Photo Album
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Made in Germany, released on the 30th of June, 1919.
Gay: 9 out of 9 |
Lesbian: 8 out of 9 |
Trans: 8 out of 9 |
Queer: 3 out of 9 |
The two main characters, Körner and Sivers, are both openly gay. Explicit references to lesbians, the transgendered, and the intersexed are also made.
Paul Körner (Conrad Veidt) is a violin virtuoso. In the morning newspaper he reads a string of oblique and seemingly unconnected suicide obituaries, but Körner can see what they all have in common: Paragraph 175, the law which criminalizes homosexuality, which Körner envisions as the Sword of Damocles suspended over an endless procession of people from all times and places, including Peter Tchaikovsky, Leonardo da Vinci, Oscar Wilde, King Fredrick the Great of Prussia, and King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Kurt Sivers (Fritz Schulz), an aspiring violinist, has admired Körner from afar at all of his concerts. After one, he introduces himself and asks to become his pupil. Körner agrees and the two begin lessons. During their time together, they start to fall in love, to both of their parents’ displeasure.
Körner’s parents (Leo Connard and Alexandra Willegh), particularly, are confused by his uninterest in women and attempt to set him up him on a date with a wealthy widow, which goes poorly. Körner introduces them to the Doctor (Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld), who explains to them that their son is gay, saying that it is “not wrong, nor should it be a crime. Indeed, it is not even an illness, merely a variation.”
After some dispute, Sivers resumes seeing Körner. While they walk hand-in-hand through the park one day, they happen upon a man who evidently knows Körner. Later, when Körner is alone, the man, Franz Bollek (Reinhold Schünzel), calls on him and demands hush money lest he report the man Körner was with to the police. Körner grudgingly pays him.
The blackmailing continues until, on the day of Sivers’s first public performance, Körner refuses to pay Bollek’s increasing demands. Bollek, unfazed as he reads the response while seated in a gay bar, decides to break into Körner’s house and get the money another way. While routing through a drawer, Sivers comes downstairs. Bollek, thinking the house was empty, is surprised and attacks Sivers. A fight ensues, with Körner joining when he enters. Bollek, finding himself beaten, tells Sivers he’s been blackmailing him. Sivers, deeply wounded, runs away.
Körner is left alone and depressed. Holding a photo of Sivers, he remembers his past, going back to boarding school and his boyfriend Max, who he was expelled for kissing, and then later the isolation and awkwardness he felt at university, followed by his failed attempts at going to ex-gay hypnotherapists, before finally meeting the Doctor, who was the first to tell him that being gay was normal and not a detriment. Some time later, he remembered first seeing Bollek at a gay dance hall and inviting him home, only to discover he was a blackmailer.
Körner is brought back to the present when his tickets for the Doctor’s lecture on alternative sexuality arrive. He takes Else Sivers (Anita Berber), Kurt’s sister, so that she might learn about her brother. The Doctor’s talk covers a wide range of topics that would now fall under the heading of queer studies, including homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism, intersexuality, the unreliability of stereotypes, and the idea that sexuality is physically determined, rather than a mental condition.
After the lecture, Körner has Bollek arrested for blackmail. Bollek, in turn, reports Körner under Paragraph 175. Both are convicted, Bollek to three years for extortion, and Körner to the minimum one week, the judge being swayed to leniency by the defense offered by the Doctor. Though a light criminal punishment, Körner would find society’s punishment much harsher. Shunned by both friends and strangers and his tour canceled and contract terminated, he commits suicide.
Sivers reads about Körner’s suicide and rushes to his side. Körner’s parents blame him for their son’s death, but Else rebukes them, laying the blame on their heads and the rest of their society. Sivers attempts to kill himself as well, but the Doctor restrains him, telling him that he must “live to change the prejudices by which this man has been made one of the countless victims ... and bring justice to him, and all those who came before him, and all those to come after him.”
The film ends with a German law book, opened to Paragraph 175, as a hand holding a paint brush crosses it out.
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Cast and crew
Subpages
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Amazon.co.uk: Not Available |
FranziVision: Not Available |
[ Gay feature | Lesbian feature | Trans feature | Queer feature ]
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