Michael Kohlhaas

Schlöndorff's bizarre third feature was the first of a spate of adaptations from Kleist. Edward Bond wrote it (it's in English), and laboured mightily over the contemporary parallels in the story of a 16th century horse-dealer whose stand against a criminal landowner takes him outside the law himself. Schlöndorff films it as all-stops-out melodrama, complete with rioting peasants, rioting students, contrasts between righteous and non-righteous rebellion, and one of David Warner's least restrained performances. If the result evokes Ken Russell, it's because it shares some of Russell's visual strength as well as some of his dramatic weakness.