Rent Love Is Colder Than Death (1969)

Don't Even Think About It! - Love Is Colder Than Death review by RN

I have enjoyed a number of Fassbinder films. I was lured into renting this disaster by favourable reviews. It's a b&w filming of an artsy, avante-garde, surreal, experimental, call-it-what-you-will "play" written by Fassbinder when he was 23. It's apparently a homage to French & American film noirs/gangster movies. The 30 minutes I watched focused on characters who exhibit their coolness by staring full-face, blankly & silently at a static camera, occasionally spouting some improvised & nonsensical dialogue. It's supposed to be about pimps & prostitues or something. It views as a film made by deluded first-year Film Studies students. Somebody should have taken the camera away from them or persuaded them to fictionalise their own experiences. It may be intended as a comedy. The early scene on the train where two strangers exchane banalities designed to convey sexual tension certainly made me laugh.