Bent (1997)
by Sean Mathias
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Clive Owen, Ian McKellen, Lothaire Bluteau, Mick Jagger, Nikolaj Coster-WaldauDirector: Sean Mathias
Producer: Christian Martin
Producer: Dixie Linder
Producer: Hisami Kuroiwa
Producer: Martin Sherman
Writer: Martin Sherman
Producer: Michael Solinger
Producer: Sarah Radclyffe
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: NTSC
Running Time: 105 minutes
Release Date: 1999-05-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Orion
Studio: Orion
VHS Movie Reviews of Bent (1997)
Movie Review: From party animal to deep commitment
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is catching. It provides an insight from a German guy, living changes in the "gay" lifestyle at the begining of the Nazi Period. Although not being a documentary, it is a "could be" movie. At the begining of the film we are in a wild club with fancy and trendy people flirts, watch "modern" performances and enjoy and industrial envoiromen. It reproduces the mood of early 30's Berlin, were "gay life" was active in clubs like EL DORADO, bistros and even gay and lesbian magazines like Die Freundschaft. Life is a party for Max, the main character. However, Nazi politics, which includes homosexuals witch-hunt, is the end of that golden era. It is not mentioned in the film, but although that active gay life, there were a law against homosexuality (Paragraph 173). That is a reminder for us now, it is not only important to have social tolerance or acceptance, but to be sure laws are changed for not raising among the dead and haunt us in the most unexpected moment. Max meeting a self-confident guy at a concentration camp will make him understand the differences between sex and love. Although being a similar theme to A LOVE TO HIDE, the French film is more oriented on external situations of being gay in France, focusing on police activity, concentration camps abuses and even mentioning castration, hormones experiments and cerebral interventions with homosexuals. BENT is more introspective about being gay in a hostile envoiroment, as well as personal evolution from egocentrism to commitment. A touching film to see and talk about with friends.
Summary of Bent (1997)
Bent debuted onstage in 1979 with Ian McKellen starring in the London production and Richard Gere in its later Broadway version. The film version is adapted by the playwright, Martin Sherman, and closely follows his play's story of two gay concentration camp victims who are sent to Dachau and who fall in love, using their relationship as an emotional crutch in their efforts to rebuff the horror of the Holocaust. Max (Clive Owen), would rather wear a yellow star and proclaim himself a Jew than be lanced with the pink triangle that designates homosexuality. Horst, (Lothaire Bluteau) chastises him for his homophobia. Later the tables turn on Max, who finds--through Horst--the strength both to keep alive indefinitely and to ultimately embrace his sexual identity.Initially set in a war-ravaged Berlin, Bent is directed by Sean Mathias, who first directed Jude Law in Indiscretions, and he has crafted a film that reminds one of Ian McKellen's Richard III with its spare, stylized, and stark world bombed into rubble and chic theatrical disarray. There are many poignant as well as harrowing scenes, and the result is a somber work that stands as a reminder that intolerance cannot overtake individualism and love. While Bent received an NC-17 rating for depicting Berlin's decadent, anything-goes-for-a-price nightlife, MGM opted not to edit out the tone-setting prelude and pushed to preserve the film's integrity despite a rating that is itself a kind of death for any film that bears it. --Paula Nechak
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