Feature film
Shadow of Angels
Schatten der Engel
Daniel Schmid · 1976
Synopsis
Lily Brest works the streets and has hardly any clients. She lives with Raoul, her pimp and her lover, who gambles away everything she earns and beats her when she brings home too little. One day she meets a rich man, whom the credits identify only as “the rich Jew”, and who becomes her main client. He does not ask of her what the others ask: he tells her to keep quiet, pays her for her silence, and talks to her.
Context
He adapts a play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, which accusations of antisemitism had prevented from being staged in Germany. Fassbinder co-wrote the screenplay and plays the role of Raoul, Ingrid Caven that of Lily, Klaus Löwitsch that of the property developer, with Annemarie Düringer, Adrian Hoven and Jean-Claude Dreyfus. Michael Fengler produced it for Albatros and Artco Film; Renato Berta was responsible for the photography and Ila von Hasperg for the editing. It was released in France on 2 February 1977.
Who it is for
An hour and three quarters, in German. It is worth knowing that the play it comes from was accused of antisemitism, and that the film inherited the controversy.
Prizes and reception
Selected for the Cannes competition in 1976, and shown since then at Locarno, Munich and Solothurn.
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