zedz wrote:Pioneers in Ingolstadt
I see this adaptation, the last film Fassbinder made before the post-Sirk Merchant of Four Seasons, as the last Antiteater film. Although his early work is far more diverse than it's normally given credit for, this film does see the end of some common elements, such as static, frontal, 'theatrical' staging (the way Fassbinder blocks the climactic beating in this film seems rather weak after the more 'filmic' showdown that concluded The American Soldier, and the scene in which Pioneers pace around the car in which Karl and Berta are having a conversation seems straight from the stage), Gunther-croaked theme songs, and impassive or 'Brechtian' performance.
Performances are a real issue with the film for me, as there's an unproductive rift that has by this time developed between the 'old-Fassbinder' distanced, uninflected (or else declamatory) stiffness of several of the actors (such as Carla Aulaulu and Rudolf Brem) and the equally stylised but more slyly modulated 'new-Fassbinder' emotional irony that Hanna Schygulla, Harry Baer and Irm Herrmann have developed with their director. Klaus Lowitsch, in his first Fassbinder film, manages to slip into that latter mode beautifully. Hanna needs all the irony she can get for the role of Alma, who's supposed to be sexually naive. This arch but nuanced performance mode would dominate future films, with rare exceptions like Brigitte Mira, who seems to me boldly without irony in Ali.
The film employs some of the simple, rigorously formalised camera movements Fassbinder would soon abandon (in favour of much more elaborate, rigorously formalised movements, it's true), as in the back-and-forth tracking during a conversation, but even in a largely familiar mode, he's still moving tentatively into new territory. The scenes set in and around the bridge, which are shot on location and are montage- rather than dialogue-driven, aren't really like anything else in his cinema up to this point, capturing real activity rather than dramatic action.
Overall, the self-selected constraints of Fassbinder's early style seem like real limitations for the first time, and the film itself is a stylistic step back from the likes of Beware of a Holy Whore. At the end of his second year of feature filmmaking, Fassbinder had had what many other filmmakers would count as a full career: time for some reinvention.
Having still not begun my in depth exploration into Fassbinder yet I thought I would add some thoughts on the film I
have seen! I thought it was interesting that Pioneers In Ingolstadt began in a seemingly conventional way, sympathetic to house maid Berta's relationship with a lowly soldier, or 'pioneer' in Karl. Their union seems almost a parody of courtship rituals, especially with Karl's almost drugged recitation of "Ber....ta", also seeming as if he is trying to remember her name as much as savouring the sound of it. It initially seems a touching portrayal of star crossed lovers but soon the line between naivite and full blown delusion becomes apparent as Karl's history of women in every town and his part in multiple pregnancies sours the dream.
I liked the way that the film shifted the audience sympathies from that pair in order to present a more positive perspective towards Alma, who sleeps with any man and eventually moves to bluntly but charmingly requesting money in return for her services. She however is not under any illusions about her liaisons but seems much more practical in her relationships. I was left weighing up the contrast of Alma up front attitude, and expectation of nothing more from her partners than sex with any longer lasting memento of the act (a
'piccolo recordo' in the words of Gloria Perkins from L'Avventura perhaps!) being a cash payment against Berta's nervous and withdrawn performance which eventually is touched by Karl almost in spite of him as she falls in love and begins to rebel against her employer and the expectations that she will be sexually available for her master's son, Fabian. She is seduced by the seeming security of romantic love into finding the courage to rebel and yet also seemingly at the same time to willingly ignore the knowledge right in front of her, and even spelt out to her in no uncertain terms by Karl at the beginning of their relationship, of the short term nature of their affair.
She isn't a slut as Alma is seen as (I love the long circular tracking shot around the inn that comes after some of Alma's former friends have said that Alma is 'ruining the good reputation of the girls of the town', which in no uncertain terms shows that there is a lot of other raunchy behaviour going on, just couched in more acceptable, or less obviously monetised forms!) but Berta's virginity counts against her. It is telling that the final sequence culminates in her desperate attempts to keep the relationship with Karl going by giving up her virginity to him in some bushes in the park.
She is then immediately abandoned by Karl, yet I do not exactly feel anger towards him for this as he always told her he was not sticking around. I feel more annoyed at Berta for deluding herself into thinking this act would change anything - that her virginity would be seen by another as an important sacrifice that would cement a bond. Instead she is left another girl in another town (maybe destined to be another pregnancy left in Karl's wake), and with her virginity gone she has lost the one thing that set her apart from all the other women. She's just another girl who had a fling with a soldier, seen as nothing more romantic than that to other people's eyes, and it is telling that in the final shot of her lying there on the ground sobbing she is casually approached by another soldier as if to suggest that she will be destined for a series of similar liaisons with men now. Though Karl in a crude way was the 'pioneer' in a way no other man will be for her.
Alma by contrast manages to shape the beginnings of a real relationship by the end of the film through sleeping with Fabian after his continued rejections from Berta (ironically intercut with Berta's loss of virginity and taking place in the same park!), acknowledging that it is not romance but that security provides its own consolations. I thought the film beautifully managed to shift our sympathies in favour of these characters and away from ideas pursued by Berta of romantic love, which only leads to delusion and devastation.
While Karl doesn't encourage Berta's romantic outlook he is part of the other strand of the film that undermines the glamour of soldiering. From the rather mundane tasks of building a bridge and finding a girl to spend time with that can be seen as boring and not exactly the true idea of what a soldier does, but still allowing a certain honour and charm (not to mention cache among the ladies!), the film exposes the soldiers more and more to being not worthy of the uniform. From drunken sex to The Sergeant putting his men through punishment exercises there seems to be a demystification of the soldier, an image which the men themselves are well aware of not being able to match up to, as shown by Karl and fellow pioneer Max's conversation during their walk:
Max: The uniform attracts them..and the experience. God knows what they think we can do for them [...] That's the only thing you have as a soldier: the women. Otherwise we'd be the dumb ones and the civilians the smart-asses. We're still the dumb ones, but we make up for it with the women
Then comes the interesting scene where Fabian drives Berta to the front of the barracks to show off his ownership of his new car, and of Berta, to the soldiers she is infatuated with. This results in the wonderful shot of Berta and Karl talking next to the car while Max and his mates circle the car sizing it up almost mockingly in one direction while Fabian circles in the opposite direction against them, pushing them away from the car when they get too close or start fiddling around too much! The soldiers may be young and virile while Fabian still under his father's roof and childishly wanting to show off to the other guys but Fabian seems to be the one assured a future while the soldiers are not guaranteed any security.
The degrading of the soldierly image reaches its climax with the prolonged beating of Fabian by Max and his friends, as if they are taking their anger out on a representative of the town that they are stationed in and not really a part of for any length of time - anger that they've not been able to release through fighting an enemy.
Interestingly this brutal punishment of Fabian results in him being discovered lying in the road by Alma and the beginning of their relationship. This perhaps underlines Alma's separatness from the rest of the town and also her level-headedness in matters of sex and finding a partner: while all the other women are trying to find a soldier to love, or at most trying to net The Sergeant, Alma has moved on by that stage to finding a man destined for some stature in the town and who will provide her with that security that a soldier never could given their rootless nature and potentially dangerous occupation.