← Back to Reviews
in
Katzelmacher, 1969
A group of friends in their mid-twenties (including actresses Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann, later to star in Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant!) laze around their neighborhood, sleeping with each other and getting into petty arguments. Their equilibrium is upset when a Greek immigrant (Fassbinder himself) lands in their midst.
I could probably write the words "unhealthy co-dependence" about pretty much everything I have seen thus far from Fassbinder, and this film is no exception. I think that something that he captures very well is the way that people can be miserable--as friends, but especially as lovers/romantic partners--and find themselves in a sort of holding pattern. The characters in this film don't seem to like each other all that much, or when they do it tends to be in a clingy way. They are dismissive or verbally and physically abusive toward one another. Yet it is only the arrival of someone new that throws things off balance.
This isn't a great film. There were definitely parts that dragged and moments where I sort of zoned out. I think that many of the scenes are intentionally underwhelming, as fits the lives that the main characters are leading.
In both a positive and a negative way, many sequences in this film felt like a strange mix between a movie and a play. I really liked how frequently Fassbinder returned to the exact same shot---several friends sitting together on a railing, or a repeated shot of two of the characters strolling arm in arm--to reinforce the redundant nature of the day to day life of the characters.
I have to mention that there were some parts that almost too perfectly fit what many people would think of in a negative way as an "art film". I'm specifically talking about scenes like the one in which two nude lovers kneel together on a bed in front of a totally blank white background. The man, his back to the camera, asks if she likes sex with him. With an almost expressionless face, she says she just does what she needs to survive. The image is nicely composed and framed, but it really pushes that boundary of serious versus absurd.
Now that I'm several Fassbinders deep, there are two things that really strike me. And I have not read much formal writing about these things (I want to watch more of his stuff before reading essays), so I apologize if these takes are either (1) really obvious or (2) really off-the-wall.
First, regarding what some mentioned as criticism of the way his female characters are written, I kind of have to wonder if people levying that criticism feel that his male characters are much better. While it is true that there seems to be a pattern of women who are clingy and who are attracted to abusive or loserish men . . . much of the same seems to be true of the male characters, right? With maybe the exception of Ali in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, his male characters seem like they are a total mess. Second, it is really interesting to watch so many films in which the sexualized gaze is applied equally, if not more, toward men. Fassbinder seems to undress his male characters as often as his female characters (and the male characters are actually presented as desirable, unlike most uses of male nudity which is for either comedic or scary purposes), and it really calls into stark relief the way that so many other films contrive staging of similar scenes so that only one person (ie the female character) is filmed with that sexualized framing.
I am definitely enjoying this odyssey through his films and look forward to the next few.
Katzelmacher, 1969
A group of friends in their mid-twenties (including actresses Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann, later to star in Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant!) laze around their neighborhood, sleeping with each other and getting into petty arguments. Their equilibrium is upset when a Greek immigrant (Fassbinder himself) lands in their midst.
I could probably write the words "unhealthy co-dependence" about pretty much everything I have seen thus far from Fassbinder, and this film is no exception. I think that something that he captures very well is the way that people can be miserable--as friends, but especially as lovers/romantic partners--and find themselves in a sort of holding pattern. The characters in this film don't seem to like each other all that much, or when they do it tends to be in a clingy way. They are dismissive or verbally and physically abusive toward one another. Yet it is only the arrival of someone new that throws things off balance.
This isn't a great film. There were definitely parts that dragged and moments where I sort of zoned out. I think that many of the scenes are intentionally underwhelming, as fits the lives that the main characters are leading.
In both a positive and a negative way, many sequences in this film felt like a strange mix between a movie and a play. I really liked how frequently Fassbinder returned to the exact same shot---several friends sitting together on a railing, or a repeated shot of two of the characters strolling arm in arm--to reinforce the redundant nature of the day to day life of the characters.
I have to mention that there were some parts that almost too perfectly fit what many people would think of in a negative way as an "art film". I'm specifically talking about scenes like the one in which two nude lovers kneel together on a bed in front of a totally blank white background. The man, his back to the camera, asks if she likes sex with him. With an almost expressionless face, she says she just does what she needs to survive. The image is nicely composed and framed, but it really pushes that boundary of serious versus absurd.
Now that I'm several Fassbinders deep, there are two things that really strike me. And I have not read much formal writing about these things (I want to watch more of his stuff before reading essays), so I apologize if these takes are either (1) really obvious or (2) really off-the-wall.
First, regarding what some mentioned as criticism of the way his female characters are written, I kind of have to wonder if people levying that criticism feel that his male characters are much better. While it is true that there seems to be a pattern of women who are clingy and who are attracted to abusive or loserish men . . . much of the same seems to be true of the male characters, right? With maybe the exception of Ali in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, his male characters seem like they are a total mess. Second, it is really interesting to watch so many films in which the sexualized gaze is applied equally, if not more, toward men. Fassbinder seems to undress his male characters as often as his female characters (and the male characters are actually presented as desirable, unlike most uses of male nudity which is for either comedic or scary purposes), and it really calls into stark relief the way that so many other films contrive staging of similar scenes so that only one person (ie the female character) is filmed with that sexualized framing.
I am definitely enjoying this odyssey through his films and look forward to the next few.