"Rio das Mortes" is a West German film from 1971, so this one has its 45th anniversary already this year. It is a fairly early career effort by German writer and director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (in his mid-20s) and, at the same time, also one of his earliest color films as he started it all in black-and-white. This is a television production that stays comfortably under 90 minutes, so nowhere near Fassbinder's longest works. It is basically the story of two men who plan a journey to Peru, while the girlfriend of one of the two rather wants her man to stay and marry her. What's going to happen. Or will none of them get their wish? Watch for yourself. Or maybe don't as I personally did not find it a good watch. Fassbinder succeeds the most with drama in my opinion and there he includes occasionally subtle humor as well besides the character studies. And I would not call this film here a comedy film either, even if there is certainly more comedy than Fassbinder usually does. The title actually sounds like one of these jungle-themed films starring Kinski that were made by Herzog, but that's just a side-note. Anyway, the cast here includes many of Fassbinder's regular actors. Michael König has not worked with him that often, but the likes of Schygulla, Kaufmann, Brem, Lommel, Baer, Sedlmayr and Schaake have played in a lot of his films. This one here may not be their best, but I personally also must say I never really developed much interest in the story. The scene with the gun at the very end looks a bit clumsy as if Fassbinder tried to rush in some dramatic tension at the very end as it may have become visible to himself too that this film lacked relevance, especially to most of the works he has done later in his tragically short-lived career. I don't recommend the watch. Check out something else from this truly gifted filmmaker instead.

In Fassbinder's published manuscripts, interviews, notes and his own work as a playwright, poet, film critique, including philosophical writings, there is practically nothing to be found about the possibly highly interesting relationship between Fassbinder and Herbert Achternbusch (in 1971, Achternbusch's first big novel had appeared). Achternbusch must have taken up "Rio Das Mortes" thematically in his film "Das Letzte Loch" (1982) and in the novel "Das Haus Am Nil" (1981), respectively. Thereby, it does not matter if the Nil is in Egypt or not - the Nil is the protagonist, best a personification of an abstract concept "Nil" - and like is bearer basically unbound. And so is the Rio Das Mortes - by the way, it is not in Peru, but in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Nietzsche wrote his famous passage about Mexican Oaxaca - needless to say the had never been there and the name and his concept have not much more than a phonetic reality. Such use of landscapes, cities, rivers, etc. have a good and long tradition in German literature, going back at least down to Goethe's Arcadia: Et in Arcadia ego.

This is a good film which will appeal to the realist Fassbinder fans but does not in any way rank with his best gritty works (Merchant, Herr R., Ali)perhaps because of its unrealistic proceedings: The story develops somewhat slowly and predictably, and none of the characters have much development. The acting is good yet primitive, and definitely has an repertory feel to it--one of the beauties of RWF's movies: it was almost comforting to see Gunther Kaufmann, Hanna Schygulla, and Harry Baer together. Michael Konig also puts in a good role as Michel. I thought the best scenes of the movie are when Gunther and Michel seek financial assistance from Hanna's relative.

Excellent early Fassbinder about two shiftless young men who decide, seemingly on the spur of a moment, that the next big step in their lives will be an extended expedition for treasure in Peru's Rio das Mortes region. One of their fiancées (Hanna Schygulla, as gorgeous and as great as ever) finds the notion stupid and wants to put a stop to it. It's a droll comedy and has a ton of great sequences. This is the first film in a Fassbinder bender I'm going on. I'm planning on seeing all of the films of his that have recently been released on DVD. I've been thinking a lot about this particular auteur lately. I don't think that enough time has passed since his untimely death to allow his career to be taken into proper perspective. Fassbinder reminds me a lot of Rohmer, Ozu, Godard and Bresson. He's in his own little world in his films (a world which changed a lot in the 13 or so years during which he was active), and a lot of people are still misunderstanding it as overly theatrical, or stilted, or otherwise. The more films one sees by him, the more one gets adjusted to this universe. I think Rio das Mortes is best appreciated by Fassbinder's fans, and is unlikely to make any new converts (start with Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Fox and His Friends, and The Marriage of Maria Braun).