I don’t know about you, but I never expect good things from a film with Clive Owen in it.

He’s one of those actors who promises so much but often delivers so little. Luckily, ‘Bent’ is that rare Owen performance: a good one.

This 1997 film, remastered and released on DVD on 6 September, captures a 1979 West End play of the same name. The original stage star, Sir Ian McKellen, guests as Uncle Freddie in the film with Owen taking his role of Max, a gay Jew in Nazi Berlin. The film opens in 1934, as Max brings home a stormtrooper from a decadent party. The next day, Max and has to flee as the Night of the Long Knives starts. Eventually, caught and sent to Dachau, Max claims to only be Jewish, not homosexual. He meets Horst, who does wear the pink triangle, and is forced to look again at the decisions he’s made in order to survive.

The film stays very true to its theatrical roots, to the extent that you could imagine it being played out on a single stark set with a cast of around ten, or as a play staged in an abandoned warehouse somewhere. There is no attempt made to portray the real Dachau or to produce a realist film. This is much more Jarmanesque. At times, as the entire focus of the screen is two men standing side by side and talking, you’re reminded of ‘Waiting for Godot’. Everything rests on the performances, which is why it’s a relief that Owen actually delivers.

Initially, Max is just the kind of cynical, self-interested character that you expect from Owen but as his identity is shorn from him, Owen is left nothing but his face to act with and he suggests vulnerability and hardness equally through his eyes.

Lothaire Bluteau, as Horst, equally carries the film. Horst is a survivor, which Bluteau suggests through a certain ratlike scurrying. His slumped shoulders convey resignation but his voice suggests defiance.
The rest of the cast are fleeting in their screen time. McKellen is a delight as fussy Uncle Freddie, whereas Mick Jagger is better as Greta once s/he stops being a drag queen after the Night of the Long Knives. I don’t even remember Jude Law’s appearance.

The music, by Philip Glass, is limited so that you’re occasionally drawn out of the film by thinking “not that bloody piano piece again”. There’s an odd montage of stock footage of trains to indicate Max is being transported to a concentration camp. This is oddly jarring, as the rest of the film doesn’t pretend to be realistic and you can tell from the set and sounds that they are in a train.

This isn’t a great film – the staginess reminds you too often that they could have locked off a camera at the back of the stalls – but it does capture a good and significant play.

‘Bent’ is released in a Dual Format Edition containing both Blu-ray and DVD versions on 6 September 2010. You can pre-order it here.