Argila is Schroeter’s experiment with split-screen cinema. In two images side-by-side, a love triangle plays out as two women, one older and more desperate, vie for the affection and attention of a mostly passive young man. The play between left and right, black-and-white and color, simultaneity and seriality recalls Warhol’s similar use of split-screen, as in Outer and Inner Space.

Two women, one from Boston and one from Germany, flee their empty lives to seek fulfillment in Mexico. The Black Angel is a transitional film; on one hand, it is a companion piece to Willow Springs, featuring two Schroeter regulars as characters far from home and in extremis; on the other hand, it is a film essay about Mexico and as such a harbinger of Schroeter’s nonfiction work to come. While he clearly shares his characters’ fascination with Mexico, the filmmaker also savages touristic exoticism – the otherworldly appearances of his protagonists and their rapturous reactions to new surroundings contrast sharply with the sober perceptions of Mexican history and economics featured in the documentary segments and in the prosaic presence of a non-professional cast of locals.