1919 Different from the Others Photo – The First Kiss
The First Male to Male Kiss in a Movie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different_from_the_Others
Different from the Others (German: Anders als die Andern) is a German film produced during the Weimar Republic. It was first released in 1919 and
stars Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schünzel.
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The story was co-written by Richard Oswald and Magnus Hirschfeld,
[2]
who also had a small part in the film
and partially funded the production through his Institute for Sexual Science. The film was intended as a polemic against the then-current laws under
Germany's Paragraph 175, which made homosexuality a criminal offense.
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It is believed to be the first pro-gay film in the world.
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The cinematography was by Max Fassbender, who two years previously had worked on Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray, one of the earliest cinematic
treatments of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Director Richard Oswald later became a director of more mainstream films, as did his son Gerd.
Veidt became a major film star the year after Anders was released, in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Anders als die Andern is one of the first sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals in cinema.
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The film's basic plot was used again in the 1961 UK
film, Victim,
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starring Dirk Bogarde. Censorship laws enacted in reaction to films like Anders als die Andern eventually restricted viewing of this movie to
doctors and medical researchers, and prints of the film were among the many "decadent" works burned by the Nazis after they came to power in 1933.
Synopsis
Veidt portrays a successful violinist, Paul Körner, who falls in love with one of his male students. A sleazy extortionist threatens to expose Körner as
a homosexual. Flashbacks show us how Körner became aware of his orientation and tried first to change it, then to understand it. Körner and the
extortionist end up in court, where the judge is sympathetic to the violinist, but when the scandal becomes public, Körner's career is ruined and he is
driven to suicide.
Public Reception
The film premiered in May 1919 and was initially successful at the cinema. Shortly after the premiere, conservative Catholic, Protestant, and anti-
semitic groups started to protest and disturb the public screenings. This initiated an extensive public debate on censorship. The constitution of the Weimar
Republic initially assured freedom of speech and expression, but special qualifications were created for cinema in response to the Different from the
Others production and screenings. According to these special articles, films which were characterised as obscene or as dangerous to young people were to
be censored.
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