpleasant because Fassbinder is not a queer liberated artist imo - I am going to get killed for this, lol - but my slant on him is that he in effect hates sexuality in and of itself - gay or straight - he was both and that's crucial because he hates it in himself too - he loves genuine love and compassion.

Fassbinder imo would have hated Carol and CMBYN and their preciseness for example - he would have found them a flat out lie I bet and that's just one of the many reasons a lot of younger fans looking for a gay filmmaker, can't figure him out.

Querelle is the weirdest of all things - it isn't precise, it isn't Carol or CMBYN it is a mess of source material and the filmmaker who was destined to make it, actually did make it, but at the wrong time.

Oh yes those are his best. I like 13 moons the most.

For me in general I love when American actors turn up in films or for foreign directors you wouldn't expect like Richard Crenna in Un Flic or better yet Lancaster in The Leopard. Here I think there are some elements of why I like it - there's a good uneasiness about both - especially for Davis who has to react to a lot of things because of how stylized Querelle is - he's not acting as much as reacting which usually causes big problems for actors (Lawrence in mother! is the most recent case).

O'Neal is sort of a different thing to me because you could say he's miscast and the miscasting pays some weird dividends - he seems out of place, which is appropriate to what his character is and much of the film is concerned with appearances and reality - so you get some "other" with the casting.

I guess one way to look at it is Fassbinder could have cast a lot of actors but not many more game or willing to serve his purposes in that version ........O'Neal brings something vacuous to his presence there - like Redford say would be better I suppose but he wouldn't be a better fool perhaps at least in the way Kubrick goes about shooting it. Like I can't picture anybody else playing that part because I can't picture anybody else making it and the guy who made it cast him and the guy who made it IS the movie - for good or bad depending on your POV.

I haven't seen Querelle but I'm curious - pacinoyes @tyler etc - who has seen Despair w Bogarde? Fassbinder's first English-language pic and I believe the only project he did that he didn't also write? I've been recently wondering if it's worth seeking out...