To know Rainer Werner Fassbinder is to know that most of his canon was a subtle pastiche, a paean to another Teutonic trickster in the name of director Douglas Sirk. Fassbinder, one of the founding fathers of The New German Cinema had a decidedly disparate approach to his peers, there existed an effectual realism - yet it was infused with a touch of the theatrical, realist rules were broken much in a way that Robert Rossellini before him hired professional actors such as the much accomplished Anna Magnani to appear in a neo-realistic production. Considered Fassbinder's finest hour, was the implosive Angst Essen Seele Auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul,1974).
In Angst Essen Seele Auf, we are taken whether we kick or we scream into a world where frames are a narrative all their very own. These moments suspended quietly emote the respective psyches of the characters which inhabit them. In particular, the restaurant where Emmi (the brilliante Brigitte Mira) and Ali (the none too shabby El Hedi Ben Salem) celebrate their new marriage, in lieu of those usual love protocols - couples sitting across the table from each-other for optimum eye contact purposes;they are sat side by side yet with enough distance to rival the Citizen Kane dinner table. A pregnant pause ensues, and Emmi and Ali, who only happen to be the two most lost souls to date on celluloid appear as if they are on the cusp of facing a firing squad, indicating a somewhat cajoled partnership. Fassbinder carefully studied Sirk's template here - as exists this overlying psychological narrative.
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| Oh deer, it took a serious malady to win mi'lady back. |
In 1955's technicolor treasure All That Heaven Allows, which was the basis,( however loose) for Ali : Fear Eats The Soul, our May-December paramours here (Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman) are loving in a time of adversity. A recent widower besotted by a man who is nearly the same age as her own son. Oh my what will the children think? the neighbors, Mr. Wilson at the five-and-dime? Pandemonium indeed ensues! And how is it that all external shots look just like American dream theme Christmas cards, scratch that why do all the external shots appear as American dream theme Christmas cards painted by Norman Rockwell? And inside these Christmas houses, these are worlds floundering, promises unfulfilled, the many exercises and excursions into futility. And in both Fassbinder and Sirk's takes, once estranged lovers get their second chances and reconnect, albeit only due to a coma and a ruptured ulcer respectively.
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| Why Sirkinly! |
Would there be a Fassbinder without a Sirk before him ? Probably yes, but could there ever be another director with such undying and unwavering respect for his great teacher without becoming the inevitable carbon copy - insert an emphatic no here, though Mr Tarantino has in recent times redeemed himself with his own special love song to the keeper of the frame.