They are people, who, to be able to live what seems worth living,
play roles that aren't really their own.
Of course this is something sad, then again it also is something beautiful."
.
'Liebe ist kälter als der Tod' is about criminal rebels who don't want to conform and who regard freedom as their highest good that is worth protecting at all costs. This is unmistakably shown in the beginning when a syndicate wants to recruit Franz and Bruno, but they refuse to join despite much pressure being put on them.
They live the image of rebellious Hollywood icons from James Cagney to James Dean. Apart from their freedom appearances are important. Suits, hats, sunglasses, guns and gangster-ish behavior they can not live without.
Franz killed a Turk and now he has problems with the police and the Turk's brother. He gets those problems out of the way by killing more people. A great many of them. Bruno helps him. Bruno became Franz' best friend. Franz kills the Turk's brother. Bruno kills a witness of Franz' murder. They don't bother to do things subtly. When they get guns but can't pay for them they just kill the dealer, no big deal. Another obstacle out of the way. When they are stopped by a police man they could have easily lied their way out of it. But nah, *BANG*.
Gunshots, although numerous, seem very little present. Either they are made off-screen or the film cuts to the next scene before the shot. Impacts from gunshots are not visible, the victims just break down and the film immediately moves on.
This makes us think of the main characters as the cool rebels that they see themselves as, rather than as criminals which is how the people around them see those characters. The style of the film very much supports the characters' self-image. It makes us see the things the way they see it. They think they are in a gangster movie, so the film is a gangster movie. It's very much French New Wave - the culture is that of American movies and myth - but the setting is Germany and the values are of the German student movement (aka the 68er-Bewegung), or more precisely Fassbinder's view of it. Apart from their "acts of rebellion" their lives are pretty empty and they clearly have nothing to live for, making them rebels without a cause.
Overall the film plays a lot like Godard's 'Bande à part', just more serious in tone and more mundane. There is no lofty dialogue.
The film is made to look plot less. Stuff happens but connections between scenes are left unpronounced. It feels like a film of plot-fragments. The "Turks plot" doesn't seem to be of major importance. The first time it was referred to almost in passing and the second time when Franz is interrogated about it by the police the focus seems to be a different one. Even when they kill the Turk's brother it is far from obvious who that man is. It's only in retrospect that all this comes together to form a plot.
By the end we find out that Bruno was sent by the syndicate to make friends with Franz and to make him join the syndicate and that this is what the (absurd) plot was about. Fact is that there is a plot, but the film is very concerned with being ambiguous about it. Even in the last ten minutes when the film finally starts to uncover things one crucial dialogue is almost unintelligible because the music plays over it too loudly. And then the scene of the attempted bank robbery which is the most crucial moment in the plot is edited frantically, making it difficult to see what exactly is going on.
To make sense of it you have to put together the puzzle after the movie is over. I consider this a weak move, as it makes the first time viewing unnecessarily little enjoyable. Gladly RWF didn't repeat this approach in any of the many other films that I have seen of his.
As for the meaning of the title; love is colder than death. It is Johanna (Franz' girlfriend) who looks through Bruno and his plan to get Franz to become a part of the syndicate. What binds Johanna and Franz is love, Bruno and Franz are bound by death - Bruno, who murders for Franz. The "coldness" of the title refers to the ability to see things as they are, to look through deceptions. Johanna, with her love for Franz, is less deceived by Bruno than Franz is. Love is colder than death. Not even by the end of the movie Franz knows what's going on. The film closes with him calling Johanna a whore, probably assuming that she betrayed Bruno out of jealousy for the close friendship between Franz and Bruno.
play roles that aren't really their own.
Of course this is something sad, then again it also is something beautiful."
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder (translated)
.
'Liebe ist kälter als der Tod' is about criminal rebels who don't want to conform and who regard freedom as their highest good that is worth protecting at all costs. This is unmistakably shown in the beginning when a syndicate wants to recruit Franz and Bruno, but they refuse to join despite much pressure being put on them.
They live the image of rebellious Hollywood icons from James Cagney to James Dean. Apart from their freedom appearances are important. Suits, hats, sunglasses, guns and gangster-ish behavior they can not live without.
Franz killed a Turk and now he has problems with the police and the Turk's brother. He gets those problems out of the way by killing more people. A great many of them. Bruno helps him. Bruno became Franz' best friend. Franz kills the Turk's brother. Bruno kills a witness of Franz' murder. They don't bother to do things subtly. When they get guns but can't pay for them they just kill the dealer, no big deal. Another obstacle out of the way. When they are stopped by a police man they could have easily lied their way out of it. But nah, *BANG*.
Gunshots, although numerous, seem very little present. Either they are made off-screen or the film cuts to the next scene before the shot. Impacts from gunshots are not visible, the victims just break down and the film immediately moves on.
This makes us think of the main characters as the cool rebels that they see themselves as, rather than as criminals which is how the people around them see those characters. The style of the film very much supports the characters' self-image. It makes us see the things the way they see it. They think they are in a gangster movie, so the film is a gangster movie. It's very much French New Wave - the culture is that of American movies and myth - but the setting is Germany and the values are of the German student movement (aka the 68er-Bewegung), or more precisely Fassbinder's view of it. Apart from their "acts of rebellion" their lives are pretty empty and they clearly have nothing to live for, making them rebels without a cause.
Overall the film plays a lot like Godard's 'Bande à part', just more serious in tone and more mundane. There is no lofty dialogue.
The film is made to look plot less. Stuff happens but connections between scenes are left unpronounced. It feels like a film of plot-fragments. The "Turks plot" doesn't seem to be of major importance. The first time it was referred to almost in passing and the second time when Franz is interrogated about it by the police the focus seems to be a different one. Even when they kill the Turk's brother it is far from obvious who that man is. It's only in retrospect that all this comes together to form a plot.
By the end we find out that Bruno was sent by the syndicate to make friends with Franz and to make him join the syndicate and that this is what the (absurd) plot was about. Fact is that there is a plot, but the film is very concerned with being ambiguous about it. Even in the last ten minutes when the film finally starts to uncover things one crucial dialogue is almost unintelligible because the music plays over it too loudly. And then the scene of the attempted bank robbery which is the most crucial moment in the plot is edited frantically, making it difficult to see what exactly is going on.
To make sense of it you have to put together the puzzle after the movie is over. I consider this a weak move, as it makes the first time viewing unnecessarily little enjoyable. Gladly RWF didn't repeat this approach in any of the many other films that I have seen of his.
As for the meaning of the title; love is colder than death. It is Johanna (Franz' girlfriend) who looks through Bruno and his plan to get Franz to become a part of the syndicate. What binds Johanna and Franz is love, Bruno and Franz are bound by death - Bruno, who murders for Franz. The "coldness" of the title refers to the ability to see things as they are, to look through deceptions. Johanna, with her love for Franz, is less deceived by Bruno than Franz is. Love is colder than death. Not even by the end of the movie Franz knows what's going on. The film closes with him calling Johanna a whore, probably assuming that she betrayed Bruno out of jealousy for the close friendship between Franz and Bruno.