Human nature at its ugliest. Wild take: Chinese Roulette (1976, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is a horror movie. Traunitz Manor is a haunted house. What’s one of the most popular subgenres in horror? Evil children.
The ghosts who inhabit Traunitz Manor walk among the living yet unbeknownst to us their souls have perished. And like a contagious plague they want to enact revenge on those they bear grudges against by causing the soul death of them as well. ANGELA is the evil youngster in Chinese Roulette. But her true nature creeps up on you. As the film begins she has a supernatural premonition that her parents are lying to her about their weekend plans; all the better to lure them into her demonic trap.
After all the guests have assembled and Angela shows up in the night there’s this shot of her governess TRAUNITZ retrieving all of Angela’s dolls from the boot of the Porsche that hint at the little girl’s greedy grubby possessive bent. At first we could never consider the handicapped little girl whom her mother hates as being someone we ourselves could despise. That’s because the little shit Fassbinder is playing us. He starts by deceiving us into feeling sorry for Angela. Like when she asks her brother GABRIEL if he would ever sleep with a cripple. And how she links each of her parents respective affairs with her own ailing health.
Fassbinder loves to contrast surface appearances with something more sinister. The little girl we felt sorry for turns out to be a monster. Even her and her brother’s names have an angelic quality. (Volker Spengler playing Gabriel has even bleached his hair blonde for this role.) And there are a couple of shots right around the point early on when we may be asking ourselves if Angela is mean-spirited for opening the doors unannounced on each of her adulterous parents outside: a sculpture of Christ crucified followed by a goat’s head rotting infested with maggots. Chaos reigns.
Further appearances that prove deceptive involve Angela’s governess. Traunitz not only suggestively winks and makes these come hither gestures to the child, but also Gabriel walks in on that number in the studio where the little kid has a boombox just chillin blasting synth rock as Traunitz does an uninhibited dance with her crutches-braces. Oh and Gabriel has scenes with Traunitz where we discover they’ve been having an illicit affair of their own.
The two foes at battle are revealed to be mother and daughter. Which is kind of what we’ve been expecting. The climax when Angela’s mom ARIANE (Carstensen) shoots her governess is preceded by Ariane aiming at Angela first. Because for soulless Ariane to extinguish her daughter’s lifeforce by way of exacting revenge in kind she must take what she loves from her; spiritual death. Chain reaction. Human nature hurting others how they themselves have been hurt: Angela confronts her brother for being a hoax writer. That ruins him. Cycle complete. Except I won’t spoilt the final twist.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a stab at what Fassbinder’s attacking here. I don’t think it’s what we’d assume. His usual. The institution of marriage. I think this time it’s cheating. And the lying that comes with it. But more so harboring resentment over long term against family, loved ones. Like the Ali ben Basset tease. Third Reich war crimes. The aftermath. The toll it takes. Or something.
After all the guests have assembled and Angela shows up in the night there’s this shot of her governess TRAUNITZ retrieving all of Angela’s dolls from the boot of the Porsche that hint at the little girl’s greedy grubby possessive bent. At first we could never consider the handicapped little girl whom her mother hates as being someone we ourselves could despise. That’s because the little shit Fassbinder is playing us. He starts by deceiving us into feeling sorry for Angela. Like when she asks her brother GABRIEL if he would ever sleep with a cripple. And how she links each of her parents respective affairs with her own ailing health.
Fassbinder loves to contrast surface appearances with something more sinister. The little girl we felt sorry for turns out to be a monster. Even her and her brother’s names have an angelic quality. (Volker Spengler playing Gabriel has even bleached his hair blonde for this role.) And there are a couple of shots right around the point early on when we may be asking ourselves if Angela is mean-spirited for opening the doors unannounced on each of her adulterous parents outside: a sculpture of Christ crucified followed by a goat’s head rotting infested with maggots. Chaos reigns.
Further appearances that prove deceptive involve Angela’s governess. Traunitz not only suggestively winks and makes these come hither gestures to the child, but also Gabriel walks in on that number in the studio where the little kid has a boombox just chillin blasting synth rock as Traunitz does an uninhibited dance with her crutches-braces. Oh and Gabriel has scenes with Traunitz where we discover they’ve been having an illicit affair of their own.
The two foes at battle are revealed to be mother and daughter. Which is kind of what we’ve been expecting. The climax when Angela’s mom ARIANE (Carstensen) shoots her governess is preceded by Ariane aiming at Angela first. Because for soulless Ariane to extinguish her daughter’s lifeforce by way of exacting revenge in kind she must take what she loves from her; spiritual death. Chain reaction. Human nature hurting others how they themselves have been hurt: Angela confronts her brother for being a hoax writer. That ruins him. Cycle complete. Except I won’t spoilt the final twist.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a stab at what Fassbinder’s attacking here. I don’t think it’s what we’d assume. His usual. The institution of marriage. I think this time it’s cheating. And the lying that comes with it. But more so harboring resentment over long term against family, loved ones. Like the Ali ben Basset tease. Third Reich war crimes. The aftermath. The toll it takes. Or something.
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