Hedwig and the Angry Inch

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Media

Awards

Berlin International Film Festival 2001 - Won - Best Feature

Boston Society of Film Critic Awards 1999 - Won - Best Foreign Language Film

British Independent Film Awards 2001 - Nominated - Best Foreign Independent Film - English Language

Deauville Film Festival 2001 - Won - CineLive Award

Berlin International Film Festival 2001 - Won - Best Feature

Boston Society of Film Critic Awards 1999 - Won - Best Foreign Language Film

British Independent Film Awards 2001 - Nominated - Best Foreign Independent Film - English Language

Deauville Film Festival 2001 - Won - CineLive Award

Deauville Film Festival 2001 - Won - Critics Award

Deauville Film Festival 2001 - Won - Grand Special Prize

GLAAD Media Awards 2002 - Won - Outstanding Film (Limited Release)

Glitter Awards 2002 - Won - Best Feature voted by Gay Film Festivals and U.S. Gay Press

Glitter Awards 2002 - Won - Best Feature voted by the U.S. Gay Film Festivals

Glitter Awards 2002 - Won - Best Feature voted by the U.S. Gay Press

Golden Globe Awards 2002 - Nominated - Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical/Comedy

Independent Spirit Awards 2002 - Nominated - Best Cinematography

Independent Spirit Awards 2002 - Nominated - Best Director

Independent Spirit Awards 2002 - Nominated - Best Feature

Independent Spirit Awards 2002 - Nominated - Best First Screenplay

Independent Spirit Awards 2002 - Nominated - Best Male Lead

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2001 - Won - New Generation Award

Sundance Film Festival 2001 - Nominated - Grand Jury Prize

Sundance Film Festival 2001 - Won - Audience Award

Sundance Film Festival 2001 - Won - Directing Award

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Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Director:
John Cameron Mitchell
R, 95 Minutes
 

At A Glance

Film Synopsis

Hedwig, born a boy named Hansel in East Berlin, fell in love with an American G.I. and underwent a sex-change operation in order to marry him and flee to the West. Unfortunately, nothing worked out quite as it was supposed to - years later, Hedwig is leading her rock band on a tour of the U.S., telling her life story through a series of concerts at Bilgewater Inn seafood restaurants. Her tour dates coincide with those of arena-rock star Tommy Gnosis, a wide-eyed boy who once loved Hedwig... but then left with all her songs.

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Our Take

"A hilarious, moving, visually and sonically stunning movie musical."

Others Who Liked the Film

 

Details

MPAA:
Rated R for sexual content and language

Runtime:
95 min.

Genres:
Comedy
Drama
LGBT
Cult
Musical

Country:
UNITED STATES

Language:
English/American

Color:
Color

Certification:
R

Tagline

An anatomically incorrect rock odyssey.

 

Memorable Quotes

Hedwig: My sex change operation got botched; my guardian angel fell asleep on the watch; now all I got is a Barbie doll crotch; I've got an angry inch! Hedwig: I had tried singing once and they threw tomatoes so after the show I had a nice salad. Hedwig: After my divorce from Luther I scraped by with baby-sitting gigs and odd jobs - mostly the jobs we call blow. [someone is singing "I Will Always Love You" in the background] Tommy: What do you think? Do you think love lasts forever? Hedwig: No, but this song does. Hedwig: That song was by a young mister Kurt Cobain - now that kid's got a future! Tommy: Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour? Hedwig: No, but I love his work. Hedwig: Ladies and gentlemen, do you like the pelt? Be honest, because some *bitch* stopped me on the way in. "What poor and unfortunate creature had to die for you to wear that?" [pause] Hedwig: My Aunt Trudy, I replied. Walked away ladies and gentlemen, walked away! Hansel: Luther is silent for a moment, as he stares at my little bishop in a turtleneck. Yitzhak: Fuck you, I'm going to Guam! Phyllis: I don't think it's going to help our lawsuit if you continue to st... if you present the appearance of stalking him. Hedwig: Yeah, you know I don't like that word. Phyllis: I could have your job! Where's my fucking broach? Hedwig: How many times do I have to tell you? You don't put a bra in a dryer! It warps! Hedwig: How did some slip of a girly boy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you? Hedwig: Don't you know me Kansas City? I'm the new Berlin Wall. Try and tear me down! Hedwig: When it comes to huge openings, a lot of people think of me. Hedwig: The road is my home, and my home, the road. And when I think of all the people I have come upon in my travels, I cannot help but think of the people who have come upon me. Tommy, can you hear me? From this milkless tit you have sucked the very business we call show! Tommy: What is that? Hedwig: It's what I have to work with. 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 complimentary? 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 embarass me? What about sex? Is that how we put ourselves back together again? Or can two people actually become one again? Hedwig: I got kicked out of university after delivering a brilliant lecture on the aggressive influence of German philosophy on rock and roll entitled "You, Kant, Always Get What You Want". Hedwig: One day in the late mid-eighties, I was in my early late-twenties. I had just been dismissed from University after delivering a brilliant lecture on the aggressive influence of German philosophy on rock'n'roll entitled 'You, Kant, Always Get What You Want.' At 26, my academic career was over, I had never kissed a boy, and I was still sleeping with mom. Such were the thoughts flooding my tiny head on the day that I was sunning myself... in an old bomb crater I had discovered near the Wall. I am naked. Facedown, on a broken piece of church, inhaling a fragrant westerly breeze. The new McDonald's has just gone up on the other side... my God I deserve a break today. All I ever get is the unhappy meal. Hansel's Mom: To be free, one must give up a part of oneself. Hedwig: Our apartment was so small, that mother made me play in the oven. Late at night I would listen to the voices of the American masters, Tony Tennille, Debby Boone, Anne Murray who was actually a Canadian working in the American idiom. And then there were the crypto-homo rockers: Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, David Bowie who was actually an idiom working in America and Canada. These artists, they left as deep an impression on me as that oven rack did on my face. To be an American in muskrat love, soft as an easy chair not even the chair, I am I said, have I never been mellow? And the colored girls sing... doo do doo do doo do doo... but never with the melody. How could I do it better than Tony or Lou... HEY BOY, TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE! Hansel's Mom: Absolute power corrupts. Hansel (6 Years Old): Absolutely. Hansel's Mom: Better to be powerless, my son. Hedwig: One day in the late mid 80's I was in my early late 20's. Hansel: Jesus says the darndest things. Hedwig: [slaps Hansel] Don't you ever mention that name to me again. Hansel: But he died for our sins. Hedwig: So did Hitler! Hansel: Eh? Hedwig: He sang the strangest songs to me, by bands I had never heard of: Boston, Kansas, America, Europe, Asia. Travel exhausts me. Tommy: Eve just wanted to know shit. Krzysztof: Miss Hedwig, can we eat the salad now? Tommy: Oh, God, oh, Hedwig, when Eve was still inside Adam, they were in paradise. Hedwig: That's right, honey. Tommy: When she was separated from him, that's when paradise was lost. So when she enters him again, paradise will be regained. Hedwig: However you want it, honey. Just kiss me while we do it. Hedwig: It's my first day as a woman, already it's that time of the month. Hedwig: I have been having the most wonderful time with - do you remember that 45-year-old divorcee with the hair and the mean look? She came up to me after the show and I thought, "This lady wants a piece of me." So I didn't know what to do. I was alone, I had nothing in my hand, I was going to go for the eyes. She came at me from both sides, somehow, and she just gave me a fucking hug. She gave me a fucking hug. Can you figure? Can you fucking beat that? She gave me - also got a few drinks from it, as well. Hedwig: So if any of you out there are looking for the song that's going to be your big hit, you should pay attention, because we are talking to Phil Collins' people. But then again... aren't we all? Hedwig: At 26, my music career was over, I had never kissed a boy, and I was still sleeping with mom. Hedwig: Shut up and kiss me while we do it. Hedwig: Look at you. You come in here crying, and now you want to recreate. [Tommy laughs] Tommy: Breathe through my mouth.

 

 

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