Kings of the Road

Saw Kings of the Road. It felt like homework. Very slow, spare, shot in black and white with an obviously improvised script, I knew I was in trouble when I was skipping around to see if my subtitles were working and it took a long time to find a scene where people were talking. So I really didn't understand this film, and didn't enjoy it at any rate. The film follows two guys, one of whom is a film-reel delivery man and the other is some dude who's clearly trying to play hooky on his own life. The film opens with the hooky-guy tearing up a photograph of a house and then driving his car into a lake. He swims to shore to find delivery guy and, without a word, they decide to hang out with each other for a while while hooky-guy figures out some things.

This film was made in the 70s and has the existential angst which is so typical for art-house films of the time. It's terribly slow at 3 hours long and has precious little excitement or stakes. The night scenes are often beautiful tough, I'll give it that. It also involves a lot of pornography. I believe we are meant to realize that the delivery-guy is delivering prono reels actually, though this is never explicitly stated. The main points of the film are laid out at the very end of the film in a long, boozy, talk/argument/fist-fight between the two protagonists. Their way of life is revealed to be deeply childish. Children are often shown hanging around them and are talked to and about with respect. Like children, they are looking for meaning, for love, for direction. They express profound loneliness which echoes the delivery-guy's lonely job. Most of the time is spent in his isolation chamber on the road.

This will not one of my favorite films. It was a bit too long and slow for me. Perhaps cell phones and the internet have finally rotted my attention-span, but really. The themes are interesting but the film provides no answers. I suspect I missed out on some deep inner turmoil. The film is set on the border of East and West Germany pre-wall-falling, so maybe the two men are supposed to be East and West Berlin? I don't know. Very difficult film, very dry.