QUERELLE (1982) | Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Starring Brad Davis, adapted from Jean Genet’s 1947 novel, it was Fassbinder's last film, released shortly after his death at the age of 37. It was the most overtly gay film I had ever seen at the time. Fassbinder shot the film with expressionist color and heavy symbolism, largely phallic, almost comically so. Edmund White, Fassbiner’s biographer, said, "Everything is bathed in an artificial light and the architectural elements are all symbolic.” Um, yeah. I saw the film in grad school, when all things homoerotic were being filtered through a Marxist lens. I remember watching the film and, mouth agape, laughed out loud at the imagery, it was so incredibly heavy-handed and obvious. Later, I learned about the actor Brad Davis and his contributions to LGBTQ cinema, especially his portrayal of characters who are queer and bringing a humanity to them. He died of AIDS at 41.
