Love Is Colder Than Death (film)

Love Is Colder Than Death (film)
Love is Colder Than Death is a 1969 West German black-and-white film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, his first feature film. In the original theater presentation in Berlin the title was first Kälter als der Tod; at the beginning of film production, it was Liebe – kälter als der Tod as on some film posters. The cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann and the cast as an ensemble won an award at the German Film Awards in 1970.
Plot
Franz (Reiner Werner Fassbinder) encountered our cold and silent protagonist Bruno (Ulli Lommel) when the Syndicate adopted every possible mean to force and reason things out for them. The two did compromise and never reached an agreement with the organization. Left with no choice, the interrogator (Peter Moland) had to let them go. Before bidding farewell, Franz informed Bruno the address of his apartment in Munich, paving the way for the ensuing events of the plot.
Petty hood Franz (Fassbinder) refuses to join the syndicate, where he meets a handsome young thug called Bruno (Lommel) and gives him his address in Munich. It is the flat of the prostitute Joanna (Schygulla), where Franz lives as her pimp. Bruno has been ordered by the syndicate to follow Franz and on going to the address is told he has moved. So he goes round the streets of the city asking prostitutes if they know a prostitute called Joanna.
Eventually he finds where the pair are hiding, because Franz is being sought by a Turk for killing his brother. Bruno offers to solve the problem, so the three go to the café where the Turk can be found and shoot him. As they leave, Bruno also shoots the waitress who is the only witness. Franz is picked up by the police for both killings and, while he is held for questioning, Joanna starts an affair with Bruno.
When Franz is freed because the police have no evidence, the three then plan a bank robbery. As they arrive outside, plainclothes police appear and Bruno is killed in a shootout while Franz and Joanna get away. In the car she tells him she had tipped the cops off about the robbery. He says "Nutte" [whore] and keeps on driving as the film fades to white.
Cast
Ulli Lommel – Bruno
Rainer Werner Fassbinder – Franz
Hanna Schygulla – Joanna
Katrin Schaake – Woman on train
Liz Soellner – Newspaper Saleswoman
Gisela Otto – Prostitute
Ursula Strätz – Prostitute
Monika Stadler – Waitress
Hans Hirschmüller – Peter
Les Olvides – Georges
Peer Raben – Jürgen
Howard Gaines – Raoul
Peter Moland – Interrogator
Kurt Raab – Department Store Detective
Peter Berling – Weapons Seller
Anastassios Karalas – Turkish Man
Reception
Initial reception was generally negative, and the film was even booed at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival in 1969. Today, however, it is seen as a fine example of Fassbinder's early style, with a heavy 'nouvelle vague' influence.
The film is dedicated to "Claude Chabrol, Éric Rohmer, Jean-Marie Straub, Linio, and Cuncho". The last two refer to the main characters in Damiano Damiani's 1966 film A Bullet for the General. Ulli Lommel's styling (and also the poster artwork) is inspired by Alain Delon in Le Samouraï.
References
External links
Criterion Collection essay by Michael Koresky
1969 films
1960s avant-garde and experimental films
1969 crime films
German avant-garde and experimental films
German gangster films
West German films
1960s German-language films
Films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
German black-and-white films
Films about prostitution in Germany
Films set in Munich
1969 directorial debut films
1960s German films