***NOTE: The following analysis/review may contain MILD SPOILERS regarding some detail in the film, but not to the extent of making the film viewing experience any lesser.***
The universe in German auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder's bizarre psychological drama "Chinese Roulette" is rather unnerving. In a fantastic opening sequence, a woman and her daughter listen to Gustav Mahler's 8th Symphony while drolly exchanging deadpan stares and looking out the window. Only one word is uttered by the woman, Ariane Christ (Margit Cartensen) after she lights her cigarette…"Nice?" and soon after, a few others interrupt by joining in, and the ethereal music abruptly ends! The opening sequence is a kind of teaser to what's to follow in this strange Gothic thriller of sorts with some of the most ambiguous characters and character interactions one is likely to witness in a seemingly normal scheme of things in a story set in a normal world.
It
is the home of wealthy business mogul Gerhard Christ (Alexander
Allerson) who resides with his crippled daughter Angela (Andrea Schober)
and his wife Ariane. Angela has a mute governess Traunitz (Macha Meril)
to take care of her. Gerhard is off on a business trip (or is he?) and
soon as he reaches the airport, instead of catching a flight, he rushes
to welcome his lover Irene (Anna Karina) in a warm embrace!
Ensuring
that his wife and daughter would be away somewhere else, Gerhard takes
Irene to his plush mansion in an isolated location, looked after by a
sinister looking Kast (Brigitte Mira) and her sexually ambivalent son
Gabriel (Volker Spengler). But little do they know, there is a rather
unpleasant surprise awaiting them in the form of Ariane and her lover
Kolbe (Ulli Lommel), Gerhard's assistant who unbeknownst to them also
land up at the same mansion for some private time together..! The
situation reaches the most uncomfortable levels with the entry of Angela
and Traunitz into the scene and a rather intriguing face-off ensues…
While
one would expect the proceedings to take a melodramatic turn with
confrontational scenes between the couple engaged in their own
adulterous liaisons, Fassbinder surprises with a rather odd turn of
events that guarantee an exceptional film viewing experience. It is
rather unsettling how the two couples clearly caught with their pants
down laugh it off and shake hands after the initial shock quickly
settles down! They even sit together at a dinner table, exchange
anecdotes, but a palpable sense of discomfort and tension fills the
environment. The minimalist but taut screenplay keeps the viewer in
anticipation of what's to come. How would this possibly end? How will the
couple react after this initial display of stoicism to their partners'
love affairs? The entry of Angela and Traunitz to the ménage a quatre
makes things more complicated and add to the intrigue.
But
it is not just the plot and the direction subsequently taken by it that
is solely responsible for keeping the viewer hooked. It is the
strangely fascinating characters, all with an air of mystery about them,
all ambiguous to the core, and none that could warranty a full-fledged
dissection for clarity! Of course, the intention isn't such. The
ambiguity is the focal point here. The interactions are equally oddball
with some delicious non sequiturs. This is the kind of family that looks
happy on the outside but harbours dark secrets within and lives on
assumptions!
So it is no surprise when Angela reveals the kind of
feelings she has about the whole business of her parents being party to
illicit relationships. We never get a sense of what kind of person each
character really is but do know that there is much more to them than
meets the eye. And hence Fassbinder repeatedly chooses a clever device
of filming his characters from behind glass columns or in mirrors,
giving off a fractured, distorted image of each person. Sometimes the angles chosen
are such that faces seem to split or merge.
None of the characters are
entirely likeable and all of them seem to share questionable
relationships, even the most apparently innocuous twosome of the lot,
Angela and her governess Traunitz! In a blink-and-miss tiny bit, a blind
beggar appears at the door and later it is revealed that he wasn't
blind at all, and then drives off in his car parked on the other side!
This might seem rather vague and unrelated, but it fits well within the
context of how appearances are deceptive and the entire world is living
under some kind of illusion.
The
setting of the film is such that makes it resemble a gothic ghost
story. The huge mansion, rich paraphernalia and decoration, luxurious liquor cabinets, empty surroundings, a view
from the window showcasing a refreshing green world, yet there is
something inherently bleak about this whole atmosphere. In one scene,
the camera pans from the idyllic surroundings and the greens and then
stops by a rotting, maggot-infested head of a stag. This perhaps serves
as a reminder that all things that seem beautiful eventually die an ugly
death!
The
ominous aura in "Chinese Roulette" is intensified with lyrical
combinations of imagery and poetry like in the instance Angela starts
quoting the works of Rimbaud or when Gabriel is reading from his
manuscript while the foursome look visibly perturbed. The drama rife
with hypnotic imagery and an eclectic score as a fitting accompaniment,
is enhanced by clever dialog and brilliant all-round acting. It would be
unfair to single out a particular actor when all of them deliver to the
fullest, yet Brigitte Mira as Kast and Margit Carstensen as Ariane
leave a bigger impression with their stupendous acts. On the able
shoulders of these fine actors, "Chinese Roulette" builds to a startling
climax with a titular game of Chinese Roulette in the third act that
promises to be a game-changing event, literally! And with an ending more
equivocal than the characters, Fassbinder throws a curve ball, yet
leaves us with a content smile of having seen something
thought-provoking and extraordinary.
Score: 9/10