Thanks to the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation and the subsequent
release on Blu-ray/DVD by Arrow Films in November 2015 we know have a chance to
view a beautifully restored version the 1973 RWF produced Tenderness of the Wolves.
The movie is based on the true story of Friedrich Haarmann a German serial
killer who operated over a seven-year period from 1918 to1924 following World
War 1. He was eventually found guilty of the murder of 24 young men but he has alleged
that his tally could have been between 50 and 70 men and boys. Following a
sexual assault his preferred method of killing was to bite into the neck or
Adams apple of his victims. It is said that he disposed of the bodies by
extensive mutilation and dismemberment and although never proven in court, sold
the minced remains as meat- for this reason he became known as the Butcher or
the Vampire of Hanover[1].
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| Kurt Raab as the Butcher of Hanover. |
Although directed by Ulli Lommel, a German film director and
actor known for his many collaboration’s with Fassbinder as well as working
along side Andy Warhol as a creative associate at The Factory, Warhol’s New
York City studio, it is unmistakably a Rainer Werner Fassbinder movie. Not only
produced and edited by the great man but it also features RWP in a wee cameo as
the real life pimp Wittowski and many of his regular company of actors were
used in the movie, including Margit Carstensen, Ingrid Caven, El Hedi ben Salem
and Brigitte Mira. But the film belongs to Kurt Raab who wrote the screenplay,
based closely on the original murder trials transcripts and is totally
convincing as the gay serial killer Fritz Haarmann. Raab’s association with RWF
goes back to 1967 when Fassbinder took over the Action Theatre in Munich and
led to him being involved with 31 of the director’s films.
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| Raab with the good looking Jeff Roden. |
Within the tight budgetary controls Lommel and Raab had two
months to shoot the film and for the same reason set the films timespan just
after the WW2 when the period was cheaper to replicate providing a late 1940’s setting.
The movie was shot almost entirely in a small historic town just outside
Cologne that remained virtually undamaged after the war.
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| Haarmann brings home a new young lover. |
Raab’s narrative does not hide anything allowing the viewer
a complete picture of what went on during the seven-year period in which
Haarmann’s murderous and sexually spree wrought havoc amongst the gay community
around Hanover. Picking up the young men around the railway station, taking
them back to his flat and witnessing the rape and bloody murder. We also observe
the intense relationship between himself and his lover Grans (Jeff Roden) who
its obvious knew exactly what was going on. The movie makes a show of Haarmann
bringing gifts of fresh meat to his friends and acquaintances although we are
never told where the meat actually comes from. A film that has full male nudity and
demonstrates murderous sexual passion, a film that is both repulsive and
fascinating, which probably means its not a film for the small minded, but it
is a film not to be missed for those of us that love the Rainer
Werner Fassbinder brand of New German Cinema.
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| The great man himself |
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