Love Is Colder Than Death is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel

Love Is Colder Than Death (1970)89 minCrimeRating 63/100

If you’re used to the lush Sirkian Technicolor of Fassbinder’s later films, this feature debut might come as something of a bracing shock. Its monochromatic minimalism and coolly detached subversion of gangster-film tropes are served up with an extra dose of nihilism, because, well, it’s Fassbinder.

Cast: Ulli Lommel, Hanna Schygulla, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Katrin Schaake, Liz Soellner, Ingrid Caven, Irm Hermann

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder