Love Is Colder than Death

For a lone gangster, there's no escaping the Syndicate

While under the brutal interrogation of the Syndicate, Franz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder), a small-time pimp from Berlin, strikes up a friendship with Bruno (Ulli Lommel), another criminal recruit. Despite their persuasive methods, Franz refuses to join the organization. Instead, he teams with Bruno on a small wave of shoplifting and murder. But Franz's prostitute girlfriend Joanna (Hanna Schygulla) is distrustful of the gangster - and when Bruno begins planning a bank robbery, she makes some arrangements of her own.

Fassbinder's feature-length debut, Love Is Colder Than Death was largely overlooked at the 1969 Berlin Film Festival. It is now considered one of the most important "first films" in the history of cinema.