Buy Christopher & His Kind on DVD

Christopher & His Kind

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Synopsis

In this film adapted from the classic Christopher Isherwood book, Christopher and His Kind, he escapes repressive English society and his suffocating relationship with his mother, Kathleen, for the decadent – and politically unstable – world of Thirties Berlin.

The hedonistic Berlin cabaret scene is in full swing when a young and wide-eyed Christopher Isherwood arrives in the city, unable to speak a word of German. To Isherwood's reserved English sensibility, the city's thriving gay subculture is thrilling and intoxicating. But Christopher soon finds himself heartbroken after the failure of a hopeless love affair and so sets out on a process of self-discovery...

Matt Smith stars as Christopher Isherwood; Lindsay Duncan as his mother, Kathleen; Imogen Poots as Jean Ross, an aspiring actress and singer who provided Christopher with the inspiration for the Sally Bowles character of Cabaret fame; Toby Jones as Gerald Hamilton, a peculiar man who provided the inspiration for the title character in the celebrated Isherwood novel, Mr Norris Changes Trains; Pip Carter as Wystan Auden, the famous poet with a droll sense of humour who persuaded Christopher to join him in Berlin; and Douglas Booth as Heinz, a street cleaner who Christopher meets and falls in love with during his time in Berlin.

3 Reasons To buy this film

A biopic sure to please fans of both Christopher Isherwood and "Doctor Who."
Christopher & His Kind was chosen as the Closing Night film at the Frameline Film Festival.
Matt Smith and Pip Carter are two very cute Brits - they can also be seen together on the BBC series "Party Animals."

Review

Many of you fans of the film, A Single Man and Cabaret must be interested in the man behind these gay masterworks, Christopher Isherwood. Yes, there are the books, but here's a wonderfully entertaining journey to Wiemar Berlin where W.H.Auden and Isherwood escaped their dreary, repressed suburban lives to become the literary homos we know and love. And as a bonus for all you gay "Dr. Who" fans, Matt Smith stars as Christopher Isherwood and makes out with lots of boys. And as a double bonus for all lovers of the naked man -- there's some full frontal nudity (alas it's not Mr. Smith who is naked - but there is lots of gay frolicking as you can see by the video below)

-- Scott Cranin

Product Format Information

DVD : $20.99

Availability: In stock and ready to ship
Close Caption: No
Region Code: 1
UPC: 066805310652

Studio : BFS, BBC

Languages: English Stereo (Primary)
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen

Keywords

British, UK, Eastern European Boy, Friendship, Gay Male, Gay/Lesbian, International, Literary Adaptation, Nazi, Nudity, Romance, Urban Lifestyle, Writer/Writing

Genres

Drama, International, Romance

Customer Reviews

Just a note

res wrote on 11/21/2011:

Terrific film, and quite daring for the BBC. I only write to note that the edition listed (that UPC code) has a different cover photo, and more importantly for those who are hearing-impaired, does NOT have cc or English subtitles.

Isherwood: The Biographical Film

Amos Lassen wrote on 04/03/2011:

W.H. Auden (Pip Carter) invited the young author Christopher Isherwood (Matt Smith) to Berlin in 1931 because he thought that he should see the freedom the gays enjoy there and off Isherwood went. He took a job teaching English and lived in a house with some very strange characters—Gerald Ross, a wig wearing older queen, Jean Ross (the inspiration for Sally Bowles) an actress wanna be who makes a living singing in a seedy bar and he uses these people as well as others to be characters in his writing which became “The Berlin Stories”.
Isherwood met a young hustler named Casper and they had a short dalliance and then there was Heinz, a street sweeper but Fascism raised its ugly head and brings Heinz with him who was forced to return to Germany with the expiration of his visa.
This is not a new story. Here a young man runs away to pursue his sexual freedom in another country and us sucked up into a hedonistic lifestyle. Pre –war Berlin was a hotbed of homosexuality activity and Isherwood chimed right in. It is so easy to see where the inspiration of “Cabaret” was found and this movie takes us back to a time where anything could and did happen.
Matt Smith is Isherwood and you might recognize him if you have watched the BBC series of “Dr. Who”. Smith takes the role to heart, he becomes Isherwood, Geoffrey Sex directs this and the cast is uniformly excellent. Aside from Smith and Carter, everyone turns in incredible performances but there is a down side. The film will undoubtedly be compared to “Cabaret” and let’s face it, Liza Minnelli WAS Sally or Ross and “Cabaret” was a masterpiece. This is not an imitation of the musical but rather a dramatic look at those early years of the writer.
The movie is told as a memoir and we see Isherwood as an older man in 1976 remembering Berlin and the gay days of his youth. We do not see Isherwood as a writer but as a gay man looking for hedonism. I have read some very negative reviews and some have said awful things about Smith but I thought he was great and you will see for yourself. This is another quality BBC production and one of the important gay themes films this year. Of course there will always be those who disagree and that is fine. If we all liked the same thing, what a boring world this would be.