If Rainer Werner Fassbinder could make three movies in one year, we should have been able to watch three of his films in one night. Unfortunately, we were distracted by homework. We did manage to watch Fassbinders Katzelmacher (1969) and Gods of the Plague (1969).
This movie has interesting characters: a beautiful woman out for revenge, a man who runs from the law, an old friend, a woman to sleep with, and a sleazy detective. This noir film uses the detective story as a subplot while the audience runs with the criminal unaware of precisely what he did wrong.
Edwin and I noted that this seems like a Goddard film. There are abrupt edits, random scenes (like the drive to the country where the men reminisce with an old friend), and a story Goddard could direct. However, Gods of the Plague is dour and unhappy, whereas Goddard films are whimsical, upbeat, and nave with a childlike innocence. There is a moment of hope in Gods of the Plague where the criminal and his friend talk with their woman on a bed about how the future could be good. They could live in the woods, catch fish in the stream, and live a utopian dream. This hope is one of the only glimpses of a good life in the film and one of the only parts where we know that the characters want to live. The rest of the film is a struggle to survive.
This film, like Katzelmacher, features men who treat their women like objects. The detective inappropriately grabs the beautiful woman, women receive beatings undeservingly. But Gods of the Plague also has humor like Katzelmacher. Gods of the Plague is bleak and inhuman, but at least this glances at humanity. There is a spark of hope and emotion to this film, making this not as nihilistic as Katzelmacher.
~Kristen Gorlitz