HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Lola The Blue Angle
Year: 1981
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Matthias Fuchs, Helga Feddersen, Karin Baal, Ivan Desny, Elizabeth Volkmann, Hark Bohm, Karl-Heinz von Hassel, Rosel Zech, Sonja Neudorfer, Christine Kaufmann, Y Sa Lo, Günther Kaufmann
Genre: Drama, RomanceBuy from Amazon
Rating:  7 (from 1 vote)
Review: It is around a decade after the end of World War II, and Germany is picking itself up after the disasters it has gone through as economically things look to be improving. At the local brothel in this particular town in West Germany, the most popular, but most expensive, prostitute is Lola (Barbara Sukowa) who also doubles as a cabaret artiste, singing sentimental favourites to the audience of men who would like to have their wicked way with her, and indeed some of them have. Her pimp is Schuckert (Mario Adorf) who also happens to be a successful businessman in the region away from selling women, and the man to talk to if you want anything done to capitalise on the newly-lucrative building trade. Apart from the new inspector, Von Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl), that is...

Although nobody knew it at the time, writer and director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, probably the most prolific of the German New Wave of cinema lasting from the nineteen-sixties right up to the early eighties, did not have long to live. What he did manage to do before expiring of a drugs overdose the year after this was made was produce a trilogy of work that saw him regard his nation of origin with a jaundiced eye, cynical about the West's remarkable recovery after the war when he felt that there was a huge hypocrisy in this society that nobody was discussing. Lola was the middle section of that trilogy, with The Marriage of Maria Braun starting it and Veronika Voss ending it, and for some it was his finest achievement.

Then again, there are always going to be naysayers, not merely those who did not like what they saw in Fassbinder when he was alive, accusing him of nasty prejudices such as misogyny which they discerned all over Lola, no matter that whatever you said of him he could not be landed with the claim he failed to give substantial roles to his leading ladies. And still there are some who will say Lola was the least interesting of the trilogy, largely down to it being a remake of Josef Von Sternberg's classic The Blue Angel which saw Marlene Dietrich make the impact she did around the world: Sukowa was well aware she was on a hiding to nothing by attempting to emulate or replicate that legendary performance in that blockbuster.

Fassbinder seemed to believe that too, therefore adapted the tale of the stuffy intellectual who fell in love with a prostitute to something he was more comfortable with, that was something he could use to snipe at the whole spectrum of German society, not with a self-righteous anger, more with a sly highlighting of where he felt they were trying to cover up a collection of less than salubrious home truths. Germany was trying to be respectable in business and in its communities, but couldn't deny it was indulging itself in the whorehouse every night and if anything that was a more important element in the modern world than all the good deeds and improvements the nation was endeavouring to make. Or at least that was the message he was putting across in the form of melodrama, where emotional extremes were necessary.

Douglas Sirk was always the touchstone for Fassbinder, and that expressed itself here with a very exacting visual style, most noticeably with the colours as he would make the film look as close to fifties Technicolor as he could by shining pink and blue lights onto his cast; other hues as well, but mostly those. It was a captivating look to a story that was presenting its ironies to be relished, where the fine, upstanding inspector was brought low by unwittingly falling for Lola, unaware of how she makes her money until it was too far into their relationship for him to do anything but break down. The central trio of performances were excellent, in full command of the nuances and cruelties of the story, but that cruelty also made it difficult to ultimately lose yourself in as you would with Sirk, it was as if Fassbinder was forever nudging you in the ribs to point out that nobody in this scenario was noble, they could all turn to exploitation and be applauded for it by the community at large. You had to assume there was comedy here, but the absence of hope it conveyed was sobering. Music by Freddy Quinn and Peer Raben.

[The Studio Canal DVD has a pristine, colourful 4K restoration and a couple of featurettes, one an interview with Sukowa, as extras.]
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 3895 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
  Stuart Watmough
Paul Shrimpton
Darren Jones
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
   

 

Last Updated: