The Cinema of Sexual Disorientation early 20 years after it N was first produced on ‘ Broadway (starring Richard Gere, no less), Martin Shennan’s play Bent has been transformed into a cinematic experience as provocative and unsettling as the original. Though it enjoyed only a limited run in arthouse theaters throughout the US, the film is now avail- able for rent and purchase through Orion Home Video. Set in Berlin just before and after the “Night of the Long Knives,” when Hitler purged his government of undesirable elements such as homosexuals, Bent follows Max" and his lover Rudy as they are left homeless by the violence and subsequently transported to a concentration camp. During the train ride, Max is forced to take part in the murder of his partner and then, in an effort to disguise hislsexuality and earn a yel- low star (for Jews) rather than a pink triangle (for gays), . forced to make love to a dead woman. From there, the movie becomes even more somber and depressing. Max spends his days in the concentration camp moving rocks from one pile to another and then back again. Eventually, he bribes a guard into providing him with company — a gay man named Horst whom Max encountered on the train ride. Through their words alone (the two never touch until the very end), Max and Horst develop an intimate relation- ship, and in the course of their own dwindling sanity, speak to the nature and expression of gay love itself in a time of unspeakable oppression. Despite the crumbling grandeur of its opening scenes, during which Mick Jagger offers his own gender- bending take on the cabaret, Bent quickly devolves into a filmed stage performance. Sherman’s original dialogue, once stunning in its minimal ‘ simplicity and reminiscent of the Socratic dialogues, sounds contrived and forced in the cinematic context. Even the play’s most famous interchange — a scene in which Max and Horst achieve orgasms solely by talking about sex — lacks authentic spirit or spark on film. It’s a prime example of where the-. ater triumphs over cinema; in perfonnance, one can almost Bent, a review by Hugh Coule smell the sweat of the actors , as they struggle back and forth across the stage. On the screen, it seems sanitized, a mere distillation of the actor’s physical presence. Heavy symbolic overtones eclipse the passion at the heart of the play. The barren the countless gay men who were imprisoned _along with the Jews and gypsies in con- centration camps — and sub- sequently left_ there to die even after the Allied forces “liberated” the camps. It forced its -audiences to grap- ple with graphic sexual con- "A LIFE-AFFIRMIN6‘ FILM 0F RARE POWER AND PAS.S'ION!" — Rex Resp rock pile (set in an ironically stage-like place in the movie) drains the color and life out of Max and Horst too quick- ly; when they are finally forced into moving snow, the A transformation has already taken place: they have become corpses too soon. Even so, the movie labors on, making its points in bold and bludgeoning gestures. As both playwright and screen- writer, Sherman could have expanded the scope and vision of the play, offering a rare glimpse at the societies of gay men imprisoned in the concentration camps. Instead, he remains focused on the isolated duo of Max and Horst, asking them to stand for all gay men. What results is a movie in which the ulti- mate deaths of the main char- acters hearkens back to the dark days of gay representa- tion in the movies, when the only good queer was a dead queer. As a play, Bent was a milestone work. It demanded that we consider the lives of tent. At the same time, the play brought into the light the symbolic pink triangle, and transformed it from a badge of criminal shame into a sym- bol of hope and freedom by the end ‘of the story. In the movie, these points are hard-won. Though it earns high marks for its depiction of an often over- looked historical fact, Bent suffers from its own bleak consideration of sexual orien- tation and, by its conclusion, will probably leave most viewers feeling uncomfort- ably dis-oriented.V Bent Available on video in May DIRECTED BY: Sean Mathias STARRING: Lothaire Bluteau, Clive Owen, Brian Webber SPECIAL APPEARANCES BY: Sir Ian McKellen and Mick Jagger t‘it ‘is»ei=ia'bvonétneadiho. ans: 1%‘ .':non RHODES & THE BACK roncu PLAYERS - 7 gj tunes lroinliiclt Kovacks, Anqieloliver, Mitch Barron, , ‘if,.‘&DouqRil_eyTi):T " I - - I nnmnow CATTLE co. , nnn'r'r|.I:3on‘o, V1‘ UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT DANCE TO LATEST CLUB MUSIC FRIDAY & SATURDAY LEVI-LEATHER LAST SATURDAY or EACH MONTH OPEN AT 8PM WEDNESDAY THRU SUNDAY 940 US RT. 5, BETWEEN EXITS 3&4 or? 1-91 soz-254-ssao www.together.netl~cattleco 3 an at .\ WE'RE on THE Come See the New Digs! I ‘E ° Bridge Street Entrance ' ' Increased Seating ° Ex d d M _, ' W/I{1)‘: 5/20. “ ’ f ITAMARACK -- Wicked New England traditional ‘ * 5/2,1; . opfainikeiiigg.;:izRnIibY,L:i'r “‘ Iijootkstprtiiif7;1fii'iisIc, mu SERVED ‘ma THE T.V. SHOW BY. FOR AND ABOUT VERMONT'S L/G/B/T COMMUNIITY AND OUR SUPPORTERS! Sit back and enjoy our May program filled with news, resources and an informative interview with Robert Simpson, from Vermont GLBT Pride — PROGRAM SCHEDULE and VIEWING INFO — Adelphia (CH. 15) (Greater Burlington area) Fri 9pm Adelphia (CH. 15) (Montpelier, Waterbury, Randolph) 2nd & 4th Fri 7:30pm Lakechamplain (C H. 2) 1st & 2nd Mon 11pm and 1st & 2nd Wed. 10pm Helicon (CH. 7) (Barre) 2nd & 4th Mon 8:30pm BCTV (CH. 8) (Brattieboro) call 257-0888 for air days/time MCTV (Middlebury, E. 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