Wall

Bizarrely has the reputation as 'lesser Fassbinder' (too stylized? too sexual? too queer?) but for me its his most ALIVE. A beautiful experience, erotic, melancholy, hilarious. The queers in this film are armed with switchblades, tough, violent, funny and refuse to be labeled, this is a delirious glimpse of what gay film could have been like before it went all bland, inoffensive, domestic and overly corporate.

T. J. Harman

8May12

I haven't read the novel, Querelle yet but I've read other Genet novels and I have to say that of all the movies based on his writing or written by Genet (including the short film Genet himself directed) this movie comes the closest at getting the atmosphere his prose and imagination created.

fleur de chair

6Mar12

I often despair that that no one has been able to do Genet any justice on film. Both Fassbinder and Todd Haynes, huge Genet fans, have made left-of-center attempts that flopped spectacularly.

oldeuboi

3Feb12

Weird in every senses. And don't let me start with the dialogues. Even weirder, it's quite amusing to watch. At least once.

Franz Walsch

31Dec11

i finally got around to watching querelle. i'm not sure whether it is a masterpiece or whether it's absolutely terrible....it's bizarre how experimental it is, harking back to his earlier films and disregarding the later more conventional ones with everything but the visual fassbinder look which is taken to glorious new heights in this film, if only he had lived to be able to do the voiceover...

ramosbarajas likes this

DeJardinblum

18Oct11

The film stands as an operatic labyrinth of nihilism and discovery, a prophetic externalization of Fassbinder's subjectivity: artist, murderer, lover. Though its breath seems restricted to the air of his work and life, its lungs are vast and loving and revelling at the end of a nightmare. In his own remarks on Querelle: "The ultimate goal of all human endeavor: to live one's own life."

Joshuah

3Jul11

captures some of Fassbinder's artistic heights (the color, set design), and brad davis is ever so indulgent... but this feels uneven and silly. not among his most impressive films, however not one that should be ignored either.

coralie

20Dec10

my rainer werner fassbinder s favorite movie

Blue K, Custodian of the Cinema

12May10

I realized that when the sight of a 70 year old Jeanne Moreau singing an atrocious song set to Oscar Wilde's words actually provided me with a sense of comfort, I couldn't be converted in spite of Fassbinder's gargantuan efforts. Man, Rainer did not go gently into that good night.