in ‘querelle’ , fassbinders last film in a sweltering set thronging with sweaty bodies in heat, desire only exists in power games. love has no meaning at all except as an act of lurid possession. there is a persistent violence underpinning all the relationships in the film, whether it is the love between the two brothers who resemble each other more that they know, the obsessive love of lieutenant for the young sailor; or the attraction of a murderer for his mirror image.
this violence is claustrophobic and made more so by the theatrical presentation interspersed with quotations and at least two parallel voice-overs. desire manifests itself in acts of becoming by imitation or by possession as same sex love is expressed through acts that provide a foil for a love that cannot be named. these include desiring the same woman as the object of ones desire or killing that object of desire (and a part of oneself). Or as a song in the film goes ‘each man kills the thing he loves’… is that oscar wilde?
1 comment:
Yes Oscar Wilde -
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.
Some love too little, some too long,
Some sell, and others buy;
Some do the deed with many tears,
And some without a sigh:
For each man kills the thing he loves,
Yet each man does not die.
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