Gods Of The Plague - A German Film By Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad, in association with the Hyderabad Film Club, is screening 9 of the unforgettable and unsurpassed films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, from 20th to 26th August, at the Prasad Labs Preview Theatre.

Today, the 5th day, Gods Of The Plague will be screened. Fassbinder's third feature is about a petty criminal who plans to rob a supermarket, only to be betrayed by the two women who love him. The film is the director's homage to American gangster films, and shot in Munich in a strictly movieland setting that apes American film noir, with gangsters talking tough and sporting trenchcoats and fedoras, while the babes have cancer sticks dangling from their purring lips and have jaded looks as they languorously hang around the city's hot nightspots.

The movie's plot is slight but stylish, and though absurd, the dialogue is inanely witty. It has a taciturn petty criminal named Franz just released from prison, who makes plans to rob a local supermarket with the help of "Gorilla", a Bavarian criminal who killed his brother. After a quick visit with Joanna, Franz shacks up with the gorgeous Margarethe, who ultimately gangs up with Joanna in order to betray him.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was born in 1945 and died in 1982. He was one of the most significant directors of the "New German Cinema". In just 13 years, between 1969 and 1982, he made 44 films. He wrote 14 plays, revised six others and directed 25. He wrote 4 radio plays and 37 screenplays and worked on a further 13 scripts with other writers. Fassbinder's films are among the most valid social documents produced between the late '60s and early '80s in Germany; his plays are among the most performed of any post-war German dramatist.

Please contact Goethe-Zentrum at 6552-6443 or Bh S S Prakash Reddy of the Hyderabad Film Club at 2373-0841/93910-20243 for further details.