Love Is Colder Than Death

Love Is Colder Than Death (1969) is the first film in the Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder from Criterion featuring the early films of Rainier Werner Fassbinder. The film was dedicated to French New Wave directors Claude Charbol, Eric Rohmer, and Jean-Marie Straub, but the greatest influence I can see on the film was Jean Luc Goddard's Band of Outsiders. A similar story of two hoodlum friends and a girl. If possible this film feels more stylistic and cold in execution, perhaps, reflecting the cynical and cold behavior of the characters on display: the pimp roughneck Franz (Fassbinder), his girl and prostitute Joanna (Hanna Schygulla), and the petty gangster recruited by the syndicate Bruno (Ulli Lommel). The film is pretty avant-garde in that it is comprised of mostly completely static shots. The characters often just stare at the camera before action takes place. There is also homage to traditional film noir throughout, but I mostly see the homage to Jean-Paul Melville and Goddard in this film. this is my first Fassbinder film, s it will be interesting to see where he goes from here. I have often come across references to the films of Fassbinder, but I was inspired to seek out his films after reading an appreciatory essay on Fassbinder by the critic Philip Lopate.