"Deutschland im Herbst" or "Germany in Autumn" is a 1978 film that is a mix of acting and documentary and focuses from start to finish on the current political climate in Germany. These may have been the toughest days since World War II for the country. Extreme left wing terrorism is a clear and present danger when Hanns Martin Schleyer gets murdered by RAF terrorists. This incident motivated some of Germany's most known and most successful filmmakers (such as Schlöndorff, Reitz, Kluge) to come together and make a 2-hour movie on the subject. In there, they elaborate on the current political climate in the FRG and take a closer look on the situation. The film starts with Rainer Werner Fassbinder's segment, in which he talks to his then-boyfriend and his mother about the issue and tries to have a successful discussion, especially with his mother. A very tense watch and performance by Fassbinder. Unfortunately I must say that the film got a lot worse after the first half hour when Fassbinder's segment was over and most of the other filmmakers had little to offer and nobody came close to Fassbinder. I am generally not the biggest fan of his works, but I always thought he was a good actor and in here it shows. He is really the only reason to watch this documentary and I wished the entire thing would have been made by him or would have been about his character in here. So yeah, overall this was a disappointing watch because, unless you have a huge subject in the matter, you will quickly lose interest and the film is simply not interesting enough for 2 hours. I personally recommend not to watch it or to switch it off after 30 minutes. Has not aged well at all.
Review of Germany in Autumn
