Editing Rainer Werner Fassbinder (section)

====''Love Is Colder Than Death'' (1969)====
Shot in black and white with a shoestring budget in April 1969, Fassbinder's first feature-length film, ''[[Love Is Colder Than Death (film)|Love Is Colder Than Death]]'' (1969) (''Liebe ist kälter als der Tod''), was a [[deconstruction]] of the American gangster films of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Fassbinder plays the lead role of Franz, a small-time pimp who is torn between his mistress Joanna, a sex worker played by Hanna Schygulla, and his friend Bruno, a gangster sent after Franz by the syndicate that he has refused to join. Joanna informs the police of a bank robbery the two men have planned. Bruno is killed in the shootout, but Franz and Joanna escape.<ref>{{harv|Watson|1996|p=69}}</ref><ref>{{harv|Thomsen|2004|p=66}}</ref>

''Love Is Colder Than Death'' is a low key film with muted tone, long sequences, non-naturalistic acting and little dialogue.<ref>{{harv|Watson|1996|p=71}}</ref><ref>{{harv|Thomsen|2004|p=67}}</ref> Success was not immediate. ''Love Is Colder Than Death'' was ill-received at its premiere at the [[19th Berlin International Film Festival|Berlin Film Festival]]. The film, however, already displays the themes that were to remain present through the director's subsequent work: loneliness, the longing for companionship and love, and the fear and reality of betrayal.<ref>{{harv|Thomsen|2004|p=69}}</ref>