An early work from the filmmaker behind THE TIN DRUM with an intriguing Hans Christian Anderson-style fairy tale aesthetic and voice over narration. SUDDEN WEALTH is a despairing chronicle of a group of starving peasants who finally seize governmental wealth like a dysfunctional group of Robin Hood's Merry Men, only to be betrayed by their inescapable selves and systematically dehumanized (think bucolic Orwell) and reprogrammed by what we'll put under the rubric of God and Country. Extremely striking compositions at times. Only one man (who bears a passing resemblance to a young John Cleese, incidentally) refuses to go gentle into that good night. The last scene is reminiscent of the endings in both Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY and THE CRUCIBLE with Day-Lewis, yet all even more chilling with its alienating suddenly reappearing voice-over. SUDDEN WEALTH benefits from an especially strong second half with fuller characterization that makes it come alive as a whole for Schlondorff, whose film's evinces extremely striking compositions at times with stationary camera. Especially recommended for those interested in the New German Cinema.
2 Reviews
I did not really care
Horst_In_Translation8 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach" is a West German black-and-white film by writer and director Volker Schlöndorff. He got help with the script from his (then not yet) wife Margarethe von Trotta back when she was still a prolific actress in Fassbinder films. Both were around the age of 30 at this point. And Rainer Werner Fassbinder also plays a small role in here. This film is from 1971 and as such it is a television production that has its 45th anniversary this year. It is an auteur film as much as it is an ensemble performance. Nobody from the cast really stands out and I must say I also do not know too many from the actors in here except von Trotta, Hauff and Fassbinder, all successful filmmakers in their own right. Schlöndorff made this one quite a while before he won his Oscar for "Tin Drum". In my opinion, this 100-minute film is not a must-see by any means. There are a handful good moments and it is nice to see the impact of the money in here and how the people from the two deal with it as well as their degeneration in many scenes (after all, even a rape scene), but I still struggled to care for anybody in here really or to be interested in what happens to the townsfolk of Kombach in particular. That's why I give this pretty old film a thumbs-down. really only for Schnlöndorff completionists or for people with a major interest in auteur movies. Not recommended.
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