Les dieux de la peste

I think the more bitter you are, the more you understand a Fassbinder film. Some of them I just don't get at all, but in ten years time I should be there.

Something I always find so funny about Fassbinder's films is that he directed his actors -- with the exception of Hanna Schygulla, who had a very different, sensual aura -- to perform as if they would rather be anywhere else in the world but there; it's almost as if he's standing behind the camera with a loaded gun, forcing them to do it.. which may actually have been the case, now that I think about it. His films are more 'depressed' than 'depressing'. It's a style that not everyone can appreciate.

'Gods of the Plague' is an early Fassbinder film, a weird film noir crime tribute/pastiche with no jokes and some really interesting cinematography.

For his homo sexual background Rainer Werner Fassbinder often imposes odd subjects in your movies, he was deeply pegged on the marginal cinema with utter propensity to unusual sexual overtones which he belongs, on Gotter der Pest he exposes a young guy Frank Walsch (Harry Bar) new released from the jail, who stays adrift for a while, meeting his old girlfriends, whilst looking for his old chap Gunther the Gorilla (Gunther Kauffmann) to planning a doomed to failure robbery, the police still track down Frank expecting something alike from his low profile, a dive on the underground world that Fassbinder be fond of to display, a whoredom, the squealer, the exploitation of the pornography, also rotten dirty cops and other unorthodox outlying characters, a slow pace movie, laconic and downcast, the proposal doesn't make sense at all, on the assault at supermarket is too hazardous to a labeled man, seeking for some rational reasons on the Fassbinder's works is waste of time, he work out on borderline of the unforeseen, a minor work, a little bit complex and unplugged of the reality at least it has the insinuating Fassbinder muse Hanna Schygulla !!

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5

If only Bayer or Pfizer could bottle this movie for insomniacs, they'd make an even bigger fortune than they do now. Fassbinder proved he could fashion unique cinematic art out of a bunch of people standing around excoriating each other in several of his early pictures, but here the internal tensions never mount and the tropes don't connect. Some claim it to be a homage to film noir, and certainly there is alienation, paranoia and betrayal in spades, as well as iconic visual references to classics like Laura and Double Indemnity. But the moody lighting and framing in his excellent "The American Soldier" are much closer to the noir stylings of Alton and Planer than the arid non-style here.

However, the greatest offense of the film is the inclusion of a seemingly endless, static sequence featuring the playing of a phonograph record of a gimmicky children's tune about an oddball menagerie -- I guarantee you that this nauseating little ditty will echo in your skull for days. At the same time, the subtitlers are owed a great deal of credit for their incisively clever translation of the absurd rhyming couplets into (very British) English.

the movie seems to be random events and unconnected characters, but when i watched it the second time everything fell in place. the main character has just got out of jail (this is not explicit, but he walks by a long wall which seems to be circular and confining...see now that's art/clever)...so he gets out of jail and starts contacting people in his life, including girlfriend, brother, brothers abused wife, friends named gorilla and joe, etc...the lead actor did a wonderfull job of expressing the film's many ideologies, initially he seems expressionless but later you understand why he is the way he is...some themes are the trauma of jail (minimal actually), the petty crook mentality, girls and lovers and the futility of getting a job when one's only goal is to live, eat and love. The photography is high contrast black and white. Either they were copying old time russian directors or because they are from theatre they liked the lightning scheme, but i think they just wanted to jar the viewer's perspective and it works, never seen a movie with this type of photography. Highly recommended for the serious movie viewer. geocities.com/free_love98

After being released from prison, young Franz has to find his place in society, and police keeps an eye on him. First he briefly tries to live with his former girl friend who still loves him a bit too passionately, however he also picks up other acquaintances. Society is hostile to him, or at least perceived by him as being so, hence it is tough to make money. But he definitely wants to keep a cool lifestyle so he must keep on law-breaking, in particular when he is with his old betraying friends.