The seedy underbelly of 1970s Rio de Janeiro: drugs and strippers, singers and drag queens, fast cars and fast sex, shaved legs and slit throats, crime and punishment. But most importantly: guns and glitter. Do some of these points feel a little out of place for a standard crime thriller? Maybe, but this is a thriller of a different colour, figuratively and literally.
The Devil Queen has received a recent 4K Restoration courtesy of Kino Lorber, and is set for a limited release across the USA. This strange queer cult film, writer and directed by Antonio Carlos da Fontoura, shows a side of the Brazilian city in 1974 that defies easy definition. The story of a gay drug kingpin whose lust for violence and for attractive young men collide in dangerous ways, dividing the criminal community into those who support her, and those who wish to usurp her.
Dope is moving on the streets of Rio, and The Devil Queen (Milton Gonçalves) rules over it all. Openly gay, effeminate and violent, feared by all, often surrounded by an entourage of gay men as well as bodyguards, she is not happy that one of her pushers is selling to schoolchildren. Unhappy that the police will target one of her favoured young men, Queen tells one of her 'managers', Catitu (Nelson Xavier), to find a patsy to take the fall. He seems to find the perfect one in Beneco (Stepan Nercessian), a young man eager to make a quick buck and happy to commit crime to do so. But Catitu is also looking to unseat Queen, and his double-crossing will have deadly consequences.
This film definitely has a feel of grime to it, in the best way: we never quite know where we are in this city, expect it's where those who inhabit the neighbourhood, can't find a way out. Queen is quite happy to receive her pushers in her boudoir, while shaving her legs and being fawned over by one of her boytoys, but she wields the razor, figuratively and literally. Each of these pushers has their own style and flair, as if each has come from a different crime film, and the fear each have for Queen is palpable.
To be fair, the film is perhaps a little thin on the narrative. But what is lacks in story substance, it more than makes up for in its style. This is a film that looks and feels a little dirty and dingy, and yet at the same time, full of vibrant colour and energy. Queen is glitter and gold and lust, but he's also violence and anger. He commands enough respect and adoration that his large entourage will happily humiliate and harm any who cross Queen, even if they do so in their sequins and heels.
This is a world of identities formed out of desire and necessity, where those with names like Limpleg, Dwarf and Velvet find a home in the margins and make that which casts them out, their strength. It's also a world where everyone wants power, but some use different tactics to get it. Can Catitu play triple agent, pitting all against Queen, to grab the crown? Can another find success by bumping off everyone with a little poison? There are several overdramatic and yet captivating death scenes in this film; camp is clearly the King to the Devil Queen in this world, appropriately.
Even when slurs such as 'fag' are thrown around, it's hard to take it seriously when that 'fag' is capable of killing anyway who stands in her way. The brightness of the queer world and harem with which Queen surrounds herself exists because of the dirty world in which the queer community is forced to exist; if they must live on these margins, why not control them?
The Devil Queen is wonderfully unique film, a throwback to a particular time and place, and a cult film ready to find its wider audience. The 4K restoration will look amazing on the big screen, and while the story may get a little confusing at times, the style and characters do not. It's big, queer, dark and dirty, and with just the right amount of violence and blood matched by beauty.
The Devil Queen opens on June 12th in New York at Alamo Lower Manhattan, June 17th in Los Angeles at Alamo Downtown LA, and other cities in the USA in the following weeks.