Some of this no doubt has to do with the fact that RWF’s breakneck work schedule and already notorious relationship with substances seemed to finally be getting the better of him. If we’re talking queer cinema milestones, I’ll take Fox and His Friends over Querelle any day. The problem with Querelle is just that it’s an often incomprehensible mess. As a document in the history of gay representation in cinema, it’s got to be something of a milestone, if only for its frank and unabashed depiction of sodomy, especially when you consider the size of its budget and the fact that it was intended for international distribution. Which isn’t to say that Querelle isn’t significant. It’s just not the one you’d pick to close this extraordinary career. ( Querelle was released posthumously.) This fact, for better or worse, lends the film a significance it probably would not otherwise hold in RWF’s oeuvre. Querelle, as everyone surely knows by now, was the last film Rainer Werner Fassbinder completed before he died suddenly in the early hours of Jat the age of thirty-seven. The ultimate goal of all human endeavor: to live one’s own life. And only those who are rid of their fear are capable of loving nonjudgmentally. Only those who are truly identified with their own selves no longer need to fear fear.
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