About

Originally intended to be made by Werner Schroeter before it was shopped to Sam Peckinpah, John Schlesinger and eventually Fassbinder, Querelle was adapted from Jean Genet's novel, though the credits state that it is actually "a film about Jean Genet's Querelle de Brest." This differentiation is evidenced immediately by the film's dreamy artificiality: the phallic set pieces are garish and outlandishly fake, the lighting surreal and theatrical. When the handsome sailor Querelle (Brad Davis) lands in the port of Brest, he wastes no time getting into trouble. At the local brothel run by Lysiane (Jeanne Moreau), Querelle runs into his brother Robert (Hanno Pöschl), whom he has a complex, unseemly relationship with. Though Lysiane is in love with Querelle, she uses Robert as a substitute, and Querelle allows himself to be taken by Lysiane's husband Nono (Günther Kaufmann). After arranging a drug deal with Nono, things go sour when Querelle ends up murdering his accomplice. From there he quickly finds himself on a path of betrayal and self-destruction. Just three weeks into editing Querelle, Fassbinder died of a drug overdose at the age of 37.

R18+

R18+