Early Fassbinder

This set collects five early films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one of the most acclaimed and prolific directors of the lively New German Cinema of the late 1960s and '70s. Fassbinder's debut feature, Love Is Colder Than Death (1969), is a stark black-and-white crime/love triangle riff starring Fassbinder himself as small-time pimp Franz, Ulli Lommel as handsome thug Bruno, and Hanna Schygulla as Joanna, Franz's prostitute girlfriend. Both a tribute to and a parody of Hollywood gangster movies, it's directed in a detached, alienating style (inspired in part by Bertolt Brecht) that continues both in Gods of the Plague (1969), with Harry Baer and Günther Kaufmann as reunited underworld allies Franz and Günther, who drift into a bisexual threesome; and in The American Soldier (1970), with Karl Scheydt as Ricky, a hardboiled, stone-cold killer hired by renegade police detectives to assassinate Berlin criminals. In Katzelmacher (1969), Fassbinder turns to social commentary and plays Greek immigrant Jorgos, who is targeted by a group of suburban Munich couples when he takes up with Marie (Schygulla), a German woman; this was Fassbinder's first critical success, winning five German Film Awards. Beware of a Holy Whore (1970), the story of a movie company stuck on location in a near-desert Spanish resort when the production runs out of money, stars Lou Castel as abusive director Jeff, and actor Eddie Constantine as himself (and is the only film in the set shot in color). These works illustrate the development of an artist before he made his first masterpieces, but will be tough viewing for general audiences. Part of the extra-less Eclipse line, the set includes film notes by Michael Koresky. A strong optional purchase for most, this is definitely recommended for larger foreign film collections, especially as companion pieces to Fassbinder's more essential contributions, such as The Marriage of Maria Braun and Fox and his Friends. (S. Axmaker)