Tuesday, September 06, 2011

The Greatest Movie...

... that fills the gaping hole in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's filmography where he was meant to make a movie about a cannibalistic pederast that looks like Uncle Fester?



Wolves wasn't directed by Fassbinder, but he did produce it and help edit it and he acts in it as well. Voluptuously so.


It was directed by Ulli Lommel, who was an actor in a number of Fassbinder's films, from RWF's first film Love is Colder Than Death all the way up through Chinese Roulette in 1976. Lommel worked with Andy Warhol too - Cocaine Cowboys was a collaboration between them. He also made 1980's Halloween rip-off The Boogeyman, which I've been wanting to see for ages. He's still making movies today.

Ulli Lommel, then and now

What's so especially special about Wolves though is the cast. It's surreal seeing the whole Fassbinder gang in something not made by Fassbinder - it's like seeing them in a whole new light. Brigitte Mara sings and dances!


Keep in mind she's singing and dancing because of how delicious the boy-flesh she's just eaten was.

And my beloved Margit Carstensen... well she's Margit Carstensen. She's always gonna be Margit Carstensen. A brittle banshee, a skeletal woebegone NARC.


The film stars Kurt Raab, also a Fassbinder regular - his memorable torment in Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? being one of my favorite film-length breakdowns ever put on screen. He does creep so well.


It doesn't surprise me that Lommel worked with Andy Warhol later on - this movie feels very very very much like Paul Morrissey's Dracula and Frankenstein films. Only instead of Joe Dallesandro's constantly bared beautiful bum we get to watch Kurt Raab slobber on teenage runaways, which... well hit it, Margit...

3 comments:

MattyD. said...

How and where did you see this because it looks amazing and I need it NOW.

Jason Adams said...

I found a copy online, MattyD. The DVD seems to be out of print and sells for way way too much. Same goes for the VHS although I don't even have a VHS player anymore so that's moot. Point being it's a pain to find but with a lil' elbow grease you can make it happen. It's def. kind of amazing and worth the effort.

Sean said...

OMG, I must see this movie. I am going to Germany in two weeks and I checked their ebay and Amazon and it is expensive there too! Yikes. Oh wow. This is a bummer. I looked online, but am not having much success.