Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?

Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Fengler
Writer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Fengler
Actors: Kurt Raab, Lilith Ungerer

Another psychological thriller - what are the odds? The best way to describe "Herr R." is basically to say that it's like Seinfeld without Jerry Seinfeld or Larry David. Upon viewing the movie one thought comes to mind - Elephant. Just a few minutes in and it becomes apparent that this is the film that inspired Gus VanSant to make the (excellent) movie about a school shooting. The two are incredibly similar - we follow characters around in routine days, through routine meetings with people, routine conversations, and then we're exposed to a shocking end, left to pick up the pieces and try to figure out why these things happened.

Both of these films have somewhat changed from their first release - relatively few audiences ever get to go into them cold - it was widely known that Elephant dealt with a school shooting (prompting many people to think of the Basketball Diaries' dream sequence and hope to see an action packed, guns blazing gorefest) while Herr. R deals with a man who just simply one day becomes a mass murderer - killing his wife, child, and a visiting neighbor. In both instances we're left with the question, "How did this happen?" - Herr R. really drives it home by placing the question on the video sleeve (VHS, no DVD yet to my knowledge). I think maybe more films should do that, if on the cover of Mission Impossible you have the tagline, "The film that'll make you ask 'Wait, who was that one guy again?' " we'd all be better, we'd know what we didn't know, and we'd be better for it.

Herr R starts off incredibly strong, he and a few colleagues are simply telling jokes and walking along. Slice of life. Cool. A car pulls into the street they're walking on, sees what's going on, backs up and goes down the street - don't think that was supposed to be like that. That sums up Herr R's making - slice of life, let some mistakes and other things in. Each scene is composed of exactly one shot. There's no cuts between characters talking, we just watch as they talk about the most meaningless things. You watch and you begin to think back to the similar conversations you've had in this nature, friends talking about competing SUVs or this one time that they skipped dinner or whatever. The mind wanders a lot during the movie, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it gets you thinking, it relates to you and stimulates memories that haven't been brought up in a while. That alone is a good thing.

Herr R. has the same exact structure as elephant, meaning that these conversations go on for a bit over an hour before the murders happen. They get to be hit or miss - a la Coffee and Cigarettes. The film is absolutely great when Herr R is trying to find a song that he heard on the radio at a record store, the movie is absolutely fantastic. When he's listening to some visitors talk on and on about nothing, it's pretty slow. I think that's pretty much the only way to make this sort of movie.

The film is an excellent study of the German culture - the translations come over as everything we expect - straight and to the point - phrased in such a way that just says "German" to us. Does it lead into German stereotypes? No, it just shows the language as we understand it to be.

So, having watched it once, can I answer the question? Absolutely not. I have some ideas as to why he runs amok, but do I have anything terribly solid? Not at all. Will I get more on repeated viewings? Perhaps. I can't say for sure. I think it deserves another one, I think that's the idea of this movie, to make you watch it again and again to find the reasoning beyond "He just couldn't take it anymore". So, in the end, it turns out to be an Altman-style film (not that he copied, just that's the best term that I have to describe a film that needs to be watched over and over) that we didn't expect to be an Altman-style.

3.5 (initial viewing)
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