Christopher and His Kind

Plot synopsis:
In Los Angeles in 1976, Christopher Isherwood begins writing his memoir. The film flashes back to 1931 as Christopher prepares to leave England for Germany, against the wishes of his mother Kathleen. On the train he meets Gerald Hamilton, an English ne'er-do-well of Irish descent, who suggests that Christopher take a room at the boarding house where he lives. Upon his arrival in Berlin, Christopher meets his friend Wystan Auden, who takes him to the Cosy Corner, a seedy gay club populated by hustlers.
Christopher takes up residence at Gerald's boarding house under landlady Fräulein Thurau. There he becomes fast friends with Jean Ross, an aspiring actress who sings at an underground club. He also begins a tumultuous affair with Caspar, one of the rentboys from the Cosy Corner. Their relationship continues until Caspar abruptly disappears. Christopher does not see him until many months later and is horrified to see that he has joined the National Socialists.
To earn a living Christopher offers English lessons. One of his students is Wilfrid Landauer, the wealthy Jewish owner of a department store. He entreats Christopher to take a political stand against Nazism but Christopher, as an artist, initially demurs. Herr Landauer's home is ransacked by the Nazis and they lead a boycott against his and other Jewish-owned businesses. Christopher last sees Wilfrid when their eyes sorrowfully meet over a bonfire of books the Nazis are burning.
Heinz Neddermayer, a street sweeper whom Christopher espies from a café, enters Christopher's life and they fall in love. Frau Neddermeyer looks kindly upon Christopher but Heinz's brother Gerhardt, a Nazi sympathizer, detests him. When Frau Neddermayer enters a sanatorium for treatment of tuberculosis, Gerhardt angrily advises Heinz that Christopher and Jean are no longer welcome in his home.
Bobby Gilbert, the American steel heir, whom Jean had been courting to take her to Hollywood, departs Berlin suddenly, leaving Jean bereft and pregnant. She pawns her jewellery to pay for an abortion and soon after leaves Berlin as well.
With the Nazis gaining in power, Christopher and Heinz decide to leave Berlin. They travel to England where Christopher tries to secure permanent residency for Heinz. Their hopes are dashed, however, when a passport officer denies Heinz a permit to remain in the country. The couple decides to travel around Europe, avoiding a return to Nazi Germany.
Several years later Jean and Christopher chance upon each other in an outdoor café in England. They reminisce and he tells her that Heinz was eventually arrested and sentenced to prison, followed by a stint in the army. Jean confides that she does not miss Berlin.
The scene shifts to 1952. Christopher has returned to Berlin for the first time since 1934, to write a magazine article. He reunites with Heinz who, following the partition of the city, ended up in East Berlin. He has married and has a son named Christoph. Heinz expresses his wish that Christopher should find a family of his own and suggests that he and his family could move to America and become Christopher's family as well. Christopher refuses to commit to the idea but promises to remain in contact with Heinz. He visits his old boarding house for a joyful reunion with Fräulein Thurau, whose home ended up being in the American sector of the city. She presents him with the dolphin clock that adorned his old room, exhorting him to look at it and remember happy times.
Closing titles convey that the next year, 1953, Christopher met Don Bachardy and the two remained together until Isherwood's death. Christopher and His Kind was published in 1976 and Heinz, shocked at its frankness, never communicated with Christopher again.

Tags: violence, flashback

Review:
Inspired by Christopher Isherwood's 1976 autobiography of the same name Christopher and his Kind accomplishes it's greatest challenge in depicting the events and sights that would eventually inspire 1972's Cabaret, without actually imitating or reiterating the iconic Oscar-winner.
BBC2's first-class feature-length dramatisation of Isherwood's formative years brilliantly presents the characters, proceedings, and atmosphere of 'thirties Berlin in embryonic form.
The wonderfully witty screenplay smartly focuses on the Isherwoods' first travels to Berlin in 1931 and 1933, where both the romanticised sexual freedoms and the threat of fascism are seamlessly integrated into this snapshot of the inter-war years.
Told retrospectively from an aging Isherwood, the film begins with the barely-published author taking the train to Berlin, at the urging of friend, WH Auden.
Wisely, Isherwood is never portrayed as just a writer or observer, only briefly seen at the typewriter, and the film overcomes many of the obstacles in creating dramas based on writers to the extent that the publication of Isherwood's book 'Sally Bowles' remains just a passing reference, and receives little fanfare.
Matt Smith is effortlessly perfect in the role of Isherwood displaying the ease with which Isherwood integrates himself into the sexual underground and 'divine decadence' of the club scene.
If it was Smith's hope that this performance would inspire audiences to temporarily forget about his other BBC work then he has surely succeeded.
If it was Smith's hope that this performance would inspire audiences to temporarily forget about his other BBC work then he has surely succeeded.
Smith is perfectly accompanied by Toby Jones, as his rough-trade-loving neighbour and an impeccable Lindsey Duncan as his thoroughly British mother.
The film closes with a brief post-war reunion between the two former lovers, and the difference between the two is made clear.
Heinz, his German lover, is now married with a child and Christopher, as we know, is on the verge of being embraced by a burgeoning gay movement and meeting the man with whom he'll spend the rest of his life..
"Christopher and His Kind" was Christopher Isherwood's way of correcting what he glossed over in "The Berlin Stories" and this film version corrects the exceedingly glossy glosses of "Cabaret." The real Jean Ross (nicely played by Imogene Poots) was no Liza Minnelli.
It's hard for gay people today to imagine just how loose and louche things were in Berlin just before Hitler came to power.
A somewhat engaging film that recounts the Berlin years of Christopher Isherwood's diary.
I'm not a Doctor Who fan, so I was more distracted by the fact that Matt Smith looks nothing like Christopher Isherwood, nor does Imogen Poots look anything like Jean Ross, but they both give adequate performances.
The film mainly plays upon two brief love affairs and the trials and tribulations of Isherwood's boarding house neighbors, with Toby Jones giving a great performance as an immoral conman with a penchant for S&M-- frankly his character was the most interesting in the film.
In the end, like most biographies, it only touches upon great matters like Hitler's rise to power, the plight of the gay men of Berlin and the coming world war.
Christopher and His Kind is an uplifting movie.
Christopher and His Kind is not a heartfelt, moving film about homophobia and homosexuals being persecuted by the Nazis.
However, it is a movie about a gay writer who travels to a war- torn Berlin all for the sake of boys.
The main character, Christopher, goes to Berlin in search for freedom (and gay, gay sex) from his safe hometown of London giving up being a doctor in return for sexual freedom and promiscuity.
And does Christopher completely ignore this and go on crusading and falling in love?
Yep. To understand this movie you must first understand Isherwood, there is a reason why they chose Matt Smith and not bloody Johnny Depp.
If you want a poignant, moving story on homosexuality in the midst of the Nazis, go watch something else.
This is a lighthearted look into Christoph Isherwood's mind and motives, a biography, not a history book.TL;DR: It's funny, it's gay, it's insightful and inspiring.
If we have to look at BBC's "Christopher and His Kind" only as an informative piece about the Germany during the Nazi regime told by the perspective of a known writer, the movie works perfectly fine; but as an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's autobiography it doesn't go quite right.
I haven't read the book (and perhaps will never do since this is still unavailable here) but I can surely guess that inside of it there's much more than show an hedonistic type who went to Berlin because of the boys and his fascination for them, more liberated there than in his repressive England.
Something tells me that in the printed material there's way more than what we're told on the screen.As a biographic film the story provides some good insights into Isherwood's life and his time, his writing and his passions.
Played by Matt Smith ("Doctor Who") in a quite reliable way, the writer of "Mr Norris Changes Trains" has his fun, good and bad moments just like anyone else, falls in love and has to fight for it; and deals with the advance of the Nazism.
In other words, it's an usual biography film that shows a small period of life of a personality.
But compared to, let's say, Bennett Miller's "Capote", this TV movie doesn't go very far in almost anything (except for some good sexual scenes).Getting into it it's not that easy, the whole "Cabaret" segments are irritating and repetitive; most of the time it's fun and a little adventure here and there, the problems never are presented as something dreadful, dramatic, everything seems to be easily solved for these characters when in fact during the days of WWII things weren't so simple.
But what makes the movie not hold much of its audience attention is to give a deep look to its main character, I mean, what did he learn from this experience and what can we learn from his experience?
He's just a vain figure who wants to share his adventures and that's it?For a TV movie is quite okay, totally watchable, and it's not a total waste of time.
Acting, writing, directing, and production are all competent...and nothing more.Matt Smith's performance amounts to one unconvincing pose after another.
Surely there's a British actor out there who could have made an indelible impression with this part; Smith doesn't have the edge.
Very Poor Performance by Matt Smith.
An otherwise brilliant idea was ruined by Matt Smith's performance.
This actor had just done a few 'bit' parts in UK drama until he was cast to play BBC's 'Dr Who'.
His abilities are fine for light entertainment - but it doesn't make him a good actor.He was clearly chosen to play this role purely because of his 'Dr Who' connection - not for the merit of his potential performance.
He brought nothing to the role of Christopher Isherwood - a rich, complex and intriguing man who was a seminal and critical voice of Nazi Germany in the run up to WWII.
Matt Smith was unable to cope with such a demanding character and brought nothing to the part.
He was also completely 'out acted' by his fellow cast - each and every one of them.Get back to the Tardis, Mr Smith and leave the proper acting to the decent actors out there.
This film if you can even call it is an insult to the work and life of Christopher Isherwood, it's pompous, vulgar and ugly where Isherwood work was subtle, classy, distinguish but still modern and decadent .
The film takes liberty with his life and history that is odious, the acting except for Inoggen Peotts is disastrous, that Guy from Dr Who is trying hard to be an English gentlemen, but he's just excruciatingly irritating to the point you want to slap him in the face, he's cocky and pedantic something Isherwood was certainly not.
The camera work is pretty ugly, interesting angles sometimes, but the grain of the photography is horrible The mise en scene is utterly disgusting and the narrative is insulting to the intelligence of the spectator, you don't need to underline everything in red, we got the message the first time.
Next time someone does a film on Isherwood please watch A Single Man, interviews of the man himself, and Cabaret This so UN clever and clearly cheaply made , made for people with a low QI whose only idea of homosexuality is GAY and Comptons in Soho, pathetic.
OK But Too Who. This is a nicely constructed period piece which is completely watchable but nothing more than what you're probably expecting.(I know little of Isherwood but just from the description of the story I imagined how the film would be and I was exactly right.)Casting Smith as Isherwood wasn't such a great move, especially if you watch Doctor Who. Smith's performance in this film isn't as manic and heroic as his work in Doctor Who, and his acting here is fine.
But he still constantly reminded me of Doctor Who, especially as Doctor Who and Christopher Isherwood wear very similar clothes and have a similar haircut.
And since Doctor Who travels in time, seeing him in 1930s England and Berlin seemed entirely appropriate.
So, unfortunately, this film felt a lot like it could have been titled Doctor Who Takes a Gay Holiday.
Which makes Christopher and His Kind an ideal film if you're a Doctor Who fan who has always wanted to see the Doctor be as flexible with love and sex as he is with time and space..
I don't know why people dislike Matt Smith so much.
I thought he was a very creditable Christopher Isherwood.
And Imogen Poots is a far more rounded-out 'Sally Bowles' aka Jean Ross, than Liza Minelli was in Cabaret.
Christopher and His Kind is a well-produced and acted BBC period piece that evokes Berlin of the 1930s vividly.
The characterizations are appealing and often quite funny and the men are beautiful, with a far amount of nudity thrown in for diversion, but nothing vulgar or prurient.Much of the story is quite moving, the plight of the impoverished Berliners is heart-rending but not depressing.
By now we know about the atrocities and it's good to be reminded, especially in a more subtle manner than usual.This is a fine BBC show and I recommend it strongly..
It is supposed to be a true story that happened to a young man later remembered or rather recollected by the same man grown quite older, some forty years later.
It happens around 1933 in Berlin centering on Hitler's arrival to power.The young English, aristocratic man from England, Christopher Isherwood, goes to Berlin to meet with the young men available there most of the time for a price.
That will lead him to confronting one of his regular lovers and that lover will plainly disappear after that confrontation, only to be met against in the brown uniform of the SA though identified as a SS uniform.He does not understand that in the crisis in Germany in 1933 many young men who had no work chose to make the surviving money they needed by renting their bodies for a short moment to other men, generally older men, for a small amount of money, since they could not rent their bodies to an employer who would make a profit out of it by investing their work in the production of goods.
Christopher does not understand there is no love in that exchange.
Nothing but a commercial action of sheer survival.And the only choice they have if they do not want to go on or to start that "professional" activity is to join the SS, the SA, the Nazi Party and make a living by crushing the lives of others, Jews, merchants, gays, or whatever – mind you not whoever – is in the way of their getting rid of as many millions of people possible to make the misery and poverty of the others just one iota better.He will though find the love he is looking for.
But he will not be able to keep him in Great Britain after the arrival of Hitler because a British civil servant will understand the sexual dimension of the attachment and refuse the visa.
He goes back to Berlin in 1952 and meets the people who have survived Hitler.
Without giving the details of that end, it reveals how deep the uncaring carelessness of Christopher in 1933 has become a selfish nostalgia that turns the uncaring carelessness into a blunt rejection.The film is well done, shows the atmosphere in Germany in 1933, though rather superficially, but it reveals the extreme egotism of that man who only considered Berlin as a hunting ground and revisits it when the raptor, vulture and predator he has been has found his balance in the evanescent scintillating world of Hollywood.A sad, very sad vision of these aristocrats who can do what they want, provided they satisfy their desires in a lower social strata than theirs.
To prison and then banned from proper English society, though the young Lord pays no price, of course not.We have in this film the reverse situation and it reveals the extreme self-centered blindness of the author at the time of events.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU.
I have just watched this film and upon reading the reviews became quite confused since most of the reviews are being considerably harsh, particularly when it comes to Matt Smith's performance.
The atmosphere of Berlin in 1933 was captured really well and the supporting actors were well cast.
The greatest fault I found with the movie is probably that Heinz in the last bit in 1952 looks more like a woman impersonating a man than an aged man.Overall definitely a film I would recommend..
In the summer of 2010 I found myself on a transatlantic flight with a book, "Christopher and His Kind" and, coincidentally, a list of inflight movies that included, "Cabaret".
I had never seen the film nor heard of the book.
We already know them and half of the measly 87 minutes of this film did not need to be taken up by laying them out for the billionth time; and in the most hackneyed ways.
And that brings us to the second worst failing of this film, it's star, Matt Smith.
His Christopher Isherwood is little more than a potted plant with either a winsome or surprised look on his face that alternates A, B, A, B, throughout.
No one who writes as well, or lived as interesting a life, as Christopher Isherwood could ever be so dull.
The actual facts of Isherwood's life during this period is riveting.
I would not recommend this film to anyone but it would be unfair not to mention here that there were several excellent performances in the supporting cast.
Imogen Poots (what a name...) as Jean Ross was everything that Sally Bowles was, and Liza Minnell (according to Isherwood himself) wasn't: half talented and full of unearned confidence.
Pipp Carter with very little screen time as Wysten Auden, made a strong impression as Isherwood's best friend; and depressed, religiously tortured, brooding, confidant.
But it was an interesting and bizarre performance by Perry Milward, as Christopher's younger brother, that stood out most.
Unfortunately, for this film, a few good performances in the supporting cast can't save it from a shallow understanding of the story by the screenwriter and a listless performance by the title character.
If you are interested in this story read the book and watch "Cabaret".
CHRISTOPHER AND HIS KIND is a clumsy look at an interesting man.
Plot: An English homosexual goes to Berlin in the 1930s as the Weimar Republic ends and National Socialism begins.This is rather typical of BBC serious drama in that it has high production values, a youthful lead parachuted in because of his celebrity and a very dull script.
Christopher Isherwood was a rather interesting gay novelist and the period when he lived in Germany was even more interesting as it covers the depravity of Weimar and the novel horrors of the National Socialists - but sadly the screenplay isn't very interested in all that and plumps for plenty of gay sex and clichéd Nazis instead.
Berlin, and Munich and some other German cites were quite tolerant of Gays throughout the '20's and Germany had the highest levels of education in the world at the time.
From this distance it's hard to imagine how the rise of the Nazis could have happened, and movies like this make it real to today's viewers.
Of course opposition to Hitler in the 1930's was not as solid here and in England as is portrayed by most of today's history books.
From the hyperbolic verbiage of Oscar to the sparser prose of Mr Isherwood took only only two generations of Gay literature but during that relatively short time the love that dare not speak its name was being being grasped (figuratively speaking) by the incipient chattering classes and buggery - if "Christopher and his kind" is to be believed - was being elevated to the level of an Olympic Sport.
Mr M.Smith is very poor as Isherwood,inciting no sympathy whatsoever,rather a drawback you might think in a drama where he is the main character and,presumably,is supposed to be presenting a gay man in a positive way.Sadly Mr Smith does not seem to possess the acting "chops" to carry off such a complex part.
His Isherwood is only interested in one thing - and we all know what that is.
"Christopher and his kind" is a missed opportunity to interest a new generation to a minor but interesting figure of British literature whose life surely cannot really have been so proscribed by his sexuality.