Horst_In_Translation Review of Rio das Mortes

Rio das Mortes (1971 TV Movie)

Early Fassbinder improving, but still far from his best

[4/10 · 15 September 2016]

"Rio das Mortes" is a West German film from 1971, so this one has its 45th anniversary already this year. It is a fairly early career effort by German writer and director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (in his mid-20s) and, at the same time, also one of his earliest color films as he started it all in black-and-white. This is a television production that stays comfortably under 90 minutes, so nowhere near Fassbinder's longest works. It is basically the story of two men who plan a journey to Peru, while the girlfriend of one of the two rather wants her man to stay and marry her. What's going to happen. Or will none of them get their wish? Watch for yourself. Or maybe don't as I personally did not find it a good watch. Fassbinder succeeds the most with drama in my opinion and there he includes occasionally subtle humor as well besides the character studies. And I would not call this film here a comedy film either, even if there is certainly more comedy than Fassbinder usually does. The title actually sounds like one of these jungle-themed films starring Kinski that were made by Herzog, but that's just a side-note. Anyway, the cast here includes many of Fassbinder's regular actors. Michael König has not worked with him that often, but the likes of Schygulla, Kaufmann, Brem, Lommel, Baer, Sedlmayr and Schaake have played in a lot of his films. This one here may not be their best, but I personally also must say I never really developed much interest in the story. The scene with the gun at the very end looks a bit clumsy as if Fassbinder tried to rush in some dramatic tension at the very end as it may have become visible to himself too that this film lacked relevance, especially to most of the works he has done later in his tragically short-lived career. I don't recommend the watch. Check out something else from this truly gifted filmmaker instead.