Watched Today:

* Das Mädchen Rosemarie – West Germany 1958 Rolf Thiele – with Nadja Tiller as the girl Rosemarie
This was a surprise. Most of the German films from the ‘50s shown on the 3Sat channel are simple colourful Schlagermovies. Rosemarie goes against everything. It is based on the real life prostitute Rosemarie Nitribitt, how she easily manipulates a series of business men and gets involved in shady business leading to her murder. The film is in black and white and parts of it are shot in a realistic manner in an unusual amount of location scenes, giving very much a feeling of the time. Parts are stilistic with rows of similar men and their identical cars becoming part of chorus lines. Oh yes, they sometimes break into singing. My mind goes to Alberto Cavalcanti’s British documentaries from the ‘30s. Add to that two or three bohemian artists breaking out in Brechtian songs with regular intervals, commenting on the preceedings. It’s not quiet like anything I have seen, and it is not very often one gets to say that. This film satire deserves to more widely known. Here’s a scene

* MM: Road Runner and Coyote: “Hopalong casualty” USA 1960 Jones