Werner Fassbinder's first feature.

And with it -- a black and white gangster flick -- Fassbinder creates the least eventful crime movie ever, with a trio of bumbling crooks conning and killing their way to -- well, not quite infamy, but somewhere above obscurity.

Recalling everyone from Kubrick to Jarmusch (but none of it particularly well), Fassbinder starts his film with a bang, as Franz (Fassbinder) refuses to join a mob-type organization and insists on going it alone as a petty thief. His hooker girlfriend (Hanna Schygulla, looking more spry than we're accustomed to and frequently topless) and pal Bruno (Ulli Lommel) then hit the road, quietly offing anyone in their way while planning a bank robbery. 15 minutes before the end of the film, they finally pull up in front of the bank in order to pull the job.

Unfortunately, Fassbinder's already trademark deliberate pace does little for him here. Even the most introspective heist movies have an inertia. Love is Colder than Death has little. Characters face off against one another and don't speak a word, even when they threaten one another with guns. Does real life work like this? There's a time and a place for introspection. The middle of a bank robbery is not that place.

Aka Liebe ist kälter als der Tod.