Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a rewatch.
The Gut Punch: Bent
This week commemorated the fallen victims of the Holocaust with Holocaust Memorial Day. While pop culture tends to shorthand the Holocaust as a purging of Jewish people from Europe, the Nazis didn’t stop there: Poles, communists, the handicapped and political prisoners were targeted as well, along with LGBTQ people.
Bent the 1997 film by Sean Mathias, retells the story of the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust era. Clive Owen stars as Max, a gay man enjoying the hedonistic life of 1930s Berlin (see also: Cabaret). During the Night of Long Knives, soldiers arrest Max and his boyfriend, sending them off to a concentration camp. There, Max faces homophobia from his fellow prisoners. Ultimately, he must face an awful truth: that living as a gay man will cost him everything, and in the cruelest way possible.
Audiences couldn’t quite stomach Bent when the film debuted given its subject matter, and given director Mathais’ controversial decision to make the film evolve from a drama into an outright horror picture over the course of its runtime. That said, the movie does tell an important, if oft-overlooked part of the Holocaust narrative. Owen gives a fine, credible performance in the lead, while Ian McKellen and Mick Jagger (as a drag queen) play key supporting roles. Paul Bettany, Rachel Weisz and Jude Law also have early bit parts, adding to the film’s mystique.
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Given the passage of Holocaust Memorial Day, the ongoing conversation about systemic racism and the disquieting coziness between certain Republican politicians and the neo-Nazi Alt-Right movement, Bent feels oddly prescient–perhaps more so today than when it hit screens 23 years ago. Gritty, operatic, and painful, we offer up Bent as a memorial to the past, and a reminder: even when queer culture flourishes, there are always dark figures standing just outside the door.
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Mattster
It’s not easy to watch, nor should it be.
Note that gay people were the only ones persecuted by the nazis whose legal persecution continued after the war. More than 140,000 people, mostly gay men, were prosecuted under Paragraph 175 (see the excellent documentary of the same name) of the legal code after WW2. Many lost their jobs, fled the country, or committed suicide. Paragraph 175 was not repealed until 1994!
Kangol2
To be clear, Paragraph 175 in German law. It was not repealed by Germany until 1994.
ProudBLK Gay
I agree with the comments made by Mattster.
This movie is challenging to watch but well made. It offers the viewer a direct eye-opening experience of what it was like being a member of the LGBTQ community in Natzi, Germany!
I remember seeing the Gay Pink Triangle monument with my husband while visiting Amsterdam, and it has never left me.
Given the current insanity that appears to be enveloping our nation, we’d all do well to learn a lesson from this well-made but admittedly disturbing film!
James Oldman
Will definitely watch for the movie. It has always bothered me that whenever the Holocaust comes up that you seldom see anything about the gay side of it.
Believe the book is called “The Men of the Pink Triangle”, it should be required reading for students studying the Holocaust. At the time the book was published, I think in the 80’s Canadian Customs in Vancouver banned the book on obscenity grounds. Had to buy a copy in Blaine and smuggle it across the border. Never did see what was considered obscene.
As the old saying goes if you don’t study history it will repeat it self. For our southern friends watch your political leaders over the next few elections. You are in a very scary position.
jayceecook
This is a fantastic film and Clive Owen and Lothaire Bluteau give amazing performances. The scene on the train with Max and his then lover is excruciating to watch. Most of the film is and as others have said should be.
I was amazed how they incorporated one of the most important parts of the play it’s based on into the film without if seeming out of place. It’s an oft forgotten but very important piece of queer cinema.
xiphoid76
There is a fantastic book called the Iron Words, by Michael Fridgen about this topic – is is historical fiction. Hard to read at times – the atrocities done by the Nazis in the concentration camps to the gay community is far too much. The Iron Words is the tale of a 90+ year old gay concentration camp survivor and his unlikely friendship with a college student.
More should be known about this time in history.
Vince
I watched this movie when it first came out. Loved it so much I brought a friend a week later to watch it.