Whity (1971) by Rainer Werner - Essay Example

Whity (1971) by Rainer Werner Rainer Werner, a renowned German movie director and actor, wrote the movie known asWhity, in 1971. He is commonly known as Fassbinder and was born in 1945. It is one of Fassbinder's personal and famous developments in his career. The movie remains fresh in the minds of the viewers long after his death in 1982. Until his death, Fassbinder had written a number of movies including Avant-garde, Katzelmacher, The American Soldier, Beware of a Holy Whore, World on a Wire, just to name but a few. It shows how talented the film writer was though he died at an early age of thirty-seven years. The stars in the movie include Ron Randell, Hanna Schygulla and Katrin Schaake (Itchload 29). The film begins in the midst of one of the key actors by the name Gunther Kaufmann who appears to lie on the ground holding something reddish in hands. At first sight, one may think he is dead. A song plays in the background, and from its words, the actor claims to require only five bullets to use to finish a family. A woman black in color follows chopping off the head of a fish. Whity is the main character in the movie. He belongs to the illegal family of Nicholson. All the family members are, in one way or the other, crazy people who wear face makeup, which are grey in color (Itchload 29). Ron Randel, the father, is an extremely cruel one and convinces his wife that he may die so soon. His aim is to make her assume she is inheriting his husband’s property, which is not the case. Each family member requests Whity to take the life of the other members, but finally he comes out with a solution. From the introductory part of the movie, the creative character of the writer clearly demonstrates itself. From the story, the films subvert genre-typical notions of race and femininity in different ways. From the family of Nicholson, his son Ben Nicholson is cruel and inaccessible by most of the other family members. His wife is a nymphomaniac woman; the eldest son is a glowing homosexual; and the worst of all is the youngest in the family who appears to be a morally decayed adolescent. To make matters worse, there is also Whity who is Nicholson’s family slave acting as the focus point of all the members of the family obsessions. This obsession carries the viewer up to the last part of the film. Fassbinder uses this shared obsession by all members of the family to develop the theme of the film (Pipolo 18). The contribution is represented by repeatedly stated episodes which dominate the plot of the story. The role played by each of the actors, their sexuality and the known economical relationships also help in plot development. In addition, the effects of fate in growing impacts of love the actors have in the movie make the viewer understand what the writer wants to put across (Mathews and Charles 5). This shows the society’s behavior in the whole context. These issues get even more complicated when the viewer realizes that Fassbinder’s lover plays Whity. To make matters even worse, Whity’s senior punishes him as the other members of the family watch. This is truly an embarrassing scene and shows how that community’s morality has deteriorated. As all these scenarios take place, Fassbinder watches all the unfolding from his dictatorial chair. Pipolo reviews that the complicated relationship of Fassbinder and the other actors was also evident in the writer’s other movie, Beware of a Holy Whore (29). The same author also indicates that it was necessary to include Whity in Fassbinder’s other acted movie, Despair, equally celebrated by many viewers because of its creativity and complexity. The writer also demonstrates a number of customs that natives from different societies follow. As one of the most highly polished films that Fassbinder produced, Whity has quite a number of scenes that explain much about people’s behavior. As one watches the film, one will realize that there is a lot of flagellating, sexual low tones, prostitution and other fascinating styles, which include bleaching of eyebrows and eyelashes. Watching the film keenly, one will notice that in all these frames, there is a lot of useless hair, many funny make-ups like greenish-white cakey, and a lot of mental decay in the actors. The seriousness of the matter is the fact that none of the actions seem to be for fun. The writer in his mind tries to show the magnitude of gender diversity in times of shooting the film (Pipolo 18). The writer represents the time when Germany was practicing slavery of people. He tries to show how hard it is to achieve sympathy to the slaves no matter how hard one tries. The most enormously used character in demonstrating this virtue is the son of Ben Nicholson. His children have their faces in a caked-like look and with green layers of powder. Ben’s wife is represented as being sexually harassed, while the main actor’s mother (Whity’s mother) is just but a servant in the family. She is always happy and always singing though her face seems to be charcoal darkened. Contrary to the life of Ben’s son and his family lives, Whity sits on the tradition of his father’s old money. More badly, his mother lives in the slavery of tradition. An outstanding example is in the first scene of the film where Whity laments to his mother that “black music” is not at all welcomed in their house (Pipolo 18). That comment hurts his mother, and she spits in his face. From this section, it is evident that not only is there racism but also no gender equality or respect for the women. This example shows the dual identity of Whity and brings out a whopping confusion of his perception. The issue of gender inequality is also evident. Whity demonstrates another form of ambiguity in his dressing style. He follows the specifications given to him by his masters. He follows the way his uncle wears from the top to the shoes. He has to pledge gratitude to his master, which is evidence to the high rate of homosexuality practiced even with the young son. Whity’s brutal actions also become visible in the last scene of the film where he systematically harasses the entire family except for Davie, the small son. This is the only part of the film with some components of a high-quality character played by Whity (Itchload 29). According to Pipolo, Whity has recorded the worst movie ever watched, which shows a high class brand of western and dark satire showing the nature of racism and human slavery (18). He adds that the movie is widely weird. The scenes in the film show how the slaves in the family forced to wear makeup. The way in which the owners of the slave force even the people who already have white faces, and the black, to wear white makeup is so satirical. Forcing people change their original languages in it is dictatorial. For example, a saloon singer in the film fell for Whity had her style of speaking affected. Misuse of people not only is cruel but also disrespects human rights. For example, Whity orders the already retarded young boy to comb the horse neatly. It shows how racist the Germans may be (Mathews and Charles 6). In explaining races incorporated in the film, the writer uses Whity in one of his first ever movies to use well thought out color process. The writer shows himself as chief expert in using colors to show the diversity of races represented in the film. This upholds the tradition of the locality which includes washing the eyes by the use of ripe oranges, which make the sunset appear red or brown in color. The use of different colors shows that the writer recognizes the different genres in the society (Pipolo 18). Fassbinder became one of the first film writers to make use of camera movement technique. This made him be among the most remarkable scholars of film. There is a clear example of this application where Ben Nicholson, surrounded by cameras, addresses the whole family surrounding him and reads his final testament. To put more emphasis on the way the writer uses the camera, the actor does not make any movement at all for about 10 minutes. During this sorrowful moment, the camera is seen to move round capturing all the members of the family as they keenly listen. The camera moves round as if taking the records of the silence. This moment gives the viewer enough time to meditate upon the events that have unfolded in the episode, and learn something from it. The relationships among all the actors give the viewer a clear picture of what was in the writer’s mind as he was developing the plot of the film. This technique proves to be a significant milestone in the transformation of the film industry and society (Mathews and Charles 9). There is a lot of western bias throughout the movie. The presentation of the film is ambient in itself. The shooting of the film in the western region is on a widescreen platform. The bulk part of the film is in the German language, but later recorded in a language that the entire West could understand. The major concern of the writer, therefore, was to ensure the message of the film reaches the targeted group of the western community.The-ending chapter of this movie is not obvious. There are no cases of tragedies such as crying, suicide or corpses as it is the case in most of the films around. Itchload thinks that the author did not want anybody to watch the movie, but this was not possible at the end (29). The episodes in the film show a ghastly picture of how the western countries can treat the other people around them. The incidences of racism, insensitivity to gender equality and violation of human rights are highly evident in this film. Works Cited Itchload. “Whity: Re-Viewing the Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.” Le Monde 22 Dec. 2006: 29. Regional Business News. Web. 3 Mar. 2012. Pipolo, Tony. "Whity: Re-Viewing the Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder." Cineaste 29.4 (2005): 18. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2012. Top of Form Mathews, Nancy M, and Charles Musser. Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1880 - 1910. Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2005. Print. Bottom of Form Read More