Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Götter der Pest" is a West German 90-minute movie from 1970, so this one is already over 45 years old. It is from the earlier days of filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder as he was in his mid-20s as he shot this one. There are three factors that are pretty frequent in his early works, namely the fact that this is still in black-and-white and also the runtime staying under 90 minutes. His works got longer as he grew older. And last but not least, crime-themed films were something he also did primarily in the first 5 years of his filmmaking career. This is one of these. There is lots of murder in here. A man leaves prison and as the film continues we find out about his relationship with his brother, with women and with an old friend who turns out pretty lusty. The latter is played by Günther Kaufmann, a regular in Fassbinder's films. But also lead actor Harry Baer and Hanna Schygulla (especially she) worked with Fassbinder on several occasions. Also in here are Jan George (brother of the late Götz), Ingrid Caven (Fassbinder's wife) and Margarethe von Trotta during her acting days and quite a while before she solely focused on shooting films herself. As a whole, I cannot say there were too many memorable or good moments in this film. To me it seemed as if Fassbinder was still a while back from his best years when he made the films I like the most from him. So I am not too surprised "Gods of the Plague" did not receive as much awards attention as some other works by RMF. My verdict is negative too. Watch something else instead.

goblinhairedguy If only Bayer or Pfizer could bottle this movie for insomniacs, they'd make an even bigger fortune than they do now. Fassbinder proved he could fashion unique cinematic art out of a bunch of people standing around excoriating each other in several of his early pictures, but here the internal tensions never mount and the tropes don't connect. Some claim it to be a homage to film noir, and certainly there is alienation, paranoia and betrayal in spades, as well as iconic visual references to classics like Laura and Double Indemnity. But the moody lighting and framing in his excellent "The American Soldier" are much closer to the noir stylings of Alton and Planer than the arid non-style here. However, the greatest offense of the film is the inclusion of a seemingly endless, static sequence featuring the playing of a phonograph record of a gimmicky children's tune about an oddball menagerie -- I guarantee you that this nauseating little ditty will echo in your skull for days. At the same time, the subtitlers are owed a great deal of credit for their incisively clever translation of the absurd rhyming couplets into (very British) English.

cheese_cake the movie seems to be random events and unconnected characters, but when i watched it the second time everything fell in place. the main character has just got out of jail (this is not explicit, but he walks by a long wall which seems to be circular and confining...see now that's art/clever)...so he gets out of jail and starts contacting people in his life, including girlfriend, brother, brothers abused wife, friends named gorilla and joe, etc...the lead actor did a wonderfull job of expressing the film's many ideologies, initially he seems expressionless but later you understand why he is the way he is...some themes are the trauma of jail (minimal actually), the petty crook mentality, girls and lovers and the futility of getting a job when one's only goal is to live, eat and love. The photography is high contrast black and white. Either they were copying old time russian directors or because they are from theatre they liked the lightning scheme, but i think they just wanted to jar the viewer's perspective and it works, never seen a movie with this type of photography. Highly recommended for the serious movie viewer. geocities.com/free_love98

Knut Behrends After being released from prison, young Franz has to find his place in society, and police keeps an eye on him. First he briefly tries to live with his former girl friend who still loves him a bit too passionately, however he also picks up other acquaintances. Society is hostile to him, or at least perceived by him as being so, hence it is tough to make money. But he definitely wants to keep a cool lifestyle so he must keep on law-breaking, in particular when he is with his old betraying friends.