Friday May 27th

Whity (Germany, 1971) on dvd
Filmed in Cinemascope in Sergio Leone's set in Almeria, Spain, Whity is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 10th film. It is sumptuous, a stark contrast to the films that preceded it, mostly 16 mm films with minimal camera movement. Whity marks the first collaboration between the director and DP Michael Ballhaus, shortly after they were introduced by actor/producer Ulli Lommel. Lommel, who has affectionately referred to Fassbinder as a "terrorist", states in the commentary that he was very antagonistic toward Ballhaus and kept providing artistic challenges. One scene lasting four minutes involves complicated dolly and panning shots with the camera zooming in and out in constant motion. Upon seeing the rushes, Fassbinder stormed out in tears and told Lommel: "He's a fucking genius!". Then got so drunk that the next day's shooting had to be cancelled. Incidents during the shooting of Whity formed the basis of the film Beware of the Holy Whore, which regretably I have yet to watch. I pass the pen to Chuck Stephens.

"Dessicated scion Ben Nicholson presides over a family of drooling nitwits, mincing transvestites, and nymphomaniac schemers, each caked in thick whiteface, the shade of which seems to vary, scene-by-scene. The family's hunky, long-suffering man-servant Whity (played by Gunther Kaufmann, a longtime fixture in Fassbinder's ensemble and intermittent feature in the director's bed), is a delicate Mandingo in a too-tight monkey suit, his mouth a lacquered slash of stark-white lipstick. Though lovingly devoted to a family who consider him nothing but "the cross we must bear", Whity soon finds himself smitten with saloon-chanteuse Hanna Schygulla and in her arms learns that in love begins liberation, and in liberation, death.
Whity groans with political provocations of every design_from the grotesquely char-darkened Mammy who bugs her eyes and tunelessly warbles "glory, glory, Hallelujah" to a moment of tender sexuality between two men and a horse. Thirty years in obscurity has dimmed Whity's exuberant excesses not one footcandle, and those who fear the worst may find that time, in this rare case, has been but a tender whip."