This film by wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder, his 10th, is one of the rare films about filmmaking which was said by the critics to have succeeded both technically and as drama. In it, a German film crew sits in their Italian hotel, waiting for the arrival of their director (Lou Castel), their star (Eddie Constantine) and more money. While they wait, argue, complain, and enter and leave romances, the delusions of a whole community of filmmakers are humorously unveiled. This film is said to be a scathing and satirical self-criticism by Fassbinder of his own methods and of his colleagues and entourage. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Review
Movies about making movies are usually concerned with the frantic desperation of a shoot, with crises popping up by the minute and everyone rushing about madly. Not so in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film, allegedly about his experiences making Whity on-location in Spain. The first quarter of the film is taken up with a long scene in a hotel lobby which might have been directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. The lassitude and sense of sexual longing is almost suffocating, as members of the film within a film's cast and crew down drinks, break glasses, nuzzle on couches, or stare blankly into space. With the arrival of more money to continue the production and of the film's director (Lou Castel playing a handsome version of Fassbinder) and the film's star (Eddie Constantine more or less playing himself -- there is even a reference to his Lemmy Caution character), the energy level picks up -- especially when the director begins throwing hourly tantrums. And Fassbinder's narrative becomes more fragmented, featuring short snippets of conversations among the various characters, most of them complaining about someone else on the crew screwing things up. In one long and very funny scene, the director carefully reads a newspaper containing an article about him while a half-dozen other characters around him drift away. There is some witty use of music, too; three Leonard Cohen songs from his first album drone on during the long opening scene in the lobby, and later, a party scene plays out to Ray Charles' "Let's Go Get Stoned." This is all likely to be more amusing to those in the know about Fassbinder and his methods; less informed viewers are likely to see it as so much navel-gazing. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
