After showing us Franz Biberkopf at his most vulnerable in the last installment, Fassbinder now proceeds to remind us of how repulsive he can be: trading “broads” with his buddy Reinhold and then kicking them out on the street when he gets bored with them. Our exploration of this side of Franz’s character is served by uncomfortable close-ups of nervous, bulbous faces, alternating with very distant, exaggeratedly theatrical shots, sometimes from behind pieces of furniture, which suggest bootleg videos of Strindberg plays.
A note on the music in this episode: it’s insane. For one almost twenty minute sequence there is a continuous music cue of what sounds like several treated pianos, echoing and overlapping in creepy dissonance, and occasionally interrupted by a random sine wave blast (though it’s possible that was just a speaker problem with the TV I was watching on). It is not synchronized to the image at all, as far as I can tell, which increases the feeling of chaotic malevolence building up. And yet it’s juxtaposed with a quite charming little jazz dance sequence: Franz can really shake a tail feather!
by Evan Kindley | Source: Criterion Collection DVD
19 Jul 2008 12:19 PM | Submit Comment