1983 film by Roland Klick

In this German drama, a dock worker must wander the streets of Hamburg after he is locked out of his shelter. In the poorer part of town, he encounters a young woman. He wants to begin an affair with her, but it is not meant to be.

This is the debut feature fillm by german director Roland Klick who made classics like SUPERMARKET and DEADLOCK. In this debut Roland Klick is searching for the heart and ache of german society in portraying a middle class family in the 60's living in a suburbal area who are confronted with a crime which they don't understand. What comes to surface is a disability to be emotionally able to handle it so the family tries to hide it from society. Before Haneke (in his latest film "the White Ribbon" some 40 years later) there was already somebody using the power of cinematic experience to express a feeling about german people and german society which is far from any psychological mumbojumbo that fails in answering questions like: why is there violence in general? why did all those horrible things in germany during WWII happen? "Buebchen" doesn't try to fool us with explanations because violence is something that comes from a place that can't be desribed with words - it overcomes you. While recently Haneke was trying to fool us with possible reasons for the horrors of WWII this little piece here by Roland Klick brings the viewer closer to the topic by leaving the reasons out - this is a film about the consequences. ------------------------------------ Synopsis In a german suburb a babysitter is too busy with her own teenage business and leaves a boy with his little sister alone. Then the girl is missing. The only way the family and society are able to deal with the horror is to ignore it and hide the truth in the closet. A sharp study of german middle class society in the late 60s.

Willi is 18 years old and lives on the street. Without a goal in his life he walks around the city and meets several people, helping but also cheating him. When he meets a girl, Monica, he realizes that there are people out there whose lives are even more desperate than his. So he's trying to help her (and him) by planning a great robbery on a supermarket's money transporter.

In 1970, it seems as if Roland Klick set out to emulate Sergio Leone's "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly", mixing it with Michelangelo Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point" to create a modern Sauerkraut Western (without horses, but rather a truck and a car). The story stars three characters, Marquard Bohm as the "Kid" (The Good), Siegurd Fitzek as "Mr. Sunshine" (The Bad), and Mario Adorf (can be seen in Dario Argento's "The Bird With The Crystal Plumage" as the reclusive cat eating painter) as "Mr. Dump" (The Ugly) (who again plays a reclusive man who lives in a dump??). The story begins with the Kid, who has just pulled off a heist (with a bullet wound in the arm), and is carrying millions of dollars in a case. Wandering aimlessly through the sunbaked desert, (he finally passes out and is left for dead) until Mr. Dump drives along and finds him and the money. Once back at Mr. Dump's residence (a sort of abandoned junk yard), the Kid warns Mr. Dump, that Mr. Sunshine (who apparently is the ringleader of this heist) will be coming for his money. Thus begins the cat and mouse story, of who will get the case of money. Mr. Dump also has two neighbors, an older (and apparently sexually crazy) woman and her pretty (but feral) daughter (who is obviously sexually curious of the Kid). The film is set in (what looks to be) a wasteland desert, which could have been a forerunner for films like "A Boy And His Dog" and "Road Warrior". Yet the film maintains a complete Sergio Leone feel to it. You get all the great close ups of the characters sweating in the sun, and the typical double crossing that took place in his westerns. The Kid in this movie also kind of resembles Charles Bronson's character in Leone's other masterpiece "Once Upon A Time In The West". But on the flipside, this film also kind of reminded me of Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point", in the surreal desert filming. Also the use of Kraut Rock band "Can", who's music score, will remind one of Pink Floyd's music score for Antonioni's film. The inspired use of Can, as the music score was a great choice, because though at times it does remind you of Pink Floyd, it also reminds me of Ennio Morricone's music score as well. The Kid's theme song seems to be "Whiskey Man" by Can, and this reminds me of the way you hear that unforgettable Clint Eastwood whistling theme, or the accompanying harmonica for Charles Bronson. Can's score embodies both stylizations perfectly. The film is pretty obscure, and there was very little information, that I could find on it. But it's worth searching out if you have an interest in different cult type movies from the late sixties, or an interest in Can. But the pacing is a little uneasy and the finale was a tad unclimatic (yet somehow downbeat). Though it's a German production, the English dubbing will remind you of the Spaghetti Westerns as well. Cool, but very weird.

A young boy walks through a city during Christmas admiring all of the holiday's paraphernalia.