The final of Fassbinder’s first eleven films, Beware of a Holy Whore (1971, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is a depiction of an emotionally incestuous surrogate family of creative professionals chamber dysfunction drama set in a hotel where a German film crew are on location in Spain. It belongs to the subgenre of movies about making movies. Running a hundred and four minutes, it’s an hour until we get to go to set. The film is heavy with a sense of the Fassbinder trademark crushing ennui of languor.
In its way Beware of a Holy Whore is one of the most loving affectionate portrayals of the human aspect of all those involved in the production of a motion picture. What does that final line about the director, JEFF (Lou Castel) mean: “He rediscovered something that’s been forgotten. Time?” It’s not talking about the movie within the movie. It’s talking about Fassbinder the director and the movie itself. In real life you never stop hearing variations of these cliches on set like “Hurry up and wait,” from every department, all the way to extras, which everyone knows especially well, but I’ve also heard an actor once say “I act for free. They pay me to wait around.” Everyone hates the waiting. But Fassbinder turns it into a form of metaphysical psychological horror. Like even in a remote way when the young actress HANNA (Schygulla) laments how she feels sorry for [EDDIE and MARGRET] because they’re afraid of aging. Time.
In most of Fassbinder’s work we get a sense of desperation (or impending doom) about characters’ desire for love or sex and in this film it’s also manifested subtly through the symbolism how for the first hour they can’t do anything until the film stock arrives. One of the most cohesive narrative threads running throughout is a growing panic that leads to doubt, hopelessness, and fear about not going what’s going to happen. Not knowing if any of them can do what they’re expected to do. With an air of tragedy.
The other significant aspect of the plot’s structure is how the power is abused through chain of command. A codependent toxic work environment has never looked this cool. Because film production is broken down into departments through a division of labor like the military, it’s Production itself which is the department we can get the best understanding of this dynamic through. At the top Jeff, the director. He’s immature, temperamental, prone to fits, tantrums, and highly abusive, but he’s also under the most pressure because his decisions must be carried out above all others. Also I love how Fassbinder cast Castel, the non actor dude who is a psycho megalomaniac passionate spoiled rich baby constantly cracking with convulsive epileptic seizure breakdowns in Fists in the Pocket as his alter ego here.
Then the trickle down continues onto KORBINIAN (Ulli Lomell) the unit production manager, and BABS (Margarete von Trotta) the production secretary. The UPM gets it the worst. Everyone keeps telling him how lazy he is and to do some actual work for a change. It’s so really like that. Crew are so harsh on people with a higher up title if they deem them to be incompetent. Dude is trying his best. But in reality good enough is inferior. Babs gets away with more because she’s in bed with the director but also Sascha and he seem to like her. (Oh and she’s later hooking up with Sascha’s sound mixer brother.)
Eddie, Hanna, Ricky and Margret are cast. DAVID (Hannes Fuchs) is the assistant director. FRED (Kurt Raab) production designer. MIKE (Gianni di Luigi) director of photography. In that first scene in the hotel lobby when that make-up lady says Hanna, Ricky, David, Fred and Kosinski are in some kind of commune, if you’re wondering, there’s a slate at the end that shows Jeff’s last name is Kossinski. This is how it looks to someone new to the group. You pick up on who seems to be part of their own little clique (or more).
The third act moves faster. It’s more fragmented. And there’s a lot of payoff. Like the sequence at the end. When we see the rushes the footage is silent (because they shot it MOS) but accompanied by an operatic score that turns it sublime. The idea for the ending Jeff described way earlier in the film about the husband killing the wife. And subsequent later scene when the DP asks Jeff where to put the dolly track and Jeff pops off that amazing dialogue “Must I do everything myself? If you can’t decide for yourself, you’ll never enjoy work,” we see it all happened just like they said it would.
That’s the moral of Beware of a Holy Whore. Upon witnessing sheer utter chaos turn into perfectly formed beauty is art. Even that karate chop Eddie said there’s no way he would do. Even dying after orgasm. We see the impossible with our own eyes. And the pain it brings. All Jeff had to deal with. All those he had to fight, beat, fuck, fire, and charm. And finally the shift of context with that haunting line “I won’t be content until I know he’s been completely destroyed.” When we first hear it from Ricky in the convertible it appears to be dialogue from the script he’s rehearsing. But then we wonder if also it’s suggestive of some vindictive grudge he bears Jeff. Yet far more sinister is at the end when it comes from Jeff. Is he talking about Ricky now? Or if one takes into consideration the subtle shift of Jeff’s explanation of the theme of the movie within the movie—from being against brutality sanctioned by the state, later shortened to simply “brutality.” Is Jeff talking about destroying himself? Us? All of the above?
In its way Beware of a Holy Whore is one of the most loving affectionate portrayals of the human aspect of all those involved in the production of a motion picture. What does that final line about the director, JEFF (Lou Castel) mean: “He rediscovered something that’s been forgotten. Time?” It’s not talking about the movie within the movie. It’s talking about Fassbinder the director and the movie itself. In real life you never stop hearing variations of these cliches on set like “Hurry up and wait,” from every department, all the way to extras, which everyone knows especially well, but I’ve also heard an actor once say “I act for free. They pay me to wait around.” Everyone hates the waiting. But Fassbinder turns it into a form of metaphysical psychological horror. Like even in a remote way when the young actress HANNA (Schygulla) laments how she feels sorry for [EDDIE and MARGRET] because they’re afraid of aging. Time.
In most of Fassbinder’s work we get a sense of desperation (or impending doom) about characters’ desire for love or sex and in this film it’s also manifested subtly through the symbolism how for the first hour they can’t do anything until the film stock arrives. One of the most cohesive narrative threads running throughout is a growing panic that leads to doubt, hopelessness, and fear about not going what’s going to happen. Not knowing if any of them can do what they’re expected to do. With an air of tragedy.
The other significant aspect of the plot’s structure is how the power is abused through chain of command. A codependent toxic work environment has never looked this cool. Because film production is broken down into departments through a division of labor like the military, it’s Production itself which is the department we can get the best understanding of this dynamic through. At the top Jeff, the director. He’s immature, temperamental, prone to fits, tantrums, and highly abusive, but he’s also under the most pressure because his decisions must be carried out above all others. Also I love how Fassbinder cast Castel, the non actor dude who is a psycho megalomaniac passionate spoiled rich baby constantly cracking with convulsive epileptic seizure breakdowns in Fists in the Pocket as his alter ego here.
Then the trickle down continues onto KORBINIAN (Ulli Lomell) the unit production manager, and BABS (Margarete von Trotta) the production secretary. The UPM gets it the worst. Everyone keeps telling him how lazy he is and to do some actual work for a change. It’s so really like that. Crew are so harsh on people with a higher up title if they deem them to be incompetent. Dude is trying his best. But in reality good enough is inferior. Babs gets away with more because she’s in bed with the director but also Sascha and he seem to like her. (Oh and she’s later hooking up with Sascha’s sound mixer brother.)
Eddie, Hanna, Ricky and Margret are cast. DAVID (Hannes Fuchs) is the assistant director. FRED (Kurt Raab) production designer. MIKE (Gianni di Luigi) director of photography. In that first scene in the hotel lobby when that make-up lady says Hanna, Ricky, David, Fred and Kosinski are in some kind of commune, if you’re wondering, there’s a slate at the end that shows Jeff’s last name is Kossinski. This is how it looks to someone new to the group. You pick up on who seems to be part of their own little clique (or more).
The third act moves faster. It’s more fragmented. And there’s a lot of payoff. Like the sequence at the end. When we see the rushes the footage is silent (because they shot it MOS) but accompanied by an operatic score that turns it sublime. The idea for the ending Jeff described way earlier in the film about the husband killing the wife. And subsequent later scene when the DP asks Jeff where to put the dolly track and Jeff pops off that amazing dialogue “Must I do everything myself? If you can’t decide for yourself, you’ll never enjoy work,” we see it all happened just like they said it would.
That’s the moral of Beware of a Holy Whore. Upon witnessing sheer utter chaos turn into perfectly formed beauty is art. Even that karate chop Eddie said there’s no way he would do. Even dying after orgasm. We see the impossible with our own eyes. And the pain it brings. All Jeff had to deal with. All those he had to fight, beat, fuck, fire, and charm. And finally the shift of context with that haunting line “I won’t be content until I know he’s been completely destroyed.” When we first hear it from Ricky in the convertible it appears to be dialogue from the script he’s rehearsing. But then we wonder if also it’s suggestive of some vindictive grudge he bears Jeff. Yet far more sinister is at the end when it comes from Jeff. Is he talking about Ricky now? Or if one takes into consideration the subtle shift of Jeff’s explanation of the theme of the movie within the movie—from being against brutality sanctioned by the state, later shortened to simply “brutality.” Is Jeff talking about destroying himself? Us? All of the above?
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