Review: Götter der Pest/Gods of the Plague 1969: Fassbinder goes Krimi

 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of Germany's most distinguished directors in the 1970s. Coming from theater, he had his breakthrough in the TV two-parter "Welt am Draht"/ World on a Wire, the granddaddy of the X-Base Theory. From then on, he was Germany's directorial darling and a quick producer of very memorable movies like "Lilli Marleen".

He started of very small, coming from off-off theatre, and his first movie "Liebe ist Kälter als der Tod"/Love is colder than death 1969 is very much still rooted in theatrics and French neo-noir cinema. Very prolific, he would shoot three movies in 1969 each with the same troupe of collaborators. This one here is the third movie of 1969, and it is very little known. It is a Krimi.

Franz  is released from prison and returns to his girlfriend Joanna, who sings in a nightclub. On the way to the restaurant, she slips him money to pay, confidently chooses the table, and tells Franz where to sit. He later just leaves Joanna there and stays in a hotel, owing payment.

Franz  tries to steal a suitcase at the train station and is caught, Magdalena, an ex-girlfriend of Franz Brother, overhears and settles the situation with money. She takes Franz home,  He stays with her for a few days.

A police inspector pressures Joanna to reveal the whereabouts of Franz's friend, known as "Gorilla."  Franz is looking for him too and when he arrives at his flat, his murdered brother is lying in the empty apartment. 

By chance, Franz meets his old friend Günther, the "Gorilla," on the street. Together with Franz's girlfriend Margarethe, they cheerfully take a trip to the countryside, where they wrestle and drink coffee with their old friend Joe.

Günther moves in with Margarethe and Franz. When their money runs out, they are planning a supermarket robbery. Joanna and Margarethe reveal the robbery plan to the police inspector. The inspector, who is paying to have sex with Joanna (Hanna Schygulla) but loves her deep inside then decides to kill Franz and Gorilla during the robbery.

This is a very interesting and memorable movie. It is obviously based on a shoestring budget but contains all the standard elements of a Krimi: The hunt for a killer, prostitution, seedy bars, and we even get a good glimpse at some HC pornography (which was forbidden at the time). As in "Love is colder than death", the aimlessness and nihilism of it all is striking, but the direction is good, and the performances are much less sedate than with his first two movies. Critics would comment that this is a movie, he just made to make some money, doing the Benazeraf schtick, but I would not complain. 

You can find a photo-storyboard of the movie  HERE

A very solid low-budget auteur noir-krimi that still holds up very well, although you do wonder what substance abuse does to artists sometimes.

Solid.