Gods of the Plague

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Gods of the Plague ★★★ Gotter der Pest 1969

Fassbinder goes noir—or grey with lots of sharp lighting—in this gangsterauteur tale of robbery gone awry. The requisite trappings of the crime genre (guys and dolls and cops and robbers) provide a vague backdrop (and a vague plot) for a moody story full of teutonic angst and alienation, and that certain Fassbinder feeling (which, need we say, isn't to everyone's taste). An early effort by the director, who remade the story later the same year as “The American Soldier” (Fassbinder acts in both). In German with (difficulttoread) English subtitles. 92m/C VHS, DVD . GE Hanna Schygulla, Harry Bear; D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

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