Roger Fritz Movies

A sailor learns to take, and give, it like a man in this surrealistic adaptation of writer and thief Jean Genet's novel Querelle de Brest by avant-garde German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In a colorful brothel in the port of Brest, proprietor Nono (Gunther Kaufmann) is known for wagering with his customers. Win a throw of the dice, and they get to make love with his wife, Lysiane (Jeanne Moreau); lose, and they must take it from behind by Nono himself. One day, Lysiane reads the tarot for her lover, Robert (Hanno Poschl), and learns in the cards of his intense passion for his brother, Querelle (Brad Davis). Querelle himself soon arrives, and the brothers enact a bizarre greeting halfway between a hug and a wrestling match. Querelle, it seems, is looking for partners in a drug deal; Robert points him in the right direction. An argument about the merits of sex between men soon leads Querelle to murder his fellow smuggler, Vic (Dieter Schidor). Back at the whorehouse, Querelle loses on purpose to Nono and finds he has a taste for passive gay sex. Meanwhile, fellow sailor Gil, who looks exactly like Querelle's brother (and is played by the same actor), murders one of his compatriots after the brute publicly impugns his manhood. Wanted by the police for both his own crime and Querelle's, Gil goes on the lam. Querelle soon crashes his hideout, and an intense bond develops between the two murderers -- a friendship that will lead Querelle to the greatest love, and the greatest treachery, of his life. Director Fassbinder was in the process of editing Querelle when he died of a drug overdose in June 1982. Gunther Kaufmann, who plays Nono, was Fassbinder's ex-lover; the film is dedicated to another former lover, El Hedi Ben Salem, the news of whose suicide had just reached the director. Critically derided even by many of Fassbinder's admirers, Querelle earned a Golden Raspberry award for Worst "Original" Song for "Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves," an Oscar Wilde poem set to music by Peer Raben and sung repeatedly by Jeanne Moreau. Moreau had previously starred in Mademoiselle, a Tony Richardson effort co-scripted by Genet. Look for Frank Ripploh, another pioneering German director, in a cameo. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Inspired a song that was extremely popular with the German soldiers during WW II, this fictional story begins in 1938 while Wilkie Bunterberg (Hanna Schygulla), a third-tier cabaret singer, performs in a Zurich nightclub. It is her boyfriend, a Swiss Jew who also turns out to be a resistance fighter who pens her the famous song Lili Marleen. She sings it in Germany and it becomes a hit with the German troops. As a result, Hitler himself invites her to perform for him. This does not set well with the songwriter's powerful who, upon learning that Marleen has become a famed singer in Germany, seek to have her barred from Switzerland. This does not stop the songwriter from loving her though and desperate to see her one last time, he sneaks into Berlin for a tryst. Unfortuantely he is arrested and she gets blacklisted. They do not see each other again until after the war. By this time, their lives have changed considerably. This is not considered among the best of Fassbinder's best films. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Having made as many films as he had years, at 31, Rainer Werner Fassbinder essayed a slightly different approach for his 32nd film, Despair. Here, he uses a witty screenplay written by the well-known playwright Tom Stoppard, based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Furthermore, the entire film, set in 1930s Germany, is in English. It received mixed reviews, if only because it is so unlike the director's other works. In the story, a Russian owner of a German chocolate-factory, whose business and marriage are both on the rocks, fantasizes about leaving his current life, and living another one. Indeed, he has delusions that he is somehow outside himself, watching himself live his life. So strong is his desire to alter his life that when he encounters a tramp while on a brief business trip, he imagines that the man looks exactly like him, decides to exchange identities with the tramp, and murders him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

What happens when a lone robber commits the perfect crime but cannot afford to tell anyone or spend his money? He either goes nuts from loneliness, or he tells someone he feels he can trust. In this black-and-white German thriller, the robber wants to have a good life with his wife, so he begins by telling her what's up. His perfect crime slowly unravels as the number of people who are let in on it increases. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A classical music conductor lives with his mistress and her teenage daughter. When he and the daughter begin a love affair, the mother allows the tryst to continue for fear of losing him should she deny him her daughter's affections. The young girl falls for an avant garde musician, and the conductor tries to sabotage the relationship. He is successful for a short time, but the girl eventually runs off with the musician. The man is left with the mother, who for some strange reason still loves the lecherous lout. The film attempts to be critical of the cruel and snobbish high society that the man must tolerate in order to insure his economic survival. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Arnold (Klaus Loewitsch) is a middle-class family man in his 30s who runs a local camera shop. Constantly striving to improve his life and business, his plans are altered by the death of his brother during a family argument. The actual death is not chronicled, but Arnold and his family fear that word of the incident would destroy their family and their business opportunities. His brother's widow is paid off to insure her silence, and Arnold's wife abandons plans to leave her husband in the wake of the events that have transpired. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Former Luchiano Visconti assistant Roger Fritz directs this low-budget story about lascivious Lolitas in various stages of nudity. Graphic bedroom scenes depict the coming-of-age experiences of the teenager called Junior (Juergen Jung). ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi