Customer Reviews

Pioneers in Ingolstadt

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2 star:		(1)
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Prior to watching German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 87 minute long 1970 film, Pioneers In Ingolstadt, I'd only been subjected to one of his films, the execrable Whity. Ok, at least Whity had some outrageous unintended perverse sexual humor going for it. Pioneers In Ingolstadt lacks even that. In fact, it's really not so much a film as a series of extended blackout sketches. Given the period it was made, and given that many of the scenes take place in a Munich public park, at a bench, at night, in ridiculously poorly lit (or overlit) scenes, that cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann should have been shot for committing to celluloid, my mind immediately flashed back to the ABC television sitcom that ran from 1969 to 1974: Love, American Style. I specifically recall similarly set up scenes between recurring characters played by Arte Johnson and Ruth Buzzi. Now, that show was no great thing, but, at least, there were occasional sketches that were well acted and, well, funny! Not a one of the sketches in Pioneers In Ingolstadt can claim either mantle.

In fact, in researching the film, I found out that it was originally made for German television, was shot in under two weeks, and was one of eleven films that Fassbinder made in a twelve month period at the start of his filmic career. All of this shows, and in spades. Despite being adapted from a 1928 play of the same name, by Marieluise Fleisser, there really is nothing the film offers. The acting is wooden, stiff, and utterly without emotion. The writing is scattered, anomic, and without any point. The characterizations are nonexistent. And, not a single scene or characterization yields anything that shows up in a later scene as a payoff. In short, this is one of the worst films ever made. It is pretentious, dull, poorly conceived, and executed with even more of a creative dearth.

Fassbinder's unique adaptation of the fleisser story is something of a bridge in his career as a film director.. You can see elements of his previous movies in 'Pioneers ingolstadt' but you can also see that it looks forward to his later melodramas.. The unique camera work and lighting (pre michael balhaus) highlight the sexual frustrations and the battles that are being waged in this town.. Fassbinder creates a mood that lasts the whole movie.. The movie once again adresses the impossibility of love... and it shows how you can use the needs of other people as a weapon against them.. It is not Fassbinder's easiest work - but one of his most important..

This is the best review for this film that I have ever seen, so I wanted to share it here! (Source listed at bottom)

Why anyone of their own free will should elect to employ the most difficult accent in the British Isles to imitate plausibly - Northern Irish - is beyond me. Criticism over; the rest is rave. A squad of outsiders (with sort-of-Ulster burrs) cause upheavals in the lives of the (central Irish brogue-laden) inhabitants of a small '20s Bavarian town when they arrive to build a bridge. Town, surrounding hills, river and bridge are evoked in turn by a simple and superbly versatile set, which the squaddies and the local moat-swimming club move over, under and through as required.

The several strains of the plot - the girl who wants to go with a soldier and picks the most casually misogynistic of the lot, the one whose flirtatious savvy deserts her and is led into the game, the middleclass lad trying both to be one of the boys and to find lurve - are beautifully orchestrated by author Marie-Luise Fleisser and pitched to perfection by the ensemble. Any worries of tokenism surrounding the Gate's Women in World Theatre season are more than dissipated.

Written for City Limits magazine.

Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.

I have seen various Fassbinder movies and this one is clearly the weakest. Somebody tell me the point of this movie.

Pioneers in Ingolstadt is about a group of Germany army recruits stationed in the small Bavarian town of Ingolstadt to build a wooden bridge. The movie summarizes the interactions of various recruits with the local population from sexual encounters with the women and evoking jealousy amongst local men. Then, the bridge is built and they leave at the end.

As said, I watched this movie and at the end, asked myself what it was about. Some of the material doesn't make sense either. The soldiers wear swastikas on their berets. [...] Also, there is a BMW in the movie which appears to have been manufactured well after World War II.

If you want to see some of Fassbinder's better works, watch movies like Martha and Katzelmacher. This one will disappoint.

yeah this is what they should be like - colours are good, the sound is clear. Why can't all DVDs be of this quality??? the film is great of course. But I believe that buying a DVD is a bit of a risk - you don't know know if the quality of the transfer is going to be lousy (Querelle, Mirror) or good. What I hate most about DVDs is when the picture contains no movement, then it becomes like a still photo. Am I the only one who notices these things? BUY VHS if you care about picture quality.