Love Is Colder Than Death

Love is Colder Than Death is a 1969 West German black-and-white film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, his first feature film. In the original theater presentation in Berlin the title was first Kälter als der Tod; at the beginning of film production, it was Liebe – kälter als der Tod as on some film posters. The cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann and the cast as an ensemble won an award at the German Film Awards in 1970. Plot Franz (Reiner Werner Fassbinder) encountered our cold and silent protagonist Bruno (Ulli Lommel) when the Syndicate adopted every possible mean to force and reason things out for them. The two did compromise and never reached an agreement with the organization. Left with no choice, the interrogator (Peter Moland) had to let them go. Before bidding farewell, Franz informed Bruno the address of his apartment in Munich, paving the way for the ensuing events of the plot. Petty hood Franz (Fassbinder) refuses to join the syndicate, where he meets a handsome young thug called Bruno (Lommel) and gives him his address in Munich. It is the flat of the prostitute Joanna (Schygulla), where Franz lives as her pimp. Bruno has been ordered by the syndicate to follow Franz and on going to the address is told he has moved. So he goes round the streets of the city asking prostitutes if they know a prostitute called Joanna.