Querelle

The tensions growing between the brothers, sailor Querelle (Brad Davis) and bon vivant Robert (Hanno Pöschl), with intense profanity, as director Rainer Werner Fassbinder adds other characters (Jeanne Moreau, Franco Nero) in an unprompted procession of Christ bearing the cross, and choreographed combat, in Querelle, 1982.

Resuming the narration from the loosely-followed Jean Genet novel, director Rainer Werner Fassbinder brings his title character (Brad Davis) into the highly stylized brothel, meeting the proprietor Jeanne Moreau, his brother Hanno Pöschl, her husband, the barkeeper Günther Kaufmann and the cop Mario (Burkhard Driest), in Querelle, 1982.

The extraordinary opening from director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final, posthumously released, film, with narration from the Jean Genet novel, introducing Jeanne Moreau, Hanno Pöschl as her lover, Günther Kaufmann her husband, a glimpse of Franco Nero, then Brad Davis as the title character, in Querelle, 1982.