Mord und Totschlag

Scond movie by the famous German director after "Der Junge TÖrless", this one was mostly influenced for better or for worse(depending on whom you ask) by the French Nouvelle Vague.Almost entirely filmed on location,amateurish playing,and a very minimal screenplay:by accident ,a girl kills her lover she wanted to leave and asks for help to get rid of the body:two young "modern" men come to the rescue,but they are not particularly clever when it comes to hiding the dead boy.

The most interesting part is the sequences filmed in the country ,where time seems to have stood still,away from drugs,violence ,woman's lib and sexual revolution.More a wandering through Bayern than a real thriller (the only moment of suspense occurs when a neighbor wants to help the threesome with their problem),it's typically sixties;music by Brian Jones."From the Rolling Stones" the cast and credits claim;towards the end ,the score oddly sounds like country pop.I do not think it's available on CD for the fans of the group

Excellent drama from West Germany (in German with subtitles) stars Anita Pallenberg as a waitress who has just accidentally shot her ex-boyfriend dead after a semi-playful scuffle in her apartment. The two had a volatile relationship, but she's still understandably upset--though not enough to call the police and turn herself in. Instead, she walks down to the local pub and finds a man there who needs money; hiring him to help her dispose of the boyfriend's body, she finds herself attracted to him--and also to his friend when they need help moving the body downstairs. Scored with a cacophony of "mod" sounds by Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones (who was dating Pallenberg at the time), "Mord und Totschlag" (which translates as "Murder and Homicide") is a fascinating study of how women control men. Our heroine, reckless or childlike one minute and controlling with her feminine wiles the next, is perfectly embodied by Pallenberg who, between a sad smile and a knowing look, is compulsively watchable. Director Volker Schlöndorff was a nominee for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. *** from ****

'Mord und Todschlag' carries you back to the moods of 1967, the year of its production. Although not intended, the cleverly invoked nostalgia makes this film worth watching -- in any case for those around in Germany at the time.

Apart from this: its story is fairly original. Its picturing, acting and music are mediocre, or a little better than that.

The big eye-catcher, however, is Anita Pallenberg, aged 25 at the time. She started as a fashion-model, and got famous for getting involved with three different Rolling Stones. It's quite clear that producer Schloendorff wrapped his film around her, and well ... he could have chosen worse.

This low-grade German movie does not focus on the investigation of a murder but the efforts of the perpetrator to cover up her crime. The story opens as 22-year-old Marie, played by a vacant Anita Pallenberg, is awakened by Hans, her ex-boyfriend who has come to collect her belongings. An argument ensues and she winds up killing him. Unmoved by the moral aspect of what she's done, she concerns herself with the business of disposing of the body, immediately involving another young man who in turn becomes her lover. This banal melodrama is slow, poorly acted and often illogical, and is sporadically interrupted by mechanical lovemaking scenes. Equally illogical: this film won three German Film Awards and was entered into the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, where it did not win but elevated director Volker Schlöndorff as the new find of German cinema, which he obliged in his later movies, such as THE TIN DRUM. DEGREE OF MURDER is remembered only for its mediocre soundtrack, which was created by The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones.