Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hedwig: 'It is clear that I must find my other half. But is it a he or a she? What does this person look like? Identical to me? Or somehow complementary? Does my other half have what I don't? Did he get the looks? The luck? The love? Were we really separated forceably or did he just run off with the good stuff? Or did I? Will this person embarrass me? What about sex? Is that how we put ourselves back together again? Or can two people actually become one again?' 


Synopsis
By the traditional standards, Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) is one of the most unfortunate girls in the neighbourhood. Her sex-change operation didn't work out. Now, she's in-between sexes. Her rock band's audience is rarely bigger than few confused souls in the mid-town diner. A boy, whom she falls in love with, doesn't accept her. And, when the sparkle hits him too, he turns out to be a jerk. But, we're not supporting traditional standards here, are we? So, let me back up and start again:
Hedwig is a talented, beautiful person who is looking for love and a chance to create music. Throw some glitter on that story and a whole lotta rock'n'roll and voila!


Review

Hedwig: How did some slip of a girly boy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you? 

This movie is our generations 'The Rocky Picture Horror Show' . It's a musical speaking up for the artists who's ideas are pushed aside, purely on the basis of their sexuality and looks. When Hedwig's music is stolen from him and re-packaged into the mainstream looking emo band, it suddenly becomes popular.

It's a movie that is a vessel for Mitchell's (who's also a director and a writer of the project) personal musical fascinations. (great article/review: link)

Hedwig: Love the front of me, honey!

'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' is also a wonderful gender-bender. There is a little animation implemented in the movie that gives the story a clever emotional footnote. It goes back to the Aristophane's Speech in Plato's 'Symposium' :

'In the first place, let me treat of the nature of man and what has happened to it. The original human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, of which the name survives but nothing else. Once it was a distinct kind, with a bodily shape and a name of its own, constituted by the union of the male and the female: but now only the word 'androgynous' is preserved, and that as a term of reproach.' (link)

The patriarchal system took away from us the freedom to be whomever we decide to. Gender is a social construct. Does it matter, whether Hedwig is a he or a she? Hedwig is a person first and foremost, that's the only thing that matters.

 Tommy: Eve just wanted to know shit!

There also are the religious undertones in the movie. Apparently, Mitchell was inspired by Elaine Page's 'The Gnostic Gospels' . In the book, she explores the Gnostic texts that have been excluded from Christian canon. According to the texts the symbol of God should be considered as both the Father and the Mother. Also, Eve holds an entirely different place in the gospels. She is equal to Adam. 

I could go on dissecting the layers of the film for a while. The bottom line wouldn't change though: I love this movie with all of my everything.

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