The Niklashausen Journey

I've always known Fassbinder was a kindred spirit, but after watching his highly political doctrine (hard to even call this a film) Niklashausen, I'm all the more certain. This film would appear to be a mouthpiece for his political views more than any other he made. Multilayered and extremely anti-capitalist (and anti-religious?), this slow-moving, religious fable is hard to watch, but full of inciting ideas. Each scene is set up like a painting and then only slightly changed or expanded upon. Most notably are a murder on the steps to a house and the crucifixion in front of a heap of demolished cars, complete with shirtless boy-choir and mourning onlookers. You can see influence everywhere from Derek Jarman to Peter Greenaway. This is one of the earliest art films of its kind. And it is an art film--a call to arms--. Or not one. Certainly not for someone seeking plot or story, but for sheer imagery and intelligence, it's astounding.

Whoever knows Fassbinder's movies well enough will not forgot that famous scene in "Niklashauser Fart" (1970), where Fassbinder, the black monk and intellectual adviser who stands behind Hans Böhm, says: "Who has the possibility to eat well - eat well. Whoever has the possibility to live in a good house - live in a good house. Whoever has the possibility to clothe himself well - should clothe himself well" - and twinkles in the camera. He did that later only once more - at the end of "Kamikaze", his last appearance (1982). As a matter of fact, Hans Böhm was not a messiah, this is a misunderstanding common in connection with this movie, but a very early predecessor of social revolution which would only become virulent almost 400 years later. However, unfortunately, he was neither a "Hauptlehrer Hofer" (cf. Peter Lilienthal's film) who was restricting himself to facts in the strong belief to be able to persuade people without seducing them. So, Boehm, who was a simple-minded pastor, told the farmers that the Virgin Mary appears to him and tells him his ideas. Hence the conflict with the church could not have been better prepared, and Böhm was soon burned at stake as any ordinary self-appointed prophet. Fassbinder's very early movie lives from the absolutely unpretentious way of how he does not differentiate between different customs and costumes of four centuries. Fassbinder himself appears in his trade-mark leather-jacket, Böhm looks like a hippie, otherwise beautiful Hanna like Twiggy, and the henchman like Robber Hotzenplotz. A highlight is Margit Carstensen, although in this movie, she seems to copy the steely acting of Catherine Hepburn. All in all, we hear here, via opera, still a stronger influence of Werner Schroeter (as we do, e.g. in the "Holy Whore"), also a little bit of Jean-Marie Straub and Rohmer (although the intellectual mono- and dialogs during the long walks through the fields are reflections on intellectual topics and not merely commentaries of the movie itself). Fassbinder always loved to quote, but he also remained faithful to his own topics and ideas. And so we are not astonished that he resumed the topic of the Niklashauser Fart much later in "Mutter Küsters Fahrt Zum Himmel" and, especially, in "Die Dritte Generation".

One of Fassbinder's first films, 'The Niklashausen Journey' might be the most explicitly political the filmmaker would ever get. Once again - as with all his earlier work that I've seen - Godard's influence is palpable, particularly the messy mythologizing he applied to revolutionaries in 'Weekend' (although from what I've read about Straub-Huillet and other first generation of filmmakers from the New German Cinema, the influences extend much farther beyond that). 'Niklashausen' is a scathing critique of both political radicals and the society that produces them. Unlike Godard, Fassbinder makes this a very specific society, a very German society. The movie draws very clear parallels between religion and revolution, questions both the means and ends of revolutionary violence, suggests similarities between this uprising and the one led by Hitler several decades earlier - and it completely dismisses the ruling class as worthless, absurd fools quick to devastation when their enemies are involved. It works on the viewer in unexpected ways, building on our empathy with the revolutionary cause, while nearly condemning the whole movement, to make us truly care about enacting change - it is not as depressingly claustrophobic as the summary would have you believe. Without the usual melodrama to carry the film along, it does feel like an emotionally distant version of Fassbinder's later films like 'In A Year of 13 Moons' or 'Querelle.' It is difficult to deny that the film is formally and structurally brilliant, however, and of immediate interest to anyone who wants to see yet another side of a genius manifesting itself for the first time, in one of his more fascinating experiments.

An effete, Robert Plant-like messianic figure with a galvanizing line in socio-political rhetoric is instructed by holy mother Mary to stoically undertake an oracular exodus to Niklashausen, and thereby righteously rabble rouse the oppressed proletariat to forcibly emancipate themselves from the crushing yoke of capitalism and deleterious psychic constraints of ecclesiastical dogma! Right on, man!!!!! While some may find Fassbinder's aggressively didactic exodus 'The Niklashausen Journey' a trifle strident at times, this frequently exhilarating, strangely edifying work of agitprop cinema has clearly influenced the beauteous cinema of Derek Jarman, and I would be very surprised if the irrepressible sleaze n' cheeze supremo John Waters wasn't a huge fan of it too!

Considering Fassbinder's background, the verbose, artsy film's overt theatricality seems inevitable, and while he certainly articulates his voice with a Stentorian rigour,the extremely colourful performances from his super-expressive troupe of fine actors are no less vividly rendered, featuring expressly robust work from a grotesque-looking Kurt Raab as the porcine, wickedly degenerated Bishop, and Fassbinder's effervescent muse Hanna Schygulla is a shimmering crystalline beacon of eternally captivating light! If Ken Russell had directed 'Weekend' instead of Godard it might somewhat partially resemble maestro Fengler & Fassbinder's tub-thumping, iconoclastic, Red Flag waving 'The Niklashausen Journey'. I absolutely adored it, but I also actively like Billy Blanks movies, so one should dismiss everything I say with suspicion! Beautifully shot on 16 mm, the technical merits are outstanding, with a beguilingly innovative score by Peer Raben, and featuring a thrilling live performance by trance-rock titans Amon Düül II proved to be a demonstrative highlight!

My kid makes better videos than this! I feel ripped off of the $4.00 spent renting this thing! There is no date on the video case, apparently designed by Wellspring; and, what's even worse, there's no production date for the original film listed anywhere in the movie! The only date given is 2002, leading an unsuspecting renter to believe he's getting a recent film.

This movie was so bad from a standpoint of being outdated and irrelevant for any time period but precisely when it was made, that I'm amazed that anyone would take the time and expense to market it as a video. It might be of interest to students studying the counter-culture of the 1960's, the anti-war, anti-establishment, tune-in, turn-on and drop out culture; but when you read the back of the video case, there's no hint that that is what you're getting. If you do make the mistake of renting it though, it is probably best viewed while on drugs, so that your mind will more closely match the wavelength of the minds of the directors, Fassbinder and Fengler. Regardless of your state of mind while watching it, I can tell you that it doesn't get any better after the first scene; so, knowing that, I'm sure you'll be fast asleep long before the end.