Beware of a Holy Whore

Beware of a Holy Whore is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's -- the Seventies' enfant terrible of foreign filmmaking -- quintessential film. Made in 1970 (along with six other films -- Fassbinder's prodigious output is virtually unequaled) it is set in the lobby of a Spanish resort hotel as a bunch of actors and crew members wait idlely while waiting for the director to show up. Transparently autobiographical, the film watches as the group snipes at each other and is then further pushed toward alienation by the ambivalent director's arrival. For Fassbinder, this movie marked the end of his “Antitheatre” period and ushered in a more dramatic and plastic form of filmmaking. Shot by the amazing Michael Ballhaus, there are numerous breathtaking tracking shots that follow the characters through the hotel. This print is a new restoration sponsored by the Fassbinder Foundation and its soundtrack includes several songs that were cut from the first American release because no one had paid for the rights to use them -- songs by Leonard Cohen, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles. A film like this doesn't come around often so beware of missing a Holy Whore.