Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte (Beware of a Holy Whore, R. W. Fassbinder, West Germany/Italy 1971, 103 min., German w/subtitles).

Perhaps the most honest film of Fassbinder's early period, this chaotic, absurdist take on moviemaking makes 8 1⁄2 look tidy. A film crew, holed up in a hotel awaiting their director and star, are going stir crazy. Once the star (Eddie Constantine) arrives, he turns out to be a quiet, sullen man, brazenly impenetrable to the hysteria overtaking the rest of the crew. The director turns out to be a dictatorial madman, launching whiskey glasses at the crew and shouting "I hate you all!" Loosely (or not?) based on Fassbinder's own fraught production of Whity, Beware of a Holy Whore confronts both the negative effects of Fassbinder's own no-budget, breakneck speed of production, and the larger picture of group ennui, fed by codependency. Fassbinder's favorite of his own films, Beware of a Holy Whore shows more than anything his willingness to turn the camera around and create an at times humorous, self-effacing, inquisitive work on his own idiosyncrasies and habits as a filmmaker.

[source: Dryden website, 2015-May-25]