Synopsis
Philipp, a closeted teacher, is dating a female colleague to keep up appearances. One night he stumbles into a gay bar and falls for a man. Transformed by this love, he is no longer afraid to face up to who he is.
Coming Out
1989 Directed by Heiner Carow
Cast
Matthias Freihof Dirk Kummer Axel Wandtke Werner Dissel Michael Gwisdek Dagmar Manzel Gudrun Ritter Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss Walfriede Schmitt Thomas Gumpert Ursula Staack Gudrun Okras Joachim Pape Robert Hummel Horst Ziethen Gertraud Kreissig Dieter Okras Cornelia Schirmer Evelyn Opoczynski Willi Schrade
Director
Writers
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Sound
Costumes
Make-Up
Popular reviews
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if i see one more handsome east german man shirtless and in high-waisted jeans while Silly plays in the background i'm going to absolutely lose my shit
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This is an excellent piece of queer cinema. And of cinema cinema for that matter!
I was lucky enough to be in Amsterdam, and lucky enough to get wind of Jeffery Babcock's Underground Cinema's and found out there was a screening of Coming Out at the Goeth Institute.
It was a really nice event. Jeffery gave a really interesting history behind the DEFA studio in East Germany, and Dirk Kummer, which provided great context for the film.
It's raw, devastating, redemptive, and a fascinating (and from what I understand) accurate portrayal of the gay scene in East Germany at the time.
In the words of Jeffery:
This progressive flick came out towards the end of East Germany, and did its…
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I found it very interesting to watch a film about homosexuality from the German Democratic Republic. It's pretty much the last topic I expected to see from that country. But apparently it was more accepted there than I thought, at least the movie made it seem like that. At the same time it gave me a lot of sad vibes and portrayed being gay as something that's very hard. I'm not sure if that was the case because the filmmakers wanted to portray being gay as negative and unappealing to the audience or if they did this because it actually was very hard to be gay in the society the movie is set in. I really don't know, both seems…
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Completely adored this film. Matthias Freihof stole my heart the moment he appeared on screen and I had a stupid grin on my face the whole time just because I legitimately felt like a crush was being reciprocated.
Its existence as an East German gay film feels parenthetical to something bigger which is simply its existence as a really great film. This thing looks gorgeous and feels entirely cinematic despite how unconventionally quiet its plot becomes.
That smile on Matthias’s (the character’s) face when Philipp joins him and his family for dinner is so tender and nice and it just makes me want someone to pet my face tenderly like Matthias’s in the opening scene where he sobs about being a homosexual and a soothing voice shushes him and whispers “that’s nothing to cry about, don’t cry, don’t cry...”
Friendly cinema.
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an impressive late GDR movie - so fresh, raw and longing for authenticity, you're wondering where this crispness has gone these days - also raising questions about the stance and quality of movies produced within dictatorships and against the oppression.
for a while I was hoping for an eastern german version of Cruising (wishing too much here, I know). there were clearly elements - the playful depicturing of an hidden milieu, the epic question of identity, some surrealistic symbolism and allegoric voltes - that could have transcended the movie into something really unique and exceptional.
unfortunately with the ongoing runtime this became more and more "only" an okay drama and nice entry for queer cinema. by the end this might already be revolutionary enough, however it prohibited it from entering any substantial film canon.
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There's the classic trope of queer cinema that a gay main character rarely ends up with a happy ending, but in Coming Out director Heiner Carow recognises the sociological complexities that often lead to this trope, and paints a gay world with gay characters that is slightly less black-and-white than many other films. This film has brilliant performances, an interesting if fairly standard plot and, surprissingly one of the best soundtrack/score combinations of a film that I have heard in a while. Combining classical chamber music and opera, with burlesque show-tunes and late 80s DDR club music, and also a surprisingly tactful score, the film paints a brilliant soundscape and uses music in so many varied ways; diegetic, non-diegtic, contrapuntal,…
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Recommend by Tiger Lily. Go read her review!
Before I say what i think about this movie i need to say that I watched this without subtitles, but with my limited German, pure deduction and reading the Wikipedia page afterwards, I feel like i understand the movie.
Now If you couldn't guess it by the title, this is a movie about a man coming to terms with his sexuality. Now what peaked my interest (other than Tiger Lilys review) was that the movie was made by DDR(GDR). I was therefore interested in seeing how they would portray homosexuality, as i didn't really imagine East Germany being too progressive.
I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the movie though. I felt…
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one of those DEFA films that is accidentally woke and slaps. Probably the best gay film made in the 20th century on the east german tax dollar. Also everyone is hot
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The way this film largely looks like it was shot in 2020 Berlin (Tanja's living room's interior design?!??!) ... fashion is a flat circle.
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I thought this was a really charming look at the last days of the GDR and its youth culture. It has high production values, chic cinematography and a surprisingly modern feel. East Germany was relatively progressive by Western and Eastern European standards on gay rights, but it seems like there was still a way to go there in 1989, as one might expect. The SED were making a final futile attempt to bring more elements of civil society into the fold, and this was one of their nods to the gay community. (Wikipedia also says that in 1987 the SED opened a state run gay club; unfortunately I can't figure out if that's the one shown here, although it would…