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| Images courtesy of Subkultur Entertainment |
Subkultur Entertainment is a German based boutique label
dedicated to remastering and rereleasing grindhouse as well as Eastern European
(largely German) feature films in lovingly packaged media book editions including
but not limited to 4K UHD disc. Having
recently struck a deal with Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company OCN Distribution
on select releases starting out with Bavaria born director Roland Klick’s Israel
based spaghetti western Deadlock on 4K before moving on to Carl Schenkel’s
horror film Out of Order.
Though
only two titles have officially been distributed in the US through Vinegar
Syndrome’s webstore, Subkultur has pressed on ahead with new restorations of
numerous German titles available through their Wicked Vision webstore and their
latest digipack limited release reunited the label with director Klick in his
1974 street rat crime drama Supermarkt.
Given a 4K restoration as well as a UHD disc package, this gritty urban crime
film is like a German New Wave foresight into what would or wouldn’t become Christiane
F which Klick was briefly attached to direct.
Young drifter Willi (Charly Wierczejewski) saunters through
the rugged unforgiving streets and alleyways of Hamburg, attracting the
attention of a well-intentioned journalist named Frank (Michael Degen) who puts
a roof over the kid’s head. Bored and
aggravated, Willi stumbles upon a small-time crook named Theo (Walter Kohut) with
a plan to seduce and rob wealthy gay men blind.
Disgusted by this route too, Willi crosses paths with a young blonde
prostitute named Monika (Eva Mattes from Stroszek) and starts forming a
goal in mind to rob a grocery store and run away together off into the sunset. From here, the film turns into an
increasingly brutal, steadily chaotic foray into vicious armed robbery, police evasion
and burning every bridge formed out of stupid eyed unambitious young love.
The first feature of Charly Wierczejewski who was himself a criminal
on the run from police, street cast for authenticity and filmed in gritty grainy
guerilla style by future Paul Verhoeven stalwart Jost Vacano (Robocop; Total
Recall; Starship Troopers) with a subtle original score by Peter
Hesslein aided by recurring needle drops of the title track by Marius
Müller-Westernhagen, Supermarkt as a film is closer to the urban
ruggedness and fast pace of the French New Wave than that of the elegance of
Rainer Werner Fassbinder or Wim Wenders.
Almost forecasting the work of Uli Edel who ultimately replaced
writer-director Klick on Christiane F, it drops viewers into a dark
unforgiving life of homelessness and trying to scrape by for survival before
erupting into criminality.
It goes without saying Charly Wierczejewski was born to play
this role, clearly having lived in it for some time and being a fugitive
himself. From his tattered and worn
clothes, his long unkempt hair and greasiness, it almost feels like a
documentary crew simply bumped into this guy and decided to mount a movie
around him. Michael Degen as the beleaguered
journalist who wants to help a youth far beyond anyone’s help is strong as a
good man trying to point the boy on the straight and narrow. Fans of Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner
Fassbinder will delight in Eva Mattes’ presence, a tough veteran actress who
previously sparred opposite Klaus Kinski and Bruno S. before making a sneaking
cameo as Mother Filippova in Enemy at the Gates. Lastly we have Walter Kohut from A Bridge
Too Far as the small time crook who has been around the block but winds up
meeting his match in street rat Willi.
Distributed by Constantin Film in 1974, Supermarkt while
well received and launching the acting career of Wierczejewski tended in German
New Wave lore to be overshadowed by the works of his contemporaries. Going on to make the German release dub
version of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Roland Klick fell on
some hard times. Losing the position to
direct Christiane F. followed by an ill-fated stint with cocaine fueled
Dennis Hopper on White Star, the filmmaker’s career petered out and his
work hasn’t been spoken of much until recent efforts by Subkultur Entertainment
were made to resurrect his name into Eastern European pop cultural
consciousness.
While some will conclude Supermarkt
pales somewhat in the film that launched Klick’s career, it nevertheless
presents a rarely seen snapshot of then-modern Germany that’s both intimate and
vast with outdoor sequences of squalor that invariably forecasted
cinematographer Vacano’s own imaginings of ‘Old Detroit’ in Robocop. All in all, a taut little German New Wave
thriller with some remarkable on and off-screen talents involved.
--Andrew Kotwicki
