Queer Ko: 1970s and ‘80s Gay German Arthoe Cema - Kospe

Contents:

• QUEER KO: 1970S AND ‘80S GAY GERMAN ARTHOE CEMA
• LOST DURG NAZI LE GERMANY, ONE OF THE WORLD’S FIRST PRO-GAY FILMS HAS FALLY BEEN RTORED FOR MORN VIEWERS
• GAY GERMAN MOVI

QUEER KO: 1970S AND ‘80S GAY GERMAN ARTHOE CEMA

Here, 11 gay movi, om the dramatic to the edic, om the absurd to the touchg, om the Weimer Republic to unified Berl, straight out of Germany. Madchen Uniform ("Girls Uniform"), 1931: While homosexualy was simply allud to the aforementned flicks, was on full display Madchen Uniform, the tale of a boardg school girl who falls for her teacher.

Anrs als du und Ich ("Different From You and Me"), 1957: Not to be nfed wh the siarly gay 1919 movie Anrs als die Anrn ("Different om the Others"), this mid-20th Century narrative revolv around rich kid Kls's affair wh a lower-class peer named Maned. And drama also ensued when the picture me out -- not only were nservativ displeased wh the gay ntent, early gay activists were livid over an endg which, spoiler alert, Kls is "cured" of his homosexualy. Nicht r Homosexuelle ist pervers, sonrn die Suatn, r er lebt ("It Is Not The Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But The Society In Which He Liv"), 1971: Perhaps one of the most ntroversial gay featur ever to e out of Germany, or anywhere else, this mouthful of a movie and s portrayal of gay men as shallow, fashn-obssed, limp wristed weaklgs created such a stir that the viotaped cricisms om gay activists nstute their own short.

Fstrecht r Freihe ("Fox and His Friends"), 1975: Inic New Cema filmmaker Raer Werner Fassbr directed, wrote, and starred this story of a gay man who falls for a wealthy heir. Taxi zum Klo ("Taxi to the John", or "Taxi to the Toilet"), 1981: Frank Ripploh's semi-tobgraphil drama about a prim and proper school teacher wh a hardre after-hours sex life was groundbreakg and sensatnal for s time, and ed remas a cult classic (and one of the sexit gay films acrdg to director John Cameron Mchell).

LOST DURG NAZI LE GERMANY, ONE OF THE WORLD’S FIRST PRO-GAY FILMS HAS FALLY BEEN RTORED FOR MORN VIEWERS

Lola und Bilidikid (Lola and Billy The Kid), 1999: Wrer/Director Kutlug Ataman had hoped to film this story of a young man tryg to rencile his homosexualy wh Islam Turkey, the ma character's fay's homeland, but he uldn't shore up enough support.

Instead, Sherry Hormann's rom- tackl homophobia sports by stg Maxiian Bckner as Ecki, a closeted soccer player who back strong after beg booted om his team for beg gay. The early gay activist and filmmaker Rosa von Prnheim put a nutshell: It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society Which He Liv. Its programmer, filmmaker Wieland Speck, says that “qutng our parents’ generatn, the war generatn, had a strong impact on the velopg gay movement, pecially the first femist ceast.

Speck scrib the attu among German gay men at the time was ma: “every possible STD was ridiculed as the vcibily of the gay psyche ma s first appearance history. ” He adds: “This high time was met hard by the ‘gay ncer’ which ma s way to the nscns of German society about 1986 — an awarens spearhead by Arthur J. Rosa von Prnheim’s nontatnal It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society Which He Liv (1971) has been creded wh spirg the German gay liberatn movement, although Speck scrib this tone as “already strag at the leash.

GAY GERMAN MOVI

Prnheim regnized the danger stemmg both om the vis self and the rurgence homophobia led to, envisng a near-future versn of a leper lony. Collectively wrten, stars the director as a bathhoe owner who profs om allowg his gay ctomers to have unsafe sex while stgglg wh AIDS and his own homophobia.

The film juggl several narrative l, cludg an edor who spreads misrmatn her tabloid paper and a woman who fetishiz sex wh gay men, endg up a dystopian 1987, where 70% of German prisoners are HIV-posive and the ernment has ma HIV tts mandatory. “It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society Which He Liv” (Rosa von Prnheim). 30 years later, the narrative of Heer Carow’s Comg Out (1989) seems a b basic: Philipp (Matthias Freihof), who is married to a woman, realiz that he’s gay after beg attracted to Matthias (Dirk Kummer).

It avoids the mon impulse of queer cema towards tragedy, spe the openg scene’s pictn of Matthias gettg his stomach pumped after a suici attempt driven by self-hatred about his gayns. Afterwards, he embraced munism and remas satisfied by — he says, “we stopped mankd’s exploatn by mankd” — but plas that ignored the problems of gays. (Gay men were eer legally East Germany than the Wt after World War II, where the Nazi law that crimalized homosexualy stayed on the books until 1969.

) Comg Out was the only gay-themed film produced East Germany, and took Carow years to get permissn to direct .

At the 1990 Berl Film Ftival, won the Silver Bear and the Teddy (the ftival’s prize for bt gay-themed film.