[.ca] Bent

From Amazon.com:
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

Very dark and splendid:
This film was full of darkness and hope. It was hard to see and easy to understand. The acting was great and the script was good. I enjoyed the film. It is not a film to see if you're on a first date but it is a good film to remind us of how good we have it in this day and age. It was a good investment and an addition to my collection.

The most impacting GLBT film I have ever seen...:
I have seldom seen a film which stuck me on such an emotional level. It is rare for a film to have a lasting impact on me, but I left the theatre changed after watching "Bent". It is right up there with "Requiem for a Dream" as movies that can be labled psychological brutality, albiet very worthwhile psychological brutality. A truely superb film.

The Movie's The Thing...:
When I first started reading film criticism, while still in my teens, I remember being, at first, surprised that and then understanding of why many critics were wary of films adapted from stage plays. At first blush, film seems to be a logical extension of the stage, but then when you take into account the unique aspects of both genres, you realize that they are, in many ways, worlds apart. Despite the cinema's (ever increasing) ability to create astonishing special effects, it is the more naturalistic of the two genres. A scene that takes place in the great outdoors can be shot in the great outdoors. With the camera focusing in for close-ups, actors don't have to rely on grand gestures or declamatory oration to convey their meaning. The standard term among movie makers and their critics for the changes that have to be made to successfully adapt a stage play to the cinema is "opening it up." You have to get it off the stage and into the world. Sometimes it works, and sometimes they fall flat. But the cinematic beast is hungry for narrative and stage plays (along with novels, short stories, lesser known foreign films, and nowadays old comic strips and TV shows) continue to provide it fodder. Everything I knew about the play BENT did not make it seem promising for film adaptation. I was wrong. Although I've never seen the stage version, one can almost envision it from watching the film. One can also pretty much guess what changes have been made, where things have been embellished and what cinematic tricks have been thrown in to spice things us. So that makes it pretty transparent, right? And therefore not such a great film. Well, yes and no. The film doesn't achieve actual greatness, I suppose. But even though it's a bit stagey, perhaps, in some ways, it compensates brilliantly for it in other ways. First off, the cinematography is brilliant and no doubt brings a quite different perspective to the drama. The acting is also top notch. I had never seen Clive Owen in anything before--although judging from the reviews posted here, he has quite a fan base. Deservedly so, I'd say based on his performance he turns in here. His character, Max, makes the transition from callow sensualist to self-sacrificing hero believably--and in relatively few scenes. Equally good is French-Canadian actor, Lothaire Bluteau, as Horst, Max's soul-mate and (platonic?) lover. The scene in which they "make love" without touching is quietly powerful--and emblematic of the differences between the cinema and the stage discussed above. Here the actors work with close-ups and with their voices, they cannot gesture because they're being watched. Whatever the stage actors did in the equivalent scene had to be different--even if it was just as effective. They were denied the close-ups that these two actors take great advantage of. The true test of a film's power is whether or not you'll be thinking about it the next day, or the next week. BENT passes that test hands down. It stays with you--and likely will for a long time. (PS--Just to follow up on a review posted below. One reviewer didn't understand the relevance of the scene in the park with Ian McKellan. I can understand the confusion, as the sound seemed unnecessarily muffled at this point in the film. It is a bit sketchy, but it's fairly clear McKellan's character is Max's uncle, who while also gay, is closeted and, unlike Max himself, not estranged from their (apparently wealthy) family. He offers Max forged papers, which the family has been able to obtain for him to facilitate his escape from Germany. Max is,however, adamant that they also obtain papers for his lover as well, an early signal that he is not just the callow and selfish hedonist he seemed to be in the film's opening scenes--which makes his ultimate transformation by the film's end all the more plausible.)

I love this movie:
I was really happy with the positive reviews that Bent has been getting here, I love the film and am always disapointed when a reviewer blows it off. This movie literally made me sob (my emotions are easily manipulated)both times I watched it. I've heard a lot of pissing and moaning about the "sex" scene but I thought it was really beautiful, wonderfully acted and very moving. I completely love this movie and can honestly say I wouldn't change one thing about it. Oh, and the reviewer who reviewed right before me is a very scary neo nazi. Someone should let him know that homophobia is never attractive and I would not be shocked to learn that he was a slightly impared and amply pimpled teenager. With no friends.

For dedicated homophiles with strong stomachs only:
This is the story of the concentration camp inmates forced to wear the pink triangle, symbol of their homosexuality. This film was formerly a successful play and perhaps it succeeded because of its shocking topic, but this director is no Steven Spielberg. Never did I feel one bit of realism or sympathy for the characters although the brutality was unceasing and the story intense. For example, a boxcar scene which might have worked in a play was just too stagy, and the camera lingered much too lovingly over attractive semi-nude male bodies. We've found out by then, of course, that the title, Bent, refers to the shape of the lead character's male organ although there were no camera shots of this. The dialog seemed contrived, the prisoners all looked too healthy and fit, and, while this film might be applauded for handling, at last, a forbidden topic, it just didn't work as a film. Even Mick Jagger, miscast in the role of a drag queen who runs a nightclub in Berlin, just couldn't save it.