Saindo do Armário

Coming Out is bold in displaying the unjust treatment of the marginalized group of society--the homosexuals. It is character-driven thus it allows viewers to enter the life and emotions of Mattias, the high school teacher, as he struggles to change his true identity and to repress his sexual desires in order to conform to the norms of the GDR society.

Though it presents a heavy issue, the film's mood is light. There are many entertaining scenes like theatrical plays and bar scenes with gay men in their lavish costumes. The portrayal of the sex scenes are also excellent. They are portrayed in such a manner wherein we can say that it is not just pure lust;that emotions are involved. The dialog is moving and must be given enough attention specially between Mattias and his mother. The film is not only entertaining, it also made me understand and sympathize with the homosexuals.

I saw the 1989 West Geman feature "Coming Out" yesterday at the Brisbane Queer Film Festival (2nd June 2007) and I loved it.

It tells a realistic story of an incredibly handsome young high school teacher who is coming to grips with his homosexual tendencies. Philipp is a pleasant and sociable chap - and finds it easy to fall in love with a woman who has held a torch for him since their high school days. However when her best male friend turns out to be his own teenage lover (with a lot of emotional baggage attached), Philipp realises that his passion for men hasn't wained.

The soundtrack music is excellent - and it's refreshing to see a film which doesn't pander to the viewer - you have to pay attention and infer some of the plot, but it all makes perfect sense.

Coming Out is an empowering film - made and set at a time when all sex between men was equally illegal in my home state of Queensland as it was in East Germany. The opening night for "Coming Out" in Berlin was the same night that the Wall came down - that would have been one memorable night for all involved.

I was impressed enough to immediately order the DVD from the USA - it's a great film to share.

A few young people in the audience thought that "Coming Out" was a comedy (which is weird considering the opening detailed scene of a seriously ill young man in hospital having the contents of his stomach pumped). They guffawed at the fashions, the disco music and the dancing - but thankfully they shut up soon enough.

I thought the ending was particularly poignant - especially considering the film's title.

I also enjoyed seeing Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf as the barmaid in the gay club. She was perfect for that part - and it is a fitting tribute to her.

COMING OUT is a seventeen-year-old movie, created in East Germany while under Communist rule, about the dangerous milieu in which gay men closeted their identity. It is a stunning achievement in that it presents the agony of coming to grips with sexual identity in a suppressive atmosphere, opening to public viewing the night the Berlin Wall tumbled. With this knowledge the story of these people is all the more heartbreaking with the chance that life for each character would have been different if told a few months later! The real tragedy is that the story is timeless and universal: the trauma of young people coming out is still potentially as wracked with anguish as the trauma of this film.

Philipp (handsome young Matthias Freihof) is a popular high school teacher, tightly in the closet, who happens to bump into (literally) an open and needy pretty girl Tanya (Dagmar Manzel) who immediately invites him to her apartment and introduces him to her bed. They form a comfortable bond, Philipp thinking his sexual identity problem is solved. Then Tanya brings home an old friend, Redford, who Philipp instantly recognizes as a boy with whom he has had hidden sex in the past. Old feelings are aroused and Philipp runs into the night only to end up in a secretive gay bar where he meets Matthias (handsome young Dirk Kummer) invites him home, and in a beautifully captured moment has a wholly satisfying physical encounter. Both men are enraptured.

Philipp returns to Tanya who questions his evenings' whereabouts and Philipp manages to keep his secret: the relationship suffers. Philipp has meetings with his mother and during one of these meetings his mother tells him she is sure Tanya is pregnant: she has all the symptoms of morning sickness and 'a woman can tell'. Philipp, though mortified, declares he will remain with Tanya, and at a party when the couple encounters Matthias (Philipp and Matthias greet each other with passion), Philipp introduces Tanya as his wife. Matthias is shocked and hurt and flees, and outraged Tanya discards Philipp. Philipp roams the streets and parks looking for Matthias, realizing they can now be lovers, but doesn't find him. He instead encounters one of his high school students Lutz (Robert Hummel) and has a one-night stand. In a sleazy gay bar Philipp meets an old man (brilliant actor Werner Dissel) who relates how life as a gay man during Hitler's reign had resulted in incarceration in a concentration camp, that gay men will always be persecuted. Returning to his classroom Philipp is informed that he is under observation because of his sexual activity. Struck by silence, Philipp stands before his class, his future unknown.

This story by Wolfram Witt as directed by Heiner Carow is as fine as any relating the terrors of coming out. That it is performed by such a fine cast is even more impressive, and the real banner that flies over this film is that it doesn't attempt to provide answers or maudlin endings. It merely stops - leaving the futures of each of these well-drawn characters to the imagination of the audience. It is powerful, it is well made, it is worthy of continued appreciation as a brave little film from another period in time, a period that continues into the present in so many places. Highly recommended. Grady Harp

Ultimately this is a difficult movie to judge in relation to content, because it is the only movie from East Germany (and perhaps central Europe) dealing with coming out and homosexuality in a somewhat objective manner. East Germany was, for a communist country, rather liberal (homosexuality wasn't illegal, just ignored; women were an integral part of the work force and society...), yet still communist. I am a bit confused by one writer's comment regarding Bush's oppressive America...I think it rather resembles this movie. But I digress...

Overall, the movie is a success given its origin. No tragedies, but rather a man who struggles with his identity and ultimately accepts himself emotionally as a gay man. I guess it is a period piece as much as 'In and Out' may be considered a period piece. Maybe historical representation would be a better term, in particular with this movie, given the timing of its release. The ending is left rather open, leaving the viewer wondering where Philipp might next end up. Maybe there was supposed to be a sequel? We'll never know, I guess.

And yes, he does look good in a pair of jeans.

This movie is a wonderful story and an artifact both cultural and historical. It takes us across the Berlin Wall in the last year of the German Democratic Republic. In the background we hear avant garde electronic music, and when the characters go to the theatre, we see a modern fanciful production. It is a reminder of German modernism in the arts, something that one rarely sees on the screen.

The students in Phillip's (the protagonist's) high school class write their essays about a quote from Bertolt Brecht. This quote, about a common man in his own community, goes a long way to explaining the apparent lack of an ending. I confess that I found the ending a bit odd until I watched the movie a second time. The protagonist is not going to live a Hollywood 'happy ending'. He is going to live in the back streets that are gay East Berlin. He will not have the easy life he adopts at the beginning of the movie, and he is going to continue being a high school teacher. Phillip is not going to allow the East German state, his profession, his family or his girl friend to supress his own self. He is living on a tight wire, but he is an ordinary citizen of a socialist state.

The non-capitalist industrial society that serves as the backdrop for this coming of age story is no more. It is refreshing to see a movie without product placements and the crass commercialism. Coming Out is a flash back to a society where gays were repressed but lived out their lives in spite of society. If you think Bush's America is repressive, imagine living in a police state like East Germany with the Berlin wall. This fact gives Phillip's coming out such significance. His dilemma makes modern American gay life seem comparatively carefree. We take so much for granted.

The director is obviously accomplished. The budget is adequate so we are spared the technical problems of gay cinema on a shoe string. The acting and dialog are convincing . The German is exceptionally crisp and clear, allowing someone with a first year college course in German to catch subtleties that are not captioned. The cinematography is good and moves the plot forward.

This film was erotic without being pornographic. It was far more realistic than Maurice for example. It touched me in a way that coming out films rarely do. It reminded me of the first time I went to a gay bar in a small city, all quite self-conscious and anxious and awed. More importantly, it reminded me of what I wanted to find there.