Sept. 9, 2009: Liebe ist kälter als der Tod

The first movie of this semester's series (New German Cinema) is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Liebe ist kälter als der Tod (1969), starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ulli Lommel, Yaak Karsunke, and the incomparable Hanna Schygulla.


Unusual gangster story, in which a small-time pimp Franz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder), who is torn between his mistress and Bruno the gangster sent after him by the syndicate that he has refused to join. Things are turned on their head when Franz and Bruno (Ulli Lommel) become friends, to the point that they even share Franz's girlfriend Joanna (Hanna Schygulla). But Joanna soon becomes bored of Bruno, and when he plots a bank robbery, she reports it to the police before Bruno's scheme to kill her can succeed. Bruno is shot dead by the police, but the lovers manage to escape. (Description from the IMDB.)

September 9, 2009 at 8PM in the Kaufmann Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University. Preceded by an introduction to the film and followed by a discussion. Free and open to the public.