The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp

Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter

West Germany

1968

23 Min

Black and White

German

Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
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SCR Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Juan da la Cruz, Ferdinand Bruckner, Helmut Färber

CAST Irm Hermann, Kristin Peterson, Hanna Schygulla, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peer Raben, Rudolf Waldemar Brem, Lilith Ungerer

ED Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub

Three sequences are linked together in this short film by Straub; the first sequence is a long tracking shot from a car of prostitutes plying their trade on the night-time streets of Germany; the second is a staged play, cut down to 10 minutes by Straub and photographed in a single take; the final sequence covers the marriage of James and Lilith, and Lilith’s subsequent execution of her pimp, played by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. —IMDb

Director

Jean-Marie Straub

Filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, his wife and co-director, have become leading figures in New German cinema. Their films are not for passive viewers seeking light entertainment; films such as Not Reconciled or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules (1965) are intellectually demanding, and yet are among the most haunting films of German cinema. Prior to teaming up with Huillet, the French born Straub worked as an assistant to French directors such as Abel Gance, Jean Renoir, and Robert Bresson. He met and teamed up with Huillet in 1954. To avoid the draft, he fled to Munich, Germany in 1958 where they got involved with radical theater groups. By the early sixties he and his wife had become a prominent directors. They made their debut with the short Machorka-Muff in 1963. In 1968, their long-time friend Fassbinder appeared in The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp. Straub and Huillet’s most famous film is Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968). By the late ’60s… read more