I already reviewed this movie years ago, so there’s no need to review it again for Other Doctor Lives. In that case, I’ll talk about the character instead, with added focus on Matt Smith’s fine performance. Before we start, here’s my Other Doctor Lives addendum to my original Christopher and His Kind review: Accent Watch – So, so RP. Recommend? In General – I would. It’s a pretty well-made LGBTQ period piece, which I like, and it’s fascinating to get such a different look at Germany in the years before the war. Matt Smith – Definitely. Smith is great here, and despite the film coming about between series 5 and 6 of Doctor Who, he did a fine job putting Eleven out of my head while I was watching (a few spoilers.)
Admittedly, Christopher and His Kind plays a little differently to me after having read the book, which has a fairly different focus and sensibility. I still like the film, though, so I view it more as a separate entity apart from the book, using some of the figures from the memoir to tell the story it wants to tell (a bit like Christopher Isherwood actually did, refracting his real-life experiences in Berlin into The Berlin Stories? We’re getting into Charlie Kaufman levels of meta here.) And for the film’s version of Christopher, the character is drawn in a pretty compelling way.
Christopher never outright states the ethos of his narrator from Goodbye to Berlin, “I am a camera with its shutter open,” but that’s kind of the approach he brings to being in Berlin. In regards to the “characters” he encounters, like Gerald Hamilton and Jean Ross, we see the way he takes them in as an observer, already beginning to formulate how he’s going to write about them in his books. And when it comes to the rise of the Nazis and the coming signs of war, Christopher is very much, “Oh, I don’t do politics.” He’s against the Nazis, but he doesn’t take Hitler seriously, doesn’t think they’ll really come to power, and doesn’t see why he should have to take a “stance” on it. As the story goes on and the country shifts deeper and deeper into fascism, he does have more of a political awakening, but his initial position is much more Switzerland.
Because Christopher isn’t there to explore Berlin’s politics and culture. As he very clearly says, he’s there “for the boys.” I really like that Christopher, who’s such an insular, intellectual character and who obviously comes from a majorly-repressed upper-crust upbringing, is so naked in his desire for love, affection, and sex. Despite his smarts and despite knowing that Caspar is a rentboy, he still fools himself into thinking Caspar likes him as much as he likes Caspar, and he makes no bones about falling head over heels. There’s a scene where they’re all at a lake somewhere and Christopher and Wystan are talking by the shore while Caspar is doing stretches and posing on the dock, and there’s this little moment where Christopher waves and calls out, “Caspar!” and just lights up when Caspar indulgently waves back, and it tells you so much about what Christopher is like in love.
While his relationship with Heinz is very different, it’s similarly reflective of how fast and hard Christopher falls. If Caspar is the grinning Adonis, Heinz is sweet-faced and delicate, someone Christopher can protect and provide for. Christopher isn’t a fighter, but he uses his money and status to try and help Heinz’s family and is for for Heinz emotionally through tough times. And as the situation in Germany gets more and more unstable, Christopher’s personal crusade of the war becomes his effort to get Heinz out of the country before he can be conscripted.
I love Smith’s performance in this role. Like I said, I don’t think of Eleven once while watching him in it. Christopher is so many things all at once: he’s fussy and uptight, he’s bossy but a little insecure, he’s smart, he’s simultaneously fascinated with the minutiae of human beings but disinterested in the larger societal backdrop, he’s by turns delighted and desperate in love, he’s self-centered but also a good friend. Smith makes all of that fit together into one consistent character who feels true to himself throughout, which is a tidy balancing act.
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