Early Fassbinder
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Synopsis
From the very beginning of his incandescent career, the New German Cinema enfant terrible Rainer Werner Fassbinder refused to play by the rules. His politically charged, experimental first films, made at an astonishingly rapid rate between 1969 and 1970, were influenced by the work of the Antiteater, an avant-garde stage troupe that he had helped found in Munich. Collected here are five of those fascinating and confrontational works. Whether a self- conscious meditation on American crime movies, a scathing indictment of xenophobia in contemporary Germany, or an off-the-wall look at the dysfunctional relationships on film sets, each is a startling glimpse into the mind of a twentysomething man who was to become one of cinema’s most madly prolific artists.
Picture 8/10
Criterion’s 39th Eclipse release brings 5 Early Fassbinder films to DVD. Presented across five single-layer discs are Love is Colder Than Death, Katzelmacher, Gods of the Plague, The American Soldier, and Beware of a Holy Whore. Love is Colder Than Death is the sole widescreen title, presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and enhanced for widescreen televisions. The remaining four films are all presented in 1.33:1 standard.
All told all of these transfers look stunning and it’s hard to find much of fault with them, other than the fact they would look incredible in high-definition and the lack of Blu-ray releases is really a shame. All of the transfers themselves are very solid, delivering sharp and crisp images that look fairly filmic. Love has more noticeable compression noise and some halos around objects but it’s otherwise clean. Film grain is present in all of the films, heaviest in Katzelmacher, but it’s actually rendered fairly well. Contrast is fine, though there are instances in all of the films where the image looks to have been boosted, but blacks levels look fairly inky in the black and white films.
The one lone colour film, Beware of a Holy Whore, also delivers a stunning look. Colours are bright with strong saturation, though black levels crush out a lot of the detail. Like the others it also delivers crisp image, though compression noise is a little more noticeable.
The source prints have all been restored rather extensively and marks and debris are minimal along with some tram lines and frame jumping. Past this all of the films look very good, and even upscaled they’re impressive. Still it’s a shame that these didn’t see a high-definition release as I think they’d all be knock-outs.
Early Fassbinder - Screen Captures
Audio 6/10
All five films present rather general Dolby Digital 1.0 mono tracks. Though there are admittedly slight variations between them because of their low budget natures, in general they’re all flat and tinny, lacking much of anything in the way of depth or range. Still, dialogue does sound clear and the tracks appear to be free of background noise.
Extras 1/10
Like most Eclipse releases there are no supplements to be found other than liner notes from Michael Koresky, with an initial insert that covers Fassbinder’s early career and first film.
Closing
I think many will be happy with the crisp transfers, though it’s still a shame these titles didn't get high-definition releases. Still it comes with a high recommendation.
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