Before
his name became synonymous with D— grade straight-to-video schlock like Zombie Nation or B.T.K. Killer, German born actor-writer-director Ulli Lommel first
burst onto the cinematic scene as a protégé of the iconic New German Cinema
film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Having starred in Fassbinder’s The
American Soldier and World on a Wire,
Lommel was then tasked with his third feature as a film director to make a
picture that would be produced by Fassbinder as well as co-produced and written
by the film’s leading male star Kurt Raab: the disturbing true-crime shocker Tenderness of the Wolves.
Based
upon the life of infamous WWI-era convicted German serial killer and cannibal
Fritz Haarmann whose crimes served as the primary influence on Fritz Lang’s M, Lommel’s take on the case moves the timeline up to a dilapidated
post-WWII Germany and chronicles the exploits of a murderous pederast who hid
in plain sight for years as an informant for the police while molesting before
murdering young male victims and disposing of the evidence by selling the flesh
off to restaurants. How did he get away
with it for so long and what finally gave him up to the authorities? Lommel’s film doesn’t have all the answers
but gets closer to the amoral headspace of its subject than most films would
dare in this uncompromising, nonjudgmental character study.
First
and foremost, Kurt Raab owns the film from the moment he walks onscreen. Co-writing the screenplay as well as
co-producing the picture, there aren’t many actors out there willing to dive so
completely into such a reprehensible character without looking back. With scenes of the bald and stocky Raab
molesting young boys including but not limited to graphic full frontal male
nudity, Raab’s take on Haarmann comes across as something of an unholy
crossbreed between Peter Lorre and an androgynous sexually violent vampire. It’s a fearless and unforgettable performance
that easily ranks among the most psychotic and despicable onscreen villains
ever dramatized. While the film branches
out into an ensemble cast with brief cameos from El Hedi ben Salem and Jürgen Prochnow, the film is largely trained on Raab whose jovial smiles and showy selflessness only mask his
viciousness.
Lommel’s
direction coupled with Jürgen Jürges’ mannered
cinematography of an impoverished and broken down Germany, giving viewers a
setting which perfectly exemplifies why Haarmann was able to proceed undetected
for so long. When all life around you in
the world of the film is struggling for survival, Haarmann’s affiliation with
the police and efforts to share fine cut “meats” with local eateries can’t help
but paint the man as a good-Samaritan even if his neighbors start to wonder
about the banging and cracking sounds coming from his apartment. In other words, this is one of those films
where gauging the environment and setting better explains how Haarmann operated
for as long as he did than a list of historical bullet points chronicling the
chain of events ever would.
Let it be known, Ulli Lommel’s one true masterpiece is not for
most people. While die-hard Fassbinder
fans will get much artistic value from it as a reference point in the
counter-cultural gay icon’s career in film with most of the cast invariably
showing up in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul,
this is not a fun watch. The
dramatization of molestation and murder won’t strike many as justifiable enough
reasons to make the film let alone view it.
And yet when you’re dealing realistically with one of the most infamous
serial killers in world history, you can’t sugar coat the facts when you gaze
deep into the eyes of complete monster.
Not for the faint hearted but for the adventurous cinephile keen on
Fassbinder’s career and one of the world’s most notorious true crime stories,
not to be missed!
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki