530 - Love is Colder Than Death, Germany, 1969. Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Liebe ist kalter als der Tod.
In bed.
Alone?
Was I ever alone in bed?
In jail, you were.
The Kommissar--that's Commissioner to us--is interrogating Franz.
There seem to have been a couple of murders, and Franz seems to have been involved in them.
But he denies it.
Earlier, his reputation for ruthlessness attracted the attention of the Syndicate, so they tried to recruit him, resorting even to torture to win his loyalty. (Have you ever known torture to win your loyalty?) But he insisted that he worked only alone. So they sent Bruno to eliminate him, only to have Franz turn Bruno over to his own side and make him his personal friend.
Bruno is in fact waiting in the car outside the police station right now. Which he states is risky.
The Commissioner grills Franz about the murder of the Turk and the Waitress, and he wants to know where Franz has hidden the gun.
Franz, for his part, will not answer him. He does not wish to implicate himself for his crimes. Or, according to him, for someone else's crimes.
He leaves without a confession. Bruno drives him home. To where they are staying. They rejoin Johanna. Franz's girlfriend. Franz's employee. Franz shares Johanna with others for money. He has tried to share her with Bruno, only to have her laugh at Bruno. Bruno does not arouse her interest.
This former couple, now a trio, spend time idly. They hang out, pimping, shoplifting for groceries, planning heists, exchanging information over pinball, and committing random acts of malfeasance.
Their actions will escalate, and it will all come to a head in a robbery gone wrong.
This might sound like a compelling story, but it is certainly one better told than seen in this film.
It is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's first film, and it looks like it. In fact, it looks like a student film, with the first scene's taking place on a stage with actors who appear to be improvising at rehearsal.
It is not always clear who people are supposed to be, as they are playing roles for which they might not be suited. Ulli Lommel, who plays Bruno, looks like a kid wearing oversized clothes borrowed from his father's closet. A young student with unrealistic dreams of being Alain Delon in Le Samourai. In over his head for the role.
Fassbinder looks like Fassbinder, as always, and it is not clear that he is supposed to be a tough guy. Or a pimp. Or a murderer. He rather moves about as if the director is filling in for an actor who failed to show up for the shoot..
The guns look like toy guns. In fact, they probably are. And when a murder is supposed to happen, we see a person holding a gun; then we cut to a person standing with bug eyes; then we hear a sound; then we see the person double over. There are no squibs or other evidence that the person has been shot. He simply keels over while making a face.
If you are a member of the movie-going public, you might demand your money back.
If you are a scholar or Fassbinder enthusiast, you will find the seeds of his aesthetic in first bloom.
If you are an aspiring actor or filmmaker, you may be unequivocally inspired. You watch and say, "I could do this."
How many student films look just like this? We feel as if we are at an NYFA or LAFS or USC or Chapman student film Showcase. And yet, while watching, we know what will come later in Fassbinder's career, even in the same year of 1969. How many movies and how many good ones and with what variety and at what an astonishingly prolific pace.
Many of the shots are overlit or overexposed, possibly intentionally. Many of the rooms are bare, probably due to budget constraints. Sometimes the camera is static. Then suddenly it moves.
Such as with the sweeping dolly shots in the grocery store with a transcendent score. Who knew shopping could be so poetic?
Fassbinder dedicated the film to, among others, Claude Chabrol and Eric Rohmer. Yet it feels like an homage to Jean-Pierre Melville and Jean-Luc Godard, with the ending taken straight from Breathless.
I called the police.
* * * *
For
Claude Chabrol
Eric Rohmer
Jean-Marie Straub
Linio et Cuncho
Okay. You had to get rid of the Turk. I can see that. But why did you have to kill the girl?
I had nothing to do with it.
Never mind. I'm saving the best things for later.
The kind of glasses the cop wore when he spoke to Janet Leigh in Psycho
Look. I might have understood you perfectly. It's quite simple. A rival gets murdered. His brother turns up to avenge his death. Someone tips him off that you're the killer, so he comes looking for you. You're afraid to leave your hideout. After a while, you've had enough, and you think before he gets you, you'll get him. Let's suppose you shoot him, and not just once. Now you can go out again, and you get arrested.. It's a nice story. Nothing out of the ordinary. Things like that are bound to happen. You might even be acquitted. Acting in self-defense. If it weren't for the girl, Erika Rohmer.
Pretty girl. Nineteen years old. She still had a lot to expect from life.
How's Johanna?
She's fine.
And business? Is that fine too?
We went straight.
Apart from too little murders.
So who was with you?
I'm a gentleman.
Is he dead?
Yes.
Open the door and throw him out.
Bruno and some other man play pinball.
Bruno plays the Jolly Roger.
I spoke on the phone with Mr. Strauss. His orders are to get rid of the girl. It's to be done tomorrow. If you fire first, we can take advantage of the confusion.
See you in Greece.
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