Fear Eats the Soul
d. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974
Fassbinder at his best. Though that's a pointless statement since I've yet to to dislike a film of his. Fear Eats the Soul is a loose remake of Douglas Sirk's 1955 masterpiece All That Heaven Allows, though on the surface Fassbinder's style borrows little from Sirk's glossy features. Through a series of carefully composed shots--much like those he uses in The Bitter Tears, though not as overbearingly rigorous-- Fassbinder creates a complex picture of the way societal prejudice can affect the personal lives of honest people. Emmi, an older German woman, falls in love with Ali, a Moroccan that's 20 or so years younger than her. They move in, get married, and become the ridicule of their neighbors. Not even Emmi's kids understand their relationship; one of them goes so far as smashing her TV set when first hearing the news. Unafraid of melodrama and using rethorical shifts, Fassbinder creates a film that is both intimate and all-encompassing; Fear Eats the Soul should be required viewing.
