Focus on R.W. FASSBINDER II: Love is Colder than Death (1969)

So now we begin in earnest. I've put all Fassbinder's theatre adaptations to bed. Now it is time to pick off the remaining features. Eleven to go (and one documentary), over half of them from Fassbinder's early period (1969-1970). That still gets me. Ten features between April 1969 and November 1970. That's if you include the co-directed Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? 

For the record, the only film I've seen from this pre-Sirk period is his 1969 film Katzelmacher, which I noted at the time took on much of the French New Wave's stylings, though with a decidedly Germanic twist. The same goes here. Love is Colder than Death, Fassbinder's first feature film is heavily indebted to pre-Wave Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï. One of the trio of protagonists, Bruno, a gagster played by Ulli Lommel may as well be Alain Delon. And to be fair, he looks the part.

The premise of the film is also acutely simplistic: A pimp, Franz (Fassbinder), refuses to join a crime syndicate. Crime syndicate sends heavy (Bruno) to put the hard word on him. The two men bond over one of Franz's women, Joanna (Hannah Schygulla). Failing to muster any real frisson in their menage a trois, things go pear shaped.

Fassbinder's enforced remoteness here (I'll throw the Brechtian moniker in again) works against any real drama creeping into proceedings. There is a lot of dead-eyed staring going on. The three protagonists barely get hot under the collar, their reactions are pragmatic and the violence (in the rare moments that it surfaces) is both bloodless and restrained. Yet, even if Fassbinder's film isn't dramatically involving, it is certainly hypnotic. The long take shots are crisp and well composed. The performances, even just from a physical standpoint, are mesmerising. Schygulla and Fassbinder are difficult to take one's eyes off (the latter's pants are impossibly tight).

So, like the nouvelle vague, Love is Colder than Death draws heavily from the underworld, approaches its characters with an everyday (though stilted) naturalism and makes a point not to concern itself with bourgeois morality. Such open homage leaves the film open to accusations of art school styling, which it is difficult to deny, but there is also a heavy stamp of what would become Fassbinder's signature tools: long takes, stilted dialogue, static camera. There is also that strong sense of detachment seeping in from Fassbinder's 'Action Theatre', from which he's incorporated much of the aesthetic and almost all his cast.

Suffice to say, the world didn't know what was about to hit it. The film wasn't well received, garnering boos at its premiere at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival. Thankfully, Fassbinder wasn't looking to be understood. He took it in his stride and went on doing what he always intended to: More gangsters...

Next up: Gods of the Plague...

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