01
Velvet Goldmine
Why this pick
Its glitter-soaked glam-rock world, fractured identity and emotionally searching performances echo Hedwig’s use of theatrical music to turn reinvention and longing into myth.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE2001 1h 35m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
DramaMusical
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Hedwig and the Angry Inch, try these.
01
02
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Why this pick
A deliriously camp, audience-facing rock musical with gender play, unruly self-invention and the same pleasure in finding liberation through performance.
03
Shock Treatment
Why this pick
This brash cult musical channels a similarly artificial, confrontational stage energy, using catchy songs and heightened personas to probe fame, conformity and identity.
04
Pink Narcissus
Why this pick
A lush underground fantasia whose handmade erotic imagery and dreamlike gender fluidity make it a strong visual cousin to Hedwig’s defiantly self-created mythology.
05
The Apple
Why this pick
For Hedwig’s fans who enjoy maximalist cult-musical audacity: flamboyant costumes, ludicrously sincere rock spectacle and an exuberant embrace of beautiful mess.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Hansel Schmidt is an East Germany "girly boy" who loves rock music, and is stuck in East Berlin until he meets Sergeant Luther Robinson, an American soldier. Luther proposes marriage to Hansel, planning to allow Hansel to leave communist East Germany for the capitalist West Germany. However, in order to be married, the couple must consist of a man and a woman and according to Luther, there will be "a full physical examination." Hansel's mother, Hedwig, gives her child her name and passport and finds a doctor to perform a Sex reassignment surgery. The operation is botched, however, leaving Hansel – now Hedwig – with a dysfunctional one-inch mound of flesh between her legs, the eponymous "Angry Inch".
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
John Cameron Mitchell
Hansel / Hedwig
Alberta Watson
Hansel's Mom
Rob Campbell
Krzysztof
Michael Aronov
Schlatko
Michael Pitt
Tommy Gnosis
Gene Pyrz
Hansel's Dad
Maurice Dean Wint
Sgt. Luther Robinson
Miriam Shor
Yitzhak