Let the Corpses Tan (3 Stars)

This is the first film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

A gang steals gold bars from a transport van, brutally killing the guards. They take the gold back to a hilltop residence where they're based, which seems to be some sort of hotel. A painter is living at the hotel who has nothing to do with the robbers. On the way back to the residence the robbers pick up three hitchhikers, who are also heading to the hotel. Do robbers really do that when they're fleeing from a crime scene? The hitchhikers are the painter's estranged wife, her son and her maid.

Three motorbike policemen go to the hotel in search of the robbers. From then on it's pure chaos. It seems like everyone is shooting at everyone else. The robbers betray one another. One of the policemen sides with a robber. The painter's family take sides in the fights.

The film is confusing. It's not always clear who's shooting who. The film is non-linear (although that's the smallest problem). The film has frequent imagined fantasy sequences. I would give the film's atmosphere and imagery five stars, while the screenplay gets one star. Three stars is a good average.

After walking out I spoke to a few people about the film. One person said that the film was great, and when I said it was confusing he said I hadn't been paying attention. "Didn't you see the references?" He started to recite a list of 1970's films, but I stopped him and said I already knew it was an homage to 1970's films, so he should just tell me what happened in the film. He couldn't give me an answer.