The multi-talented Rainer Werner Fassbinder kicks off as film director with a short that has influences from the Italian Neo-Realism and the Nouvelle Vague from France. What he presents isn't so much important (a tramp finds a gun on the street and doesn't know what to do with it) but the way he does and the things he uses are.
Almost like a silent movie, "Der Stadtstreicher" ("The Tramp") is deeply focused on its images, never in its brief spoken moments (one dialog exchange and one song that sounds pointless to the plot but it's not). The image's force is outstanding, dramatic, morose and sometimes surprisingly funny (Fassbinder's cameo, he just pops on the screen giving a suspicious check out on the main character; and the hilarious scene where a waitress tries to return the gun to the tramp). Natural to his conviction's of making film where people learn how to not do things this a sad tale with no happy ending, no chance of hope or salvation for the tramp, a constant on his admirable works.
I can't see any problem with this film, but it surprises me the negative review I've read here on the site and the fact of film schools in German which turned down this and the second short film RWF made while applying to them. You can see his early talent very present there and in "Das Kleine Chaos". Brilliant. 10/10
