She was once married to a Baron then later became romantically involved with two other women writers, newspaper reporter Dorothy Thompson and Swiss author Simone Gentet. Upon the success of her play, Winsloe moved to Berlin and lived openly as a lesbian. Writing the play was her way of processing the trauma of her youth. Playwright Christa Winsloe based the story on her own experience at a Prussian boarding school. There is a kiss between Wieck and Thiele, an exchange of garments, a brief experimentation with gender identity and a passionate declaration of love. Even though it’s a toned-down version of the original play, Sagan’s film is still a notably frank expression of lesbian romance. The headmistress creates an environment that stifles Manuela and her fellow students who find themselves in a fairly delicate stage of their development. In the context of the story, these virtues are seen as old-fashioned and severe, something that the contemporary audience of Germany’s Weimar Republic would have agreed with. The school is run by a strict headmistress, played by Emilia Unda, who extols Prussian virtues of discipline, obedience, restraint and self-denial. Set in a Prussian all-girls boarding school, MADCHEN IN UNIFORM, which translates into “Girls in Uniform,” tells the story of new student Manuela (Hertha Thiele) and her attraction towards her instructor, Fraulein von Bernburg (Dorothea Wieck). Not a single man can be spotted throughout the whole movie. And, the cast was completely made up of women. It was directed by a woman, with an artistic director credit going to Carl Froelich. It was based on a play written by a woman. ![]() It’s the first feature film with a solely lesbian theme. MADCHEN IN UNIFORM was special in many regards. This was a flourishing time for queer representation and it ended abruptly with the emergence of the Nazi regime. PANDORA’S BOX (’29), starring Louise Brooks, featured a lesbian subplot. Marlene Dietrich gave the world the first cinematic lesbian kiss in MOROCCO (’30). Movies like DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS (’19) and MICHAEL (’24) were born out of that era and candidly depicted gay relationships. This German film came during a time between WWI and WWII when there was a thriving gay subculture in parts of Europe. They’ve survived.Director Leontine Sagan’s MADCHEN IN UNIFORM (’31) wasn’t the first movie that featured lesbian characters but it was certainly a notable one. They’ve adapted they’ve learned to conceal themselves. After all, they live in a world that hates them. They’re always by far the most interesting characters on the screen. I love them for all of their aesthetic lushness and theatrical glee, their fabulousness, their ruthlessness, their power. ![]() And yet, while I recognize the problem intellectually–the system of coding, the way villainy and queerness become a kind of shorthand for each other–I cannot help but love these fictional queer villains. ![]() I should be furious at Downton Abbey’s scheming gay butler and Girlfriend’s controlling lunatic lesbian, and I should be indignant about Rebecca and Strangers on a Train and Laura and The Terror and All About Eve, and every other classic and contemporary foppish, conniving, sissy, cruel, humorless, depraved, evil, insane homosexual on the large and small screen. I know, for example, I should be offended by Disney’s lineup of vain, effete, ne'er-do-wells (Scar, Jafar), sinister drag queens (Ursula, Cruella de Vil), and constipated, man-hating power dykes (Lady Tremaine, Maleficent). ![]() I know I should have a very specific political response to them. “I think a lot about queer villains, the problem and pleasure and audacity of them.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |