The Consequence

An unusual work in Wolfgang Petersen's filmography, "Die Konsequenz" ("The Consequence") is a heartbreaking and unconventional love story, a movie that makes us look at Petersen in a different way, far from the optic we used to know from the director of blockbusters such as "Air Force One" and "In the Line of Fire". Without the speed and the colors of his notorious films, he has plenty of time to develop his story and create a brilliant piece that echoes life, giving his most natural and realistic work along with "Das Boot". His posterior enterprises might have stronger energies, action and bigger castings but doesn't have the patience and beautiful elements this has.

A saddening tale on the recklessness of youth in its pursuit for love, "The Consequence" deals on the obstacles two lovers have to face while trying to be together. Not the ordinary love story, quite the opposite. This one involves Martin (Jürgen Prochnow, in his best performance) an actor imprisoned for seducing a minor, and the young Thomas Manzoni (Ernst Hannawald), son of the prison's warden. Both were approached due to a play performed in the jail - unimaginable setting for such encounter to happen but believable in certain contexts. They share some good moments, always in secrecy, but the challenge comes after Martin's release. They meet again, already sure that what they shared was love and they're ready to live with each other, but Thomas parents are against their relation and even more opponent to their son's homosexuality, and these new facts causes the role changes in the story: this time the younger one will be arrested - in a juvenile facility though, after some arrangements made by his father - while the other will try anything to be near his lover or to release him if possible.

Not the cup of tea of many viewers out there who can't handle sad stories but the moral and warnings we get from this tale are truly valuable, very honest to us. It's cruel but it has a point. More than just a love story, it's a painful piece on the consequences of immaturity, right in that drastic point between youth and adulthood, already showing that choices have ultimate and heavy consequences that'll affect everyone's lives in one way or another. Thomas apparent brave act of showing to his family that he loves Martin and he wants to live with him only proves to be disastrous to himself. Their union faces bumps after bumps, and a great part of those happen because of the younger guy, not smart or not experienced to know the ways of life. If only he kept this a secret, just run away with his partner, things would might turn out to be OK for him and Martin.

Enthusiastic admirers of great acting will be delighted with the magnificent performances of the main stars. Prochnow, usually best suited in villain roles, is amazing in this sort of heroic role, not a perfect guy but a committed, passionate and kind, completely caught off guard and head over heels for this boy and always making his best to help him, even when he realizes that it's no longer possible. He express plenty with just few words. Hannawald's angelical face little by little becoming the face of sadness and misery is certainly the most unforgettable in the movie along with some of his lines ("I think it's really rotten of them to lock you up like this for making love to a boy") innocently referring on Martin's condemnation. He gives the performance of a lifetime in here.

Times are different, there's more openness and acceptance when it comes to sexuality issues but things aren't so bright and positive, which makes this film even more relevant today than like it was in the 1970's. Desperately needs more audience. 10/10

Beautiful black and white cinematography is the main pillar this modest and distressing coming-out drama rests. The script is intelligent without being intellectual, and has some amazing and surprising scenes. Main cast members Prochnow and Hannawald are excellent; Wolfgang Petersen handles the laymen cast very well.

I do not think that (20 years after date) this film has lost any actuality. Besides, this film is honest, unsentimental and without sensationalism, something that can not be said of the average mainstream coming-out film of the 80' and 90's.

Jürgen Prochnow gives a beautifully shaded performance as a man entering prison, charged with pedophilia. While there, he joins a theater group that puts on another prisoner's play. One of the guard's teenage joins the cast. He and Prochnow quickly become involved and the boy finds a way to hide in the prisoner's cell. There are many further developments, No Spoilers here. This is a very well-made film, with very capable actors, intelligent writing, and top-drawer b&w cinematography. Made 5 years before director Wolfgang Petersen's breakthrough with DAS BOOT (also starring Prochnow), this excellent film deserves to be better known.

In Wolfgang Petersen's filmography , "die Konsequenz " is an anomaly; filmed in stark black and white -the cinematography is splendid indeed,the buildings and even the trees seem to imprison the heroes, even when they are "free" -;utterly uncompromising,with a conclusion in the shape of a question mark :this ending,for its simplicity ,is the strongest that this desperate work could have.

Fifty years ago,so horrendous were the chances taken by the director that ,with another lesser talent, the film could have ended in the gay porn ghetto whereas it's genuine art house cinema ; essentially psychological drama , naked scenes kept to an economic level , but humiliating homophobic scenes are constant ,nothing is spared the viewer and the fact that such a harrowing screenplay succeeds artistically without falling into the trap of sentiment is entirely due to the director's ,Jürgen Prochnow 's and his co-star's feeling for sparseness and restrain which preclude all forms of conventional sentimentality and pathos.

And yet, emotion is overwhelming in the admirable scene of the lovers alone in the cell,perhaps inspired by Jean Genet's short "un chant d'amour" ;two mises en abyme really fit into the story , particularly the first play where all the roles are played by men; but the moments of happiness are few and far between ; it is the depiction of a descent into hell; in a macho world where the instructors are given carte blanche to make men out of these "criminals", where even the inmates are ,with the exception of the young boy whose best friend hung himself in his dungeon ,ruthless enemies ; women ,who are almost absent in the whole movie, are not spared either:Frau Manzoni is the submissive housewife flesh on the bone; but nymphomaniac Babette is not even a human being ,but a sex machine : the scene is scary ,unbearable and makes the viewer look away.

When the whole world is against you, the only thing you can do is to accept your fate :that's what's the elder calls "instinct of self-preservation"; but his young lover's so called healing is only a façade : even the uneducated mate has understood his mind was undone .

An admirable plea for tolerance,at a time when the "marriage for all " did not exist , Petersen made a convincing manifesto on behalf of the LGBT.

I saw this film at the Gate Cinema near Bayswater, over twenty years ago. It was searingly good, in story content, composition and style. I was left feeling such a strong sense of anger at the way the two principal characters were hounded, anger at the bigotry and hypocrisy of those in authority, and desperately saddened by the outcome. This reflected my own feeling of dejection, rejection and utter desolation. From time to time over the past twenty or so years, I have thought of this film, especially the scene at a railway station where the two, almost against the odds, meet up and reaffirm their love for each other. It seems as if all will now be okay and that they might make away from their 'prison' but this moment of hope is destroyed so unexpectedly, and ruthlessly, that it would have been better if they had never met again. I hunted the film database to find this film, just so that I may at last tell someone else something about it, and to urge you to view it if you can get hold of a copy.