Focus on R.W. FASSBINDER II: Jail Bait (1972)

I know I've said it before but these TV productions of Fassbinder's are really starting to feel like Fassbinder-lite. That is not to say that they don't carry some of the director's hallmarks. Individually, they do. The static camerawork. The language. The grounding in the brutal realities of life. But these hallmarks are scattered. Some here, some there. Never all present to create that poetic alchemy that I love in his film work.

Jail Bait looks more the part, though sounds less. Reworked from the play 'Wildwechsel' by Franz-Xaver Kroetz, the film's treatment of a the ill fated infatuation of a thirteen year girl for a nineteen year old chicken factory worker plays like a pragmatic cautionary tale for young women, with a Fassbinder sting. It is the sort that would have amounted to provocative teen programming in the mid 80s, but pulled in a far stronger reaction when it was released in 1972.

One of the most violent reactions was from the playwright himself, who slammed the production as "pornography with a social-critical touch".

Fassbinder's response was no less virulent:

“What is it, honestly, that embarrasses you? […] Everything that is in the film is also in the play. Maybe that embarrasses you. But it shouldn’t. Your play really isn’t that bad.”

Kroetz took issue with Fassbinder's treatment of the leads, holding that he reduced them to the level of sex hungry kids. He saw their motivations as far loftier. She was escaping the dominant Catholic paradigm; he was craving love. The thing is, I don't know too many 13 year olds who would articulate their actions in such a way. Wanting to finally have sex though... far more common.

Eva Mattes puts in a brave performance as the young girl, Hanni. I don't generally like to describe performances as such but, let's face it, in '72 this would have been quite a confronting role to take on and I am sure there was a flow on effect to her home life. Harry Baer also delivers on his good looks, at least once he ditches the quiff. They both go hammer and tongs at realism, which includes a fair amount of nudity.

There's no doubt that Fassbinder's dispassionate take on statutory rape was incendiary. Drained of Kroetz's romanticism (of which a fair amount remains), Jail Bait feels entirely natural, with the possible exception of its violent third act turn (something that could have been handled better). The film still manages to push the social rebellion line and far more than the "touch" put about by Kroetz. Much of this comes from the reactions of the parents, especially Ruth Drexel as the despairing mother caught between her husband's implacable anger (he even invokes the virtues of the National Socialists at one stage) and the rebellious hormones of her daughter.

In the end though, Jail Bait says more about Fassbinder's flexibility in adapting texts than it does with the text itself. His readiness to imprint his interpretation of the world onto the work of another is as admirable as it is egotistical. Then, by all accounts, ego is not something Fassbinder lacked.

Next up: Nora Helmer...

This post contributes to Director Focus: Rainer Werner Fassbinder II.