Katzelmacher

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Audience Member This early Fassbinder film concerns a group of dissatisfied and directionless young people who turn their attentions away from themselves and the relationships within their inner circle when a young Greek man arrives looking for work and lodging. Soon the group rumour mill goes into overdrive as they perceive the young man as an outsider and so demonise and persecute him. Another great character driven piece by the German maestro with the ugliest facets of human nature being explored as the members of the insular and narrow minded group start to spread rumours and make their prejudices known towards young Jorgos. After an innocuous chance meeting in the street with one of the women from the gang, the group's Chinese Whispers soon snowball to him having tried to rape her as well as other crimes such as him being a Communist. The men of the group then seize their opportunity to beat him up for crimes he isn't guilty of. Conformity, group hysteria and mobbing by the gang are all explored perceptively within Katzelmacher which makes it, unfortunately, ring all too true. Beautifully acted, perfectly framed and directed and with a gorgeous late 60's black and white which is icy cool and absolutely gorgeous. Look out for the scene of the young woman dancing. Highly recommended. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Fassbinder is clearly much more comfortable here as he deals with xenophobia and repression. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Hosting an intentionally broken narrative that makes the film all the more intoxicating, Katzelmacher plays like a fever dream on post-war Germany, rather than a relic from a by-gone era. While the film's plot is rather simple, director/writer Fassbinder (in only his second feature) makes the film profound through his dense focus on mis-en-scene, brave handling of weighty themes pertaining to sex and bigotry, and material that's both repellent and blackly humorous in a truly understanding way. A necessary jumping on point for Fassbinder, one of Germany's very best filmmakers. Note: The official English-Language-released version sports white subtitles that are difficult to see. Honestly, that is about the only flaw I can find in this otherwise masterful concoction. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Much of this film about the young, twentysomething bourgeoisie in West Germany--about the young, twentysomething, bourgeois West Germany--is boring, even though they're all about sex and money. That may well be part of the point. While the criticism here at first seems elementary, by the end it comes across as incisive. Watch it with or instead of The White Ribbon. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Fassbinder's second feature sees his career-long themes already in full-bloom. These characters are inhumanely cruel to each other, even as they maintain a posture of friendship. Of course, outsiders are treated especially inhumanely -- as demonstrated here in the way that the several couples that populate the film (and apartment block) react hostilely to the Greek immigrant (referred to by the slang word, Katzelmacher, which seems to refer to sexual behaviour as well as foreign worker status). Fassbinder implies that money drives all human relationships and shows us this in a number of prostitution-like relationships. To get us to focus on such themes, everyone is using emotionless Brechtian delivery here and the cinematography suggests a translated play (everyone faces the audience). But there are also purely cinematic devices (a recurring tracking shot involving pairs of characters strolling arm in arm) in use. I like Fassbinder, so I might find this more engaging than the average viewer -- but if you like this one, there are further masterpieces to discover. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Fassbinder's 2nd film is dull and very much an art film but his choice of minimalist style and aimless characters pre dates Jim Jarmusch and the New York underground film scene by 10 years. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Katzelmacher

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