Review by Beatrice On 27-Jun-2023
I never decide my "own" desire, but it is the desire that decides for me, that burns me, upsets me, kidnaps me, excites me, animates me, torments me, takes me away.
Paragraph 175 (formally known as §175 StGB) was an article of the German penal code in force from May 15, 1871, to March 10, 1994. It considered homosexual relations between men a crime, and in its early versions also criminalized bestiality.
The law was amended several times. The Nazis expanded the law in 1935 and significantly increased prosecutions under Paragraph 175; thousands died in concentration camps. East Germany reverted to the old version of the law in 1950, limiting it to sex with minors under 18 in 1968, and abolished it entirely in 1989. West Germany maintained the Nazi-era law until 1969, when it was limited to "qualified cases." It was further eased in 1973 and completely repealed in 1994 after reunification.
The film tells the story of Paragraph 175 through the life of Hans, a young homosexual who began his persecution in Nazi concentration camps, only to be directly imprisoned in section 175 after their liberation.
Already presented in the Un Certain Regard section of the official selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Große Freiheit is entered in competition at TFF 39.
Due to the endless imprisonment that began in the Nazi camps, which had become a way of life among isolation cells, naked, in the dark and without food, and sporadic encounters with other homosexuals like him, young Hans tries to live his sexuality even inside the prison.
Following the rules is incompatible with his character, and a unique friendship with veteran inmate Viktor, imprisoned for murder, seems to return a familial dimension to his tragic experience.
The film begins with shots of encounters in public toilets, continues with flashbacks, repeated convictions, schemes, cruel punishments, and complicity.
Every inmate has their duties, including unpicking Nazi uniforms to reuse the fabrics: together they witness the first moon landing in 1969. Soon, Hans Hoffmann, played by the extraordinary Franz Rogowski, will discover that the new law provides for the release of homosexuals.
During the post-war years, only in West Germany, 100,000 men were prosecuted because Paragraph 175 allowed authorities to intercept and confiscate love letters and present them in court as evidence, as well as install cameras behind mirrors, violating these people's privacy, revealing their intimate lives, and exposing them to the public. The prohibition of homosexuality remained in effect in Germany until 1969, but it took another 25 years before Paragraph 175 completely disappeared from the German civil code in 1994.
For Hans, however, the "great freedom" so long dreamed of, awaited, desired, will turn out to be a subtle deception.
The finale, exhilarating, in a place called Große Freiheit, the ex-inmate roams, looks around, observes, while the music plays the very romantic L’amour L’amour L’amour by Mouloudji.
An explosive finale, worthy of the best cinema, that points to the concept of desire and enjoyment, so dear to the great French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.
In the face of prohibition, Hans ignites his desire, scandalous for the times, while the "great freedom" of the enjoyment of "You Must Enjoy" mortifies him. A film that opens a virtually unknown chapter in the history of human rights, isolation, and incommunicability.
A masterful performance by Franz Rogowski, a brilliant and engaging screenplay with a very sophisticated finale!
Only in the transmission of the law of desire can life emancipate itself from the deadly seduction of the "night of the suitors," that is, from the mirage of a freedom reduced to pure will of enjoyment.
27-Jun-2023 by Beatrice