The Niklashausen Journey (1970)

Despite having seen The Niklashausen Journey one time before, watching it again was a good thing, since I only remembered a couple of scenes from my first viewing experience. This is, in my view, a quite messy film. Fassbinder explores the relation between religion and politics, but of course he chooses a tableau-style instead of a systematic approach. There is nothing wrong with this, but sometimes I do fall off the wagon, especially considering most (all?) of the lines being quotes from authors which in some cases are unfamiliar to me. It's a film with a specific audience in mind: marxists who know their history of theology. The story mixes time layers, so we get a hodgepodge of historical situations. Of course there is more thought behind this than mere entertainment value (this is not A Knight's Tale). It is evident that Fassbinder's critique is aimed at contemporary revolution-mongers (along with their opponents of all stripes). But Fassbinder is Fassbinder and there are plenty of striking scenes here. At the core of the film we have a religious group (it did apparently exist, in the 15th century) that rails against the decadence of the Catholic church. They are revolutionaries, and Fassbinder makes a point of making them quote Marx and Engels and sing leninist songs. It would be strange to have a Fassbinder film that delivers an upbeat story about social change - this is no exception. The strive for change and justice morphs into violence. It's hard to pinpoint the film. I wouldn't call it cynical exactly, even though Fassbinder delivers a bleak picture of propaganda and violence. -- Don't miss the scenes on the garbage heap: visually stunning stuff there.