Haine (1980) Online

I recently saw this in the German language version titled, oddly enough, "Killer Truck." Although a truck driver and his truck do play a role in the film, the title of "Haine" or "Hate" is much more appropriate. Klaus Kinski plays the role of a drifter on a motorcycle who happens to be passing through town immediately after a young school girl has been run over and killed by an unknown person on a motorcycle. The parents of the girl conspire to get rid of Kinski with the help of some of the locals including the town bully who recently had a run-in with Kinski in a pub over a woman. Kinski's only ally is the woman whose honor he tried to defend. Trapped in the town due to sabotage on his bike and a number of other incidents, Kinski soon realizes he is in real trouble. Although I do not speak German, I was able to follow the movie quite easily as it is not overly dominated by dialogue and has a surprising amount of action. I strongly recommend this movie as you will see Kinski in the surprising turnaround role of a victim as opposed to the predator or villain he most notably plays.

If Kinski agreed to do a film, the most important thing to him was the money. At least this is what he says. His autobiographies (there are three in total) present him as the weird, nervous, sexually obsessed genius that he wanted people to think of him. Although it is well known that most of the dramatic stories Kinski tells about his life are made-up (e.g. most of his struggles with long-time director Werner Herzog), others are near to the truth. HAINE, for instance, proves that Kinski did in fact not care about anything but the money, at least in the present case. When the filming days he was contracted to were over, he simply left. This is why the director had to case someone else play Kinskis role, which was wisely chosen as a motorbike driver, thus the stand-in wears a helmet in all of its scenes; including some in which hardly anyone would wear a helmet... Oh, and Maria Schneider is in there as well, even with some nudity. I presume on paper the film may have looked different than the final product. However, if you like exploitation and an exaggerated storyline and a bit of sleaziness and, most of all, Kinski, there's doubt you will enjoy the film.