It is often interesting to discover how the childhood and youth influences a directors style and choices. In the case of (Western-) German Fassbinder, he was sent to the cinema almost every day in his youth, when his single mother preferred the silence of his absence to concentrate on her translation work. He grew up in the late 1950s and 60s and was off course heavily influenced by the avantgarde movies of that time. This is his debut film made from private funds and in his hometown of Munich.
Franz (Fassbinder) is a small time pimp who despite great "persuasion", refuses to join the so called Syndicate. The pretty young hit-man Bruno (Lommel) is sent by the Syndicate to follow Franz. Using the address of one of his hookers, Joanna (Schygulla), he finds him at her place.
Franz and Bruno become friends and when Franz finds himself chased by a guy who thinks he has killed his brother, Bruno offers to care of the situation. He shoots the guy in a coffee shop, including the waitress to keep her from talking. frank ends up arrested for the murders but is set free soon after on the lack of evidence.
Together again the three of them plan to rob a bank and go looking for weapons around town. When a customer arrives for Joanna, the guys end up killing him and having to get rid of him in a junkyard. When they arrive at the bank, the police have guessed their plans. Bruno ends up shot and killed, but the others drag him into the car and rush off. They lose the pursuers and keep driving into the unknown.
There can be no doubt that Fassbinder not only was heavily influenced by Godard´s "Breathless" with the whole Bogart noir feel and the imitated gangster plot, but he almost copied it. I guess the caricature characters was a way to sort of cover up the limited resources a bit. There are also a nod at Truffaut in the shot from that backseat of a car at the rear view mirror, which again was inspired by Hitchcock.
The artistic expression revolves around postures, placement of characters and their movements or lack there of. It is very deliberately artsy and very pretentiously ambitious, way beyond the ability of the actors, the scenery and the director. I do like the style and the ideas, but the actors cannot carry acting on this level in my opinion. The kind of still pictures and very delicate small movements within a longer shot demands actors of incredible delicacy and precision.
The Bruno character looks like a teenage, Syd Barret art student type, wrapped in a trenchcoat and a hat. He is not believable. And the french new wave inspiration scene placed outside "Bayrische Staatsbank", just does not have the same ring to it that an equivalent scene in Paris would have. It feels somewhat encumbered at times without the same floeting feeling that the french directors could produce. On location, the 1930´s style cars and outfit, just looks out of place in German settings.
The very limited dialog and generally silent acting, makes it hard to really get emotionally connected to the characters. The plot is not that important in an artsy film like this, but something else needs to be there to spice things up a bit. The cutting and out of sync feel to Godard´s film brought an engaging twist, that lacks here. The most memorable part is the train scene with Katrin Schaake. Her radiance is immaculate and Bruno actually looks like he is a tough hit-man.
The damn thing is that i really like the idea and the style but the execution lacks a lot in my opinion. It is the debut film and it was financed privately and so on, so i am inclined to look favorably at the idea more than the execution. We are dealing with an avantgarde experiment in German cinema, and in that senses at least it is a small milestone. So it has some historical and artistic interest that is worth checking out.
(All pictures are taken by me - use only with permission)
Rating: 6/10
