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Film / Querelle

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The admittedly unsubtle poster.

Querelle (1982) is German New Wave director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's final film. Based on the classic novel Querelle de Brest by Jean Genet, it is a tale of murder and lust, shot on a deliberately unrealistic and dreamlike sound stage filled with homoerotic imagery. It stars Brad Davis as Querelle, Franco Nero as Lieutenant Seblon, and Jeanne Moreau as Lysaine. It is a classic piece of both queer and arthouse cinema.

The film is in English, with some intertitles in French.


Tropes found in this film include:

  • Fanservice: The film is full of muscular, butch men in tight clothes and contains a number of sex scenes.
  • Frame-Up: Querelle arranges for the murder he committed to be blamed on Gil.
  • Hello, Sailor!: Querelle (a sailor) is lusted after by the lieutentant and has sexually charged interactions with various men (as well as actual sex).
  • Leatherman: The clothes worn by the corrupt police officer who frequents the bar are suggestive of this archetype.
  • Le Film Artistique: Due to the dreamlike style, intentionally stilted acting, and bizarrely sexual set pieces Querelle certainly counts.
  • Manly Gay: Querelle, Nono, and various others (though some might be more Manly Bisexuals than Manly Gays).
  • Port Town: Brest, the setting of the film.
  • Sex Sells: An especially homoerotic example. Unusually for this trope, the huge stone penis actually appears in the film as part of the brothel set (there's four of them - one for each corner).


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