# Bent (1997)

### reviewed by
Seth Bookey

    Bent

    (UK, 1997)

Seen with Byron and Micki on 26 November 1997 for $8.50 at the Angelika.

The transition from stage to screen is not always easy--for the audience, and Martin Sherman's *Bent* is a good example. What is probably a compelling stage performance has been transformed into an sometimes interesting but ultimately tedious cinema experience.

*Bent* is the story of a Jewish gay man unlucky enough to be living in Berlin in 1934. When Hitler's gay henchman Roehm and his gay coterie are killed in one very bloody evening, it is open season on any man in Deutschland who seems even slightly "bent." A lot of interesting historical topics are touched upon in the movie, but it is destined to be a gay film version of the Myth of Sisyphus.

Max (Clive Owen) is abruptly taken from the debauched world of freewheeling Berlin on that bloody night in 1934, and comes to realize that a certain dangerous amount of conformity is needed to survive the long madness of the Nazi period, where simply having any sort of power is a sick temptation. Those with the power wield it cruelly and arbitrarily. Don't be fooled. History is the result of the choices of thousands and millions of people trying to survive intact and sometimes, trying to get more than they should.

Being involved with Max is dangerous, because he is a self-professed bad person. On the train to Dachau he is given a quick lesson in conformity by Horst (Lothaire Bluteau). Max is determined to survive and eventually, he is able, through his connections, to get Horst by his side as they perform the useless duty of moving heavy blocks of stone from one end of a pit to another. This goes on for a small eternity while they talk and talk and talk. The two men wind up loving each other. Only Horst is known to be a "pervert" to the guards; Max has chosen being a Jew. In the universe of the movie, being gay is actually a bit worse in the Nazi view than being Jewish.

The heart of *Bent* is the existential struggle of bread versus free will, with the horrific backdrop of a concentration camp. Free will gets you killed, and bread allows you to watch silently as you hammer your own self down.

Visually, the film is interesting, as the two men are stripped of individuality against the quarries and industrial sites used for concentration camp.

Despite good direction by Sean Matthias, it is very difficult to watch what seems like an hour of two men talking away as they move stones back and forth and back and forth. For those familiar with existential works, you will fare better. My companions and I were very close to snoozing. The film is very much the consciousness of these two men, one of whom has to decide for himself what is ultimately more important--bread or free will.

A documentary of the book *The Pink Triangle* would probably be a better source of information on this topic. Bent is far too much like Woman in the Dunes and not enough like Bertolucci's *The Conformist.*

Also starring Brian Webber as Rudy, Ian McKellen as Uncle Freddie, and Mick Jagger as "Greta."

Rated NC-17 for the lubricious depiction of simulated sex, men's buttocks, and flaccid penises--like straight teenagers are flocking to this sort of thing uncontrollably. A dense but worthy addition to the filmography Channel Four Films (aka Film Four International / Channel 4 TV).

Copyright (c) 1997 Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021

More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html

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