Gods of the Plague

After his release from prison, ex-convict Franz Walsch finds his way back into the Munich criminal underworld. His attentions become focused upon two women, Joanna and Margarethe, as well as upon Günther, his friend who earlier shot his brother.

{{castlist|

• Hanna Schygulla as Joanna Reiher
• Margarethe von Trotta as Margarethe
• Harry Baer as Franz Walsch
• Günther Kaufmann as Günther
• {{ill|Carla Egerer|de}} as Carla (as Carla Aulaulu)
• Ingrid Caven as Magdalena Fuller
• Jan George as Policeman
• Marian Seidowsky as Marian Walsch
• Yaak Karsunke as Inspector
• Micha Cochina as Joe
• Hannes Gromball as Supermarket Manager
• Lilith Ungerer as Girl
• Katrin Schaake as Café Owner
• Lilo Pempeit as Mother
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder as Pornography Customer
• David Morgan as Catcher
• Thomas Schieder as Tommy
• Kurt Raab as Pub Guest
• Irm Hermann as Bartender
• Peter Moland
• Doris Mattes as Marie Luise
• Eva Madelung as Girl
• Ursula Strätz as Antique Shop Owner

}}

The film was shot in Munich and Dingolfing during five weeks in October and November 1969 with Fassbinder eventually coming to consider it, shortly before he died, as the fifth-best feature film he made during his entire career.{{cite web|url=http://jclarkmedia.com/fassbinder/index.html|title=The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder|last=Clark|first=Jim|date=18 September 2013|website=Jim's Film Website|accessdate=21 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209203117/http://jclarkmedia.com/fassbinder/index.html|archive-date=9 December 2018|url-status=dead}}

Kaja Silverman, author of the scholarly article "Fassbinder and Lacan: A Reconsideration of Gaze, Look, and Image," wrote that the film "holds subject and ideal image at the most extreme distance from each other and that, hence, attests most eloquently to the latter's recalcitrant exteriority."Silverman, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jvXMvLautTcC&pg=PA281 281]. She further wrote that the character of Margarethe "sustains her identity through constant reference to an external representation."Silverman, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jvXMvLautTcC&pg=PA282 282]. Commenting on the scene in which she sees herself in a poster of a face of a blonde woman, Silverman stated that it is "presumably a blown-up advertisement." It has also been noted that the film is replete with homoerotic symbolism.{{cite web|url=http://jclarkmedia.com/fassbinder/fassbinder03.html|title=The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Gods of the Plague/Götter der Pest|last=Clark|first=Jim|date=28 July 2003|website=Jim's Film Website|accessdate=21 January 2014}}

The film was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in 2013 through its Eclipse series as part of a box set together with Love Is Colder Than Death, Katzelmacher, The American Soldier and Beware of a Holy Whore.{{cite web|url=http://www.criterion.com/films/27958-gods-of-the-plague|title=Gods of the Plague|website=The Criterion Collection|accessdate=17 January 2014}}

The film's ensemble cast and camera work won the Deutscher Filmpreis (Filmband in Gold) in 1970.{{cite web|url=http://www.filmportal.de/film/goetter-der-pest_b727bb074f6a4968841f5b220c09cf9d|title=Götter der Pest|website=Film Portal|accessdate=17 January 2014|language=de}} PopMatters' opinion of the film was that it "prov[es] the director’s expressive mastery,"{{cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/175437-eclipse-series-early-fassbinder/|title=Early Fassbinder Gets Us Inside the Developing Mind of a Creative Genius|last1=Oursler|first1=John|date=4 October 2013|website=PopMatters|accessdate=17 January 2014}} critic Michael Koresky opined that the film "ultimately illustrates the futility of romance and the inevitability and ignominy of death,"{{cite web|url=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2880-eclipse-series-39-early-fassbinder|title=Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder|last=Koresky|first=Michael|date=26 August 2013|website=The Criterion Collection|accessdate=17 January 2014}} while another critic, Noel Murray, wrote that the film explores its "milieux in remarkable ways, with memorable moments" and a "casualness about nudity and scatology that outpaces even the American underground cinema of the era."{{cite web|url=http://thedissolve.com/reviews/171-early-fassbinder/|title=Early Fassbinder|last=Murray|first=Noel|date=3 September 2013|website=The Dissolve|accessdate=17 January 2014|archive-date=1 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201124446/http://thedissolve.com/reviews/171-early-fassbinder/|url-status=dead}} Similarly, Slant Magazine critic Jordan Cronk wrote that Fassbinder's "technical prowess shows greater advancement" with this film, "parlaying minimalism into a more dreary dramaturgy".{{cite news|url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/early-fassbinder|title=Early Fassbinder|last=Cronk|first=Jordan|date=26 August 2013|website=Slant Magazine|accessdate=17 January 2014}}

Steve Erickson underscored the fact that "there's something compelling about the film's experimentation, even if Fassbinder’s skills weren't all quite there yet. For one thing, Gods of the Plague takes a narrative that purportedly revolves around a heterosexual love triangle and turns it in a homoerotic direction, offering up nudity from both Baer and Kaufmann, the latter of whom the director was infatuated with at the time. That's a twist on the film noir rarely seen even today,"{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/early-fassbinder-films-come-to-DVD|title=True Love and Self-Destruction: Early Fassbinder on DVD|last=Erickson|first=Steve|date=27 August 2013|website=Roger Ebert|accessdate=17 January 2014}} and Rebecca A. Brown noted that the film is one of "Fassbinder’s most visually stunning early films [in which the] camera lushly juxtaposes intense darks, greys, and whites in every scene. Centered images of the actors and well-decorated interiors abound, as well, disorienting the familiarity of the narrative and Baer’s purposely listless performance."{{cite web|url=http://cinespect.com/2013/08/dvd-box-set-review-eclipse-series-39-early-fassbinder/|title=DVD Box Set Review: Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder|last=Brown|first=Rebecca A.|date=27 August 2013|website=Cinespect: Views on the New York Film Scene|accessdate=17 January 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121045406/http://cinespect.com/2013/08/dvd-box-set-review-eclipse-series-39-early-fassbinder/|archivedate=21 January 2014}} Furthermore, IndieWire has referred to the film as "sensually composed,"{{cite web|url=http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/dvd-is-the-new-vinyl-famous-pimps-infamous-early-fassbinder-q-the-winged-serpent-20130828|title=DVD Is the New Vinyl: Famous Pimps, Infamous Early Fassbinder & Q: The Winged Serpent|last=Hills|first=Aaron|date=28 August 2013|website=IndieWire|accessdate=17 January 2014}} critic Fernando F. Croce opined that the film's "dialogue is musical in its terseness,"{{cite web|url=http://www.cinepassion.org/Reviews/g/GodsPlague.html|title=Gods of the Plague (Rainer Werner Fassbinder/West Germany, 1970): (Götter der Pest)|last=Croce|first=Fernando F.|date=7 February 2010|website=CinePassion|accessdate=1 February 2014}} critic Dennis Schwartz has called it a "fairly good watch,"{{cite web|url=http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/godsoftheplague.htm|title=Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Homage to American Gangster Films|last=Schwartz|first=Dennis|date=22 May 2006|website=Ozu's World Movie Reviews|accessdate=21 January 2014|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305010559/http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/godsoftheplague.htm|url-status=dead}} and TV Guide wrote that it is a "memorable crime flick."{{cite magazine|url=http://movies.tvguide.com/gods-of-the-plague/review/137126|title=Gods of the Plague|last=Pardi|first=Robert|date=18 September 2006|magazine=TV Guide|accessdate=21 January 2014}} The New York Times critic Vincent Canby wrote that "it's impeccably performed by members of the Fassbinder stock company,"{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C00E2D91E39E334BC4952DFB066838C669EDE|title=Gods of the Plague (1970): Gods of the Plague, 1970 Fassbinder Film, Is Quintessential American Gangster Movie|last=Canby|first=Vincent|date=11 June 1977|newspaper=The New York Times|accessdate=1 February 2014}} and London's Time Out praised the film as "a witty, stylish meditation on the genre, filtered through the decidedly dark and morbid sensibility of its director."{{cite magazine|url=http://www.timeout.com/london/film/gods-of-the-plague-1969|title=Gods of the Plague|magazine=Time Out London|accessdate=1 February 2014}}

{{reflist}}

• Silverman, Kaja. "Fassbinder and Lacan: A Reconsideration of Gaze, Look, and Image." In: Bryson, Norman, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith Moxey (editors). Visual Culture: Images and Interpretations. Wesleyan University Press, 2013, p. 272ff. {{ISBN|0819574236}}, 9780819574237.

• [http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/movies/goetter-der-pest/ Götter der Pest] at the [http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/ Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation's Official Website] {{in lang|de}}
• {{IMDb title|0065808}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|id=gods-of-the-plague|title=Gods of the Plague}}
• [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/485875/gods-of-the-plague Gods of the Plague] at the TCM Movie Database
• [http://www.filmportal.de/film/goetter-der-pest_b727bb074f6a4968841f5b220c09cf9d Götter der Pest] at Film Portal {{in lang|de}}

{{Rainer Werner Fassbinder}}

Category:1970 films

Category:1970s avant-garde and experimental films

Category:1970 drama films

Category:1970 LGBTQ-related films

Category:Bisexuality-related films

Category:Films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Category:Films set in Munich

Category:Films set in prison

Category:Films shot in Bavaria

Category:German avant-garde and experimental films

Category:German black-and-white films

Category:German drama films

Category:1970s German-language films

Category:German LGBTQ-related films

Category:West German films

Category:1970s German films

Category:Films scored by Peer Raben

Category:1970s LGBTQ-related drama films

Category:German-language drama films