Michael (1924 film)

Michael also known as Mikal, Chained The Story of the Third Sex, and Hearts Desire was a German silent film released in 1924, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, director of other notable silents such as The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928, Master of the House 1925, and Leaves from Satans Book 1921. The film stars Walter Slezak as the titular Michael, the young assistant and model to the artist Claude Zoret Benjamin Christensen. Along with Different From the Others 1919 and Sex in Chains 1928, Michael is widely considered a landmark in gay silent cinema.

A famous painter named Claude Zoret falls in love with one of his models, Michael, and for a time the two live happily as partners. Zoret is considerably older than Michael, and as they age, Michael begins to drift from him, although Zoret is completely blind to this. When a bankrupt countess comes to Zoret to have a portrait made with the real intent of seducing him and swindling his money she finds Michael to be more receptive to her advances. At her lead, the two quickly become a couple and she immediately begins using Michael to steal from Zoret. When Zoret discovers what has been going on, he is crushed and his work suffers terribly.Michael sells the painting of himself that Zoret made and gave to him as a gift, and steals and sells the sketches Zoret made of their time in Algiers, where they first fell in love. Zoret begins work on his masterpiece a largescale painting of a man lying on a beach, using Algiers as a background, depicting a man who has lost everything, as one character put it on first sight of the work. ........

Source: Wikipedia