Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter (1968)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Jean-Marie Straub

Writers:

Ferdinand Bruckner (play) and
Danièle Huillet (writer)

Genre:

Short | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Three sequences are linked together in this short film by Straub; the first sequence is a long tracking...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play

Cast

Irm Hermann	...	Desiree
Kristin Peterson	...	Irene
Hanna Schygulla	...	Lucy
Peer Raben	...	Willi / Alt in the play
Rudolf Waldemar Brem	...	Petrell
Jimmy Powell	...	James (as James Powell)
Lilith Ungerer	...	Lilith / Marie in the play
Rainer Werner Fassbinder	...	The pimp / Freder in the play (as Rainer W. Fassbinder)

Also Known As:

The Bridegroom, the Actress and the Pimp
The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp

Runtime:

23 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Janus Film und Fernsehen

A classic short film

This is a good example of how inventive the short film format may be;much is condensed into the twenty-three running time, making this film seem much longer than its duration would suggest.The film has its roots in a theatre production of a play by the Austrian playwright Ferdinand Bruckner which Straub had been asked to direct by a German theatre company.He considered the play too verbose and cut its length from several hours down to just ten minutes,and it is the production of this play which forms the centrepiece of the film. The film begins with a long,hypnotic tracking shot along a Munich street frequented by prostitutes.This short scene is followed by the ten minute play which stars a young Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Hanna Schygulla.The next two scenes seem to belong in a different film completely.They concern an actress and her black boyfriend whom her pimp is trying to kill before her wedding,hence the film's title.Eventually the narrative logic begins to make sense as the girl is a prostitute and her pimp was one of the characters featured in the play. While most directors would have needed several hours to make sense of this plot,Straub miraculously manges to make all the disparate elements play off against each other in an enthralling experimental work which may be one of his greatest achievements.