Movie review: Water drops on buring rocks

I recommended this movie to Gil some time ago and wanted to check it out from the library but found that they don't carry it for some reason so when I saw a used copy of it in a local music store I bought it for $13.  It's the very first DVD I've ever bought so last night to celebrate my first day of class we did tequila shots and watched Water Drops on Burning Rocks. It was great!

I told Gil the movie was a comedy because what I remembered most from it is this part where all the characters suddenly get up in the middle of everything and do a little choreographed dance to this cheezy 70s disco hit by Tony Holiday.  What I forgot about the movie was that that's about the only funny part in it.  It's basically about dysfunctional sado-masochistic exploitative relationships which gave Gil the idea that the definition of a German comedy is that only one person dies at the end.

I admitted it was maybe a little gloomy but it was still a great film and didn't you like how the final scene is of the transgendered woman trying to open the stuck window in the stuffy apartment?  And I realized that all the movies I've suggested we watch so far is about people feeling caught and stifled and trying to get out of desperate situations (The Vanishing (Dutch version), City of God, and Maria full of Grace).  Oops, hope I'm not saying something about myself here! lol

Anyway Water drops is based on a play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) a German filmmaker based in New York, an icon of the 70s leather scene, notorious for his outlandishness, recklessness and violence in both his movies and his personal life.  Supposedly this play was a little too autobiographical even for his taste and it was only discovered and produced after his death by French director Francois Ozon.  The movie uses a play-like format too so you can just see the lights dimming, the actors entering and exiting, and the music that accompanies it all.  It all works very well as a relationship study of these dysfunctional, hurtful and cruel romances.  It's not a film for the faint of heart but if you were into easy things, you wouldn't be reading this blog. 

If you rent it, I encourage you to check out the special features section of the DVD as you can watch their dance scene over and over again with subtitles in English or sing along in the original German.  Tanze Samba mit mir!...