Bent

Rating:
Summary: Theatre on screen
Review: In today's world of multi-million-dollar-budget films it's easy to develop high expectations. We're accustomed now to realities whose sights and sounds have been tweaked by talent and technology to perfection--we see exactly what the director hoped we would, rather than settling for less-impressive, but more-thoughtful, innuendos and visual metaphors.

So in some ways it's refreshing to partake of a lower-budget production like Bent. The world of staged theatre is a simpler, more intellectual one than that of cinema, and too often an exquisitely crafted stage play is "technologized" beyond recognition when it is shot for the screen. But, no doubt because playwright Martin Sherman himself adapted the screenplay, Bent still feels as nakedly thoughtful as the best small-cast stage dramas.

The story centers on the relationship between Max, a gay jew in Hitler's Germany, and Horst, whose character is introduced in such a way that we're half-surprised to realize later in the film that he's the same person we met on the train. But that is the beauty of the playwright's craft: in art, as in life, people we meet as "passing strangers" can come to touch us profoundly.

The sets Mathias chooses as backdrops for the story are far from accurate historically, but they are perfectly chosen to support the mood of the film--Max and Horst, like the star-crossed lovers in a Shakespeare tragedy, are lonely pawns to forces much larger than they. Indeed, Bent offers the most tragically romantic scenes of any film I've seen. Two lovers, brought together by the same forces that keep them forever apart, survive on fantasy and suggestion in a world where life, in so many ways, has no meaning.

Bent is not a "feel-good" movie. But again, the art of Bent allows us to find a strange sort of peace in the lives and loves of two strangers who met on a train.

Rating:
Summary: Evocative of a stage play, important material
Review: The movie has been set to feel a bit more like a stage play than a film, but it works nonetheless. It covers the story of two gay men who meet in a Nazi death camp and a very inspiring if ultimately tragic love story. Gays and lesbians are the often-forgotten victims of the Holocaust, and this movie and the play it is based on are important, also, because of its contribution to Holocaust studies in general. Mick Jager's unusual appearance as a drag queen is also interesting. As a source of education, there is some sexual content that makes the film inappropriate for use in high school classrooms without a bit of editing, but I think unedited material is very well suited to a college classroom--and is essential viewing for anyone interested in the Holocaust. An important piece of GLBT heritage.

Rating:
Summary: For dedicated homophiles with strong stomachs only
Review: This is the story of the concentration camp inmates forced to wear the pink triangle, symbol of their homosexuality.

This film was formerly a successful play and perhaps it succeeded because of its shocking topic, but this director is no Steven Spielberg. Never did I feel one bit of realism or sympathy for the characters although the brutality was unceasing and the story intense. For example, a boxcar scene which might have worked in a play was just too stagy, and the camera lingered much too lovingly over attractive semi-nude male bodies. We've found out by then, of course, that the title, Bent, refers to the shape of the lead character's male organ although there were no camera shots of this. The dialog seemed contrived, the prisoners all looked too healthy and fit, and, while this film might be applauded for handling, at last, a forbidden topic, it just didn't work as a film. Even Mick Jagger, miscast in the role of a drag queen who runs a nightclub in Berlin, just couldn't save it.

Rating:
Summary: Streets of Berlin
Review: This movie has to be one of the best I have ever seen! Usually you'll see Holocaust persecution of the Jews, but you get to see a rare glimpse of the homosexual hatred inflicted by the Nazis in this film. We are introduced to Max, a handsome man who is enjoying the colorful nightlife of Berlin when a sexual encounter with a soldier puts his life in danger. Caught by the Nazis, he meets Horst on a train heading for one of the concentration camps, a fellow homosexual who shows him how to survive and later how to love. If you're looking for fast paced action and dazzling special effects, go rent some cheesy action flick. Yet if you want to see heart-wrenching drama then this is your movie to see. Mick Jagger also entertains with a colorful performance of "Streets of Berlin."

Rating:
Summary: A story long overdue!
Review: While not quite on the level of Polanski's 'Pianist' or Spielberg's 'Schindler's List,' Sean Mathias' 'Bent,' deserves serious praise for telling the story of the Holocaust's homosexual victims. Well-acted and with a stark, minimalist, stage-like background, the film follows the plight of decadent Berlin party boy, Max (Clive Owen), through his humiliations at the hands of the Nazi hate machine.

The beginning goes a bit oveboard in trying to recapture the decadence of pre-war Berlin, where temporal pleasures were everything. Max lives as if death will come knocking any moment. As it almost does, when he takes a handsome SA boy to his bed, complete ignorant of what will follow. Barely escaping, he slowly realizes his days of fun and freedom are at an end. As the Nazi apparatus gains momentum in crushing its 'undesirables,' Max finds himself slipping into a hell he can hardly fathom. In one of the films most powerful scenes, Max is forced to watch (and even help!) the sadistic murder of his lover. Unable to accept the nightmare all around him, he tries to deny its existence. He lulls himself to sleep mumbling, 'that this isn't happening,' unable the see the Nazi machine for what it was. Broken and ashamed of refusing to help his friend, nor even acknowledging their relationship, Max reaches Dachau vowing to survive even if it means falling to the lowest depths of cowardice. Making deals with the guards (and even prostituting himself to them), Max refuses to accept the lowest status in the camps, that of homosexual. He naively believes that his 'juden' designation will save him from this horror.

The great strength of this film is it's portrayal of Max's transformation. At the beginning of the film, we see a character whose gayness is synonomous with selfish pleasure seeking. By the end of the film, Max finally begins to love and accept himself. Moreover, he learns the value of loving somebody. Max's metamorphosis is the result of his relationship with Horst (Lothaire Bluteau), who dares to love Max at all costs. Horst is the catalyst, who gives Max the strength to finally 'be' who he truly is.

The film has retained many elements from its stage production. The simple backdrops of the train, of Berlin, and of the work camps around Dachau, all serve to focus the viewer on the interaction between Max and Horst. And it all works surprisingly well. The brutal train scenes are intense and difficult to watch. Likewise, the scene where Max and Horst make love without even touching is mesmerizing. Everything is stripped down to its most elemental features. Survival, humiliation and love, all reduced to their most basic forms.

On the other hand, other theatrical elements weakened the film. The sensual circus atmosphere of the opening scenes complete with a draggish Jagger could have all been left on the stage. They did't really work here. A bit too freakish like some sort of macabre musical. Also, the five-minute segment of Ian McKellan's character seemed completely superflous. Who was he? And where was the connection with Max and Horst? No doubt a denizen of gay Berlin, his appearance, nonetheless, didn't really add to the drama.

In conclusion, Bent is a tautly woven tale of redemption. A testament to the omnipotence of love and its magical ability to create heaven in the midst of hell. Well-worth the watch!