SEX IN CHAINS

The film directed by Wilhelm Dieterle (when he arrives in America it will become William) is divided into six parts. Six acts that mark a climax that has the force of tragedy. What is particularly interesting is the way Dieterle treats the question of homosexuality: he does not judge, he represents.

Certainly the making of a film with such a strong theme is also linked to the historical context and the expressive fecundity that characterised the Weimar Republic.

When Sommer unintentionally kills the man who is harassing his wife Helene in a nightclub, he is sentenced to three years in prison. In prison he learns what it is like to live apart from his woman. She is far away but not the desire and the temptation. The other convicts are not to be trifled with: the suicide of one of them, driven mad by the distance from his fiancée, deeply affects the protagonist. Outside, Helene, also on the verge of madness, throws herself into the arms of a former cellmate of her husband, while Sommer is attracted by a young prisoner. The finale, after Helene’s betrayal is revealed, recalls the marriage vows and the inseparable union between the two spouses even in the act of death.