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Katzelmacher (1969) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Posted By: veteandy

Date: 26 Apr 2009 08:15:39

A visual and dramatic tour de force about the effects of a Greek immigrant on a group of young working class people.

Fassbinder's second feature film, Katzelmacher (1969) is a tour de force of stark visual beauty and ambiguous but riveting characters. Fassbinder adapted his own original play, of the same title, which he had also starred in on stage.

Shot in just nine days on a shoestring budget, Katzelmacher explores the rootless but circumscribed lives of a group of young working class people. They hang around their dull Munich apartment complex, smoking cigarettes, sipping beer, exchanging banalities, and sleeping with each other – sometimes for money. But violence lies just below the surface, as we see when a Greek "guest worker" moves in and begins seeing one of the women. The men's increasing hostility towards the "Katzelmacher" (a Bavarian sexual slur for a foreign laborer), coupled with the immigrant's incomprehension, leads to the film's powerful climax.

Katzelmacher was a revelation. One of only a handful of Fassbinder films which I had not seen before, it seems among his best, and most challenging, works. (Jim's Review)

Cast:
Hanna Schygulla, R. W. Fassbinder, Hans Hirschmüller, Lilith Ungerer, Harry Baer, Irm Hermann.