Domestic melodrama is what Fassbinder handles best. His are unusually bleak. And they’re less lavish feminine affluent furnished colorful floral affairs than they are kitchen sink realism working class dives, hovels. Which is their charm. Another Fassbinder masterpiece Jail Bait (1973, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is a doomed young lovers up against smalltown disapproving society, mainly the girl’s parents, cynical unsentimental narrative that is at its most provocative when you consider the moral dichotomy HANNI (Eva Mattes) embodies.
On the one hand Hanni is a child. Her bedroom is littered with plush toys and dolls. She’s 14. When the biker FRANZ BERMEIER (Harry Baer) picks her up, he and his two friends have this ugly disturbing discussion behind her back where they kick around ideas about turning her out, and objectifying her critiquing her body. It’s sad. And on the other hand Hanni is a femme fatale bad girl sociopath who manipulates everyone around her according to ulterior motives constantly in flux based on her whims. She’s impulsive. She’s confused. She never had time to grow up so she becomes this creature of survival. We’re never really sure if she’s to blame or merely a victim of a really crumby set of life choices to choose from and people who either treat her unfairly oppressive or exploit her.
This movie feels dangerous—in maybe not necessarily a cool way—because of the way it deals with statutory rape. Hanni’s constantly defiantly letting people know she’s not stupid when it comes to sex. Losing her virginity in the literal roll in the hay with Franz scene involves her dispassionately consensual, but quickly losing interest and declines Franz’s offer of having a post-coital cigarette in favor of jumping off the loft into the hay. She’s still a kid. She still plays. And this uncomfortable contradictory character nature ultimately will serve as the final shot of the movie with her presumably on her way to do a life sentence in prison carelessly playing hopscotch on her way there.
Dispassionate sex is my new definition of Fassbinder’s morality. There’s no romance. Sex out of boredom. It could even apply to all of us. Or call it some nature mandated compulsion if that’s too harsh. There’s also that great moment when Hanni’s mom is having their first sex talk and there’s maybe this ominous premonition that subtly suggests a parallel between getting hit by a car while riding a bike and the potential dangers of casual sex. The moral dichotomy returns in the way Hanni’s parents react to what they think happened and what really happened between she and Franz.
When Hanni tells her mom she practices birth control, she does so in this brazen way that is surely meant to shock and hurt her. But then she gets pregnant shortly thereafter and you have to wonder was she even making that up? Her emotions guide her. And the relationships she has with her parents and Franz are tumultuous.
Fassbinder’s transposition or appropriation of tropes from the crime genre he adapts into his mumblecore romances make their way into Jail Bait as Hanni resorting to the motives of a stock femme fatale. She only let Franz fuck her so she can get him to kill her father. She orchestrates it all. She gets the gun. She goads him into it.
And this is one of the film’s greatest jokes. When she’s got Franz right where she wants him he tells her he’ll murder her dad because guns are “men’s business.” Then when Hanni sets up her dad to walk into his execution site out at Miller’s Crossing he tells her he’s going to have a face to face talk about the pregnancy with Franz because it’s “men’s business.” The fact that women’s rights are decided by men is the target of the satire here. They think they’re in control. They think it’s their decisions that matter. But Hanni played them both to her own ends. And then she not only miscarries, but blames the baby on everything that went wrong.
And if you might be predisposed to revile Hanni’s actions, it’s not that easy. Because she’s 14. Is she a sociopath or not grown up enough yet to make decisions? That’s what makes her such a compelling character. But Franz isn’t innocent either. He’s not entirely the victim. Like that quick shot at the river where they’re laying by the banks and he does the knife stabbing between your fingers thing on his pregnant wife's stomach. Whoa. Talk about symbolism. Birth or abortion as game of chance.
All of the wasteland sets paint the emotional landscape of the world these characters inhabit. The abandoned brick building where they rendezvous after Franz is paroled. The rugged seaside cargo ships traffic through constantly as they’re sprawled out in bliss. The deceptively corrupt subtext below the glossy surface of first love. At times it’s even a comedy of romance genre subversion. The pillow talk convo where Hanni tells Franz her dad mentioned castrating him. In this traditional setting where lovers are at their most vulnerable she tells her man it would be funny if he were castrated because then he’d be worthless cause all he is is a sex organ to her. Gender swap objectification, is that feminist?
Jail Bait shares a lot in common with Fassbinder’s The Merchant of Four Seasons (and begrudgingly I’ll mention the complete tonal opposite Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day) through their use of domestic melodrama as arena where characters are brutally destroyed invariably emotionally, spiritually, or physically and doomed, brought down by their own seemingly healthy, fair desires anyone has the right to. And of course plenty of zoom lens throttle.
So Jail Bait may be up there with Fassbinder’s bleakest work. And I love it for that. But there’s such tenderness the way the solo piano pieces accompany so many of the scenes. Fassbinder cares about these characters. And I do too. I identify with them. They’re trying. Except they just happen to be doing such a poor job at it.
On the one hand Hanni is a child. Her bedroom is littered with plush toys and dolls. She’s 14. When the biker FRANZ BERMEIER (Harry Baer) picks her up, he and his two friends have this ugly disturbing discussion behind her back where they kick around ideas about turning her out, and objectifying her critiquing her body. It’s sad. And on the other hand Hanni is a femme fatale bad girl sociopath who manipulates everyone around her according to ulterior motives constantly in flux based on her whims. She’s impulsive. She’s confused. She never had time to grow up so she becomes this creature of survival. We’re never really sure if she’s to blame or merely a victim of a really crumby set of life choices to choose from and people who either treat her unfairly oppressive or exploit her.
This movie feels dangerous—in maybe not necessarily a cool way—because of the way it deals with statutory rape. Hanni’s constantly defiantly letting people know she’s not stupid when it comes to sex. Losing her virginity in the literal roll in the hay with Franz scene involves her dispassionately consensual, but quickly losing interest and declines Franz’s offer of having a post-coital cigarette in favor of jumping off the loft into the hay. She’s still a kid. She still plays. And this uncomfortable contradictory character nature ultimately will serve as the final shot of the movie with her presumably on her way to do a life sentence in prison carelessly playing hopscotch on her way there.
Dispassionate sex is my new definition of Fassbinder’s morality. There’s no romance. Sex out of boredom. It could even apply to all of us. Or call it some nature mandated compulsion if that’s too harsh. There’s also that great moment when Hanni’s mom is having their first sex talk and there’s maybe this ominous premonition that subtly suggests a parallel between getting hit by a car while riding a bike and the potential dangers of casual sex. The moral dichotomy returns in the way Hanni’s parents react to what they think happened and what really happened between she and Franz.
When Hanni tells her mom she practices birth control, she does so in this brazen way that is surely meant to shock and hurt her. But then she gets pregnant shortly thereafter and you have to wonder was she even making that up? Her emotions guide her. And the relationships she has with her parents and Franz are tumultuous.
Fassbinder’s transposition or appropriation of tropes from the crime genre he adapts into his mumblecore romances make their way into Jail Bait as Hanni resorting to the motives of a stock femme fatale. She only let Franz fuck her so she can get him to kill her father. She orchestrates it all. She gets the gun. She goads him into it.
And this is one of the film’s greatest jokes. When she’s got Franz right where she wants him he tells her he’ll murder her dad because guns are “men’s business.” Then when Hanni sets up her dad to walk into his execution site out at Miller’s Crossing he tells her he’s going to have a face to face talk about the pregnancy with Franz because it’s “men’s business.” The fact that women’s rights are decided by men is the target of the satire here. They think they’re in control. They think it’s their decisions that matter. But Hanni played them both to her own ends. And then she not only miscarries, but blames the baby on everything that went wrong.
And if you might be predisposed to revile Hanni’s actions, it’s not that easy. Because she’s 14. Is she a sociopath or not grown up enough yet to make decisions? That’s what makes her such a compelling character. But Franz isn’t innocent either. He’s not entirely the victim. Like that quick shot at the river where they’re laying by the banks and he does the knife stabbing between your fingers thing on his pregnant wife's stomach. Whoa. Talk about symbolism. Birth or abortion as game of chance.
All of the wasteland sets paint the emotional landscape of the world these characters inhabit. The abandoned brick building where they rendezvous after Franz is paroled. The rugged seaside cargo ships traffic through constantly as they’re sprawled out in bliss. The deceptively corrupt subtext below the glossy surface of first love. At times it’s even a comedy of romance genre subversion. The pillow talk convo where Hanni tells Franz her dad mentioned castrating him. In this traditional setting where lovers are at their most vulnerable she tells her man it would be funny if he were castrated because then he’d be worthless cause all he is is a sex organ to her. Gender swap objectification, is that feminist?
Jail Bait shares a lot in common with Fassbinder’s The Merchant of Four Seasons (and begrudgingly I’ll mention the complete tonal opposite Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day) through their use of domestic melodrama as arena where characters are brutally destroyed invariably emotionally, spiritually, or physically and doomed, brought down by their own seemingly healthy, fair desires anyone has the right to. And of course plenty of zoom lens throttle.
So Jail Bait may be up there with Fassbinder’s bleakest work. And I love it for that. But there’s such tenderness the way the solo piano pieces accompany so many of the scenes. Fassbinder cares about these characters. And I do too. I identify with them. They’re trying. Except they just happen to be doing such a poor job at it.
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