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).