Saturday, December 18, 2021

DAS KLEINE CHAOS - "The LIttle Chaos" (1967)

 
This week's Saturday Night Special is a very short film made in the earliest part of the career of avant-garde Bavarian filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder called "Das Kleine Chaos," or "The Little Chaos." 
 
Besides directing and writing, Fassbinder also frequently took on the role of composer, production designer, cinematographer, producer or editor, or basically anything that needed to be done.

This early film also starred Marite Greiselis in her only film outing ever.

Christoph Roser was also Producer of the first three shorts made by Fassbinder, and acted in two of them before going another direction!

Besides one TV show appearance, this was also it for Greta Rehfeld.

Fassbinder was an anomaly at best. At fifteen, he declared that he was gay to his parents, and yet he got married to women twice, but didn't Father any children. His wife and ex-wife also either worked with him, or acted in his movies.

In this scene his friends are making out, and Fassbinder steps in and shows his buddy how to really kiss a woman!

"The Little Chaos" is only nine minutes long, so there's not a lot of time for trivialities.  The trio had failed miserably at selling magazines, so they went back to to rob the people instead.

"The Little Chaos" somehow reminds me of a very abbreviated and super low budget version of the in home invasion in "A Clockwork Orange."

To be even more threatening, Fassbinder sets a picture hanging on the wall on fire.

Without too much effort, they find a box with some cash in it, and Fassbinder asks what the other two are going to do with their share.

Being the consummate film fanatic, Fassbinder gets a wry smile on his face and states that what he's going to do with his money is go to the movies!! Fassbinder was a true artist, and like many artists he used a lot of drugs, and ended up paying the ultimate price. Rainer Werner Fassbinder died from an overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills at the age of 37 in 1982, a victim of his own self abuse. They say that by his side there was a script that he was working on, because that's just the kind of guy he was!
Extra Bonus......The music during the ending credits is a very cool song called "I Can't Control Myself" by those wild guys known as The Troggs.

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