The City Tramp

>A tramp finds a gun lying in the street.<

Imagine what you could possibly make out of this short plot line. Give me 10 minutes and I would make something good out of it. In case of this short nobody spent 10 minutes to think about the story.

What the film has:

bad points: -bad acting -sloppy characterizations -unbelievable situations -absolute no conclusion

good points: -a famous director

There is really nothing you could get out of this film. Not even with the weirdest mind. Even some Japanese action director would have made a more believable and satisfying 10 minutes film with this plot line. So is there anything good about it? Yes, if you would look at it as a dream. Because in a dream, nothing has to make sense. Just like this early short from Fassbinder.

"Der Stadtstreicher" (1965) shows the extensive studies Fassbinder had done in watching and analyzing works from the Italian Neo-Realism on the one hand and from the French Nouvelle Vague on the other hand. While the beginning is water-proof German (a similar scene can be found in Fassbinder-Lommel's "Die Zärtlichkeit Der Wölfe" (1973), where Haarmann/Raab controls a waiting-hall in the railway-station), the opening of the wandering of the City Tramp through Munich recalls strongly "Roma: Citta Aperta" by Rossellini (1945). However, the finding of the pistol and the City Tramp's veins attempts at getting rid of her is good French cinema which perhaps goes even back down to Bunuel and Dali's dadaist, or, as the French prefer to say, "expressionist" experiments. If one looks closely at Fassbinder's second film (the first one, "The Thing" (1965), seems to be lost), one feels that the prospective film-director commands over possibly all cinematic methods and tricks and plays with the corresponding styles and aesthetics from the silent time to his own time. But quotation is not only used by Fassbinder in the antique tradition of the "Poeta Doctus", but for that fine kind of humor that connoisseurs can find even in his latest movies. In "Der Stadtstreicher", we have, e.g. the hands-hold-up scene which could be from Melies, the place-name "Schinderbrücke" (lit. flayers' bridge), and, most of all, the scene with the crucifix, which may have been inspired by Pasolini's "Mama Roma", where we have at least three similar scenes.

I'm so glad that an Asian action director didn't take a hold of this idea and turn it into 30 guys getting murdered. This is what a short film should look like. It has a simple plot, it draws your attention, and you want more. I watch a lot of movies and TV shows on my computer, and I love throwing a short film in between two files.

I have a very young son that hates everything but Thomas the Train and Family Guy, and I'm always curious how he'll respond to a film like this. He's asleep now, but tomorrow, I think I'll show it to him, and hope he doesn't cry. I love films like this because they remind me of moments from my long and sorted past.

The way the tramp reacts to the gun is so real. Anyone who's held a gun has thought about hiding it, holding against your head, or it being stolen. Fassbinder speaks to anyone who's owned a gun, shot a gun or been to war. But he also speaks to anyone who has taken heroin, been a high-school teacher, lived in a very poor country or lived on a farm. He speaks to anyone who has gained power, but lost it; laughing at him.

The multi-talented Rainer Werner Fassbinder kicks off as film director with a short that has influences from the Italian Neo-Realism and the Nouvelle Vague from France. What he presents isn't so much important (a tramp finds a gun on the street and doesn't know what to do with it) but the way he does and the things he uses are.

Almost like a silent movie, "Der Stadtstreicher" ("The Tramp") is deeply focused on its images, never in its brief spoken moments (one dialog exchange and one song that sounds pointless to the plot but it's not). The image's force is outstanding, dramatic, morose and sometimes surprisingly funny (Fassbinder's cameo, he just pops on the screen giving a suspicious check out on the main character; and the hilarious scene where a waitress tries to return the gun to the tramp). Natural to his conviction's of making film where people learn how to not do things this a sad tale with no happy ending, no chance of hope or salvation for the tramp, a constant on his admirable works.

I can't see any problem with this film, but it surprises me the negative review I've read here on the site and the fact of film schools in German which turned down this and the second short film RWF made while applying to them. You can see his early talent very present there and in "Das Kleine Chaos". Brilliant. 10/10

This short film doesn't need to have a parody, because it is almost a self-parody.

It's Fassbinder's earliest work, according to the IMDb. The problem is that while watching it, I couldn't help but think of two "Saturday Night Live" scenarios: "Sprockets" and Leonard Pinth-Garnell's "Truly Bad Cinema." Honest. I was expecting Dieter to pop up at any moment from the midst of the bushes at any moment, and at the end, Leonard Pinth-Garnell to pop up, saying, "Truly, truly awful. A brilliant example of bad acting." About the best that I can say for this is that the photography is pretty good.

The only reason I can think of to watch this is for the reason I did so: to see some of Fassbinder's earliest work. I can't say that I'm upset that I spent ten minutes of my life watching it, but if it had gone on for another twenty minutes, I would have been waiting to hear Tom Servo's commentary on MST3K at some point.