clues everywhere

For their first date he took her to see Love is Colder than Death (Liebe ist kälter als der Tod) at the Harvard Film Archive. The opening scene was endless, so bare and brutal that she felt her heart slow its beat in her chest, the air stripped from her lungs. She wondered vaguely if she might die waiting for the cut to the next shot. The creepy man in the next seat leaned over the arm rest to breathe on her neck and press his elbow into her ribs, but her date was enraptured and he did not even blink when she tapped his arm and whispered Help! Afterwards, back on the streets, they found the rain had turned to sleet and the wind whipping around with a vengeance. His car had been towed, just as the sign by the empty space where they stood, freezing, promised it would be.