Gay

Bv KEVIN Moss

biopic about Magnus
‘Hirschfeld (1868-1935), pio-
neer of the German homosexual
emancipation movement, was
made by Rosa von Praunheim, a
pioneer of German gay liberation
cinema. ‘
7 ‘Director Rosa von
Praunheim was born Holger
Mischwitzky in Riga, Latvia,
moved to the Praunheim district
of Frankfurt and took the name
Rosa to remind people of the pink
triangle homosexuals wore in
concentration camps. Von
Praunheim shot the first gay lib-
eration film of the second wave
movement: It Is Not the
Homosexual Who Is Perverse,
But'the Situation in Which He
Lives (1971). He has gone on to
make numerous films about
-homosexuality, older women,
AIDS, and transvestism, notably I
Am My Own Woman, about the
East German transvestite
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.
Hirschfeld founded the
Scientific Humanitarian
Committee, the first homosexual

It seems appropriate that the

 

emancipation organization in the
world, in 1897. He edited the first
scientific journal of homosexuali-
ty, the Journal of Sexual
Intermediaries, and established
the Institute of Sexual Science in
1919. He even made a cameo
appearance in the first positive
film about homosexuality,
Diflerent from the Others (1919).
The Einstein of Sex fol.-

lows Hirschfeld’s life from his
childhood, when he is fascinated
by animals copulating on the
beach, through his university
days, when he objects to the
accepted pathologization of
homosexuals. The suicide of a _
homosexual army officer he had
turned away and news of the
Oscar Wilde trials (the second of
which resulted in a prison term
for the author for being a practic-
ing homosexual) prompt him to
write an apology for homosexual-
ity, Sappho and Socrates, but this
move also alienates his aunt and
uncle, who had supported him
financially.

Pioneer in a
Perverse Situation

Pioneering emaneipator Magnus Hirschfeld’s
centticted personality is portrayed in Rosa von
Praunheim’s.1999 biopic “The Einstein of Sex”

Hirschfeld finds a some-
times ally in Adolf Brand, editor
of the journal Der Eigene (The
Special), who leads a circle of

* - men and boys who practice nud-
, ism and have a cult of male beau-

ty based on Classical models.
Hirschfeld finds help and support
along the way in his relationships
with three significant figures: a
young baron who eventually flees
to Italy to escape blackmail;
Dorchen, a transgender woman
who botches her self~perfoi-med
sex change and becomes
Hirschfeld’s maid; and Karl
Giese, a young disciple who
defends Hirschfeld when he is
physically attacked. Karl
becomes Hirschfeld’s first real
lover, and he is crushed that he
cannot accompany Hirschfeld on
his tour to America and the Far
East. Instead he remains behind
to defend the Institute in an
increasingly hostile Germany.

Hirschfeld never returns
to Germany, dying abroad after
his beloved Institute is sacked by
Nazis. '

Unlike most of von
Praunheim’s radical fihns, this
one is a straightforward narrative
and historically accurate. (A con-

cise scholarly account of
Hirschfeld’s life can be found in
James Steakley’s classic
Homosexual Emancipation
Movement in Germany [Arno
Press, 1975]. A more literary
description of Hirschfeld’s milieu
appears in Christopher
Isherwood’s Christopher and his
Kind. The visit to Berlin that led
to Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories
and then Cabaret was really
prompted by asearch for boys.
Isherwood even stayed at
Hirschfeld’s Institute, which must
have become a kind of an interna-
tional intellectual andcultural
center for homosexuals).

Von Praunheim shows
not only the landmarks in
Hirschfeld’s professional life, but
also the many conflicts he
encountered along the way.
Private/public: while urging many
homosexuals to live their lives
openly, Hirschfeld himself was
celibate through much of his life
so as not to jeopardize his public
efforts towards legalization and
acceptance of homosexuality.
Masculine/feminine: Hirschfeld’s
theory of homosexuals as a third
sex intermediary between man
and woman was rejected by
Brand and others, who called it
"swishy" and "too efifeminate."

. And finally, Nazi/Jew:
Hirschfeld’s Jewish background
was a potential liability for the
movement as German anti-

- Semitism blossomed. On one

hand the movement could be
rejected simply because its leader
was Jewish; on the other hand
attacks on Hirschfeld’s Institute
by the Nazis could be written off
as anti-Semitic rather than anti-
homosexual by potential allies.
Even outing as a political tactic is
raised in the film, as it was in
Hirschfeld’s actual life: his par-_
ticipation in the Eulenberg scan-
dal (in which a number of aristo-
crats were “outed”) was a politi-
cal blunder it took years to recov-
er from.

_ In spite of this serious
historical material, von *
Praunheim’s film is not without
its queer kitsch value and its
sense of humor. The acting, as
one might expect from a low-
budget film with many personnel
debuts, is sometimes less than
compelling. The seriousness of
occasional documentary footage
is leavened by perhaps more
scenes than needed of Brand’s

band of young nudists frolicking
in nature with beach balls or pos-
ing in museums amo_ng Classical
nude statues. Of course this all is
historically accurate.

The two camp poles of
humor are Hirschfeld’s conserva-
tive aunt, who covers her eyes
when she visits her nephew’s

office so as not to see his collec-

tion of phallic objects, and
Dorchen, the ballsy transgender
maid, who in one scene demon-
strates the use of one of these
objects — a pedal-operated mov-
ing dildo. I

The objects themselves
are amusing, especially the giant
phallus made from an elephant’s
tusk and the 18th Century Asian
masturbation box Hirschfeld him-
self is caught using in one scene.
But it is Dorchen who in a penul-
timate scene steals the show:
when the Nazi youth ransack the
Institute and _beat her erstwhile
rival Karl, she returns and lets her
hair down to give them a classic
tongue—lashing that cows even the
Nazis into retreat. Hell hath no
fury like a transgender maid in
the Institute of Sexual Science!

The final scene of the
film is the ultimate irony, but
again historically accurate:
Hirschfeld learned of the destruc-
tion of his lifelong dream, the
Institute for Sexual Science, from
a newsreel he saw in a Paris

‘movie theater. Many readers may

not realize that the pictures of
Nazi book-bumings shown the
world over featured Hirschfeld’s
library, which was the Nazis’ first
target. Hirschfeld died shortly
thereafter, unable to establish a
new Institute in France. His lover
Karl committed suicide in 1938.
Dorchen’s fate is unknown.

Von Praunheim’s loving
homage to the pioneer of sex
research and homosexual emanci-
pation is definitely worth watch-
ing, both entertaining and inform-
ative. Magnus Hirschfeld should
be remembered, and Rosa von
Praunheim’s film makes him
memorable. V

Kevin Moss teaches at
Middlebuijy College and pursues
non-academic interests in
Montreal.

Haynes

00nt'd fro revious page .

and balance; his job, in part, was to make
shocking what — for most people today ..— is
no longer so. For the few dramatic out-
bursts that occur to resonate, everything
else had to be muted. The dialogue —
restricted almost entirely to stock movie

lingo — is all about what isn’t said. The
actors were forced to do a lot with very lit-
tle, and they all succeed beautifully.
Indeed, Far From Heaven is performances
are as stunning as its cinematography.
Perhaps because of the film’s
emotional subtlety, at the screening 1
attended a row of young women behind
me were decidedly less impressed than I
was. “It was depressing, boring, and noth-

ings.

ing happens,” they huffed as the closing
credits rolled. I guess we all have our own
definition of “nothing,” though it is true
Hayhes’s films hardly have blockbuster
pacing,-and — unlike even Sirk — he doesn’t
promise requisite happy Hollywood end-

bility. If it does, Far From Heaven is an
ideal follow-up meal. If it doesn’t, at least
Lord of the Rings has our own Sir Ian to
recommend it. V

Ernie McLeod lives and writes in

Middlebury — and sometimes in Montreal.

If you missed Far From Heaven
in the theaters, rent All That Heaven
Allows and see if it whets your gay sensi-