Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Yes I love his movies. I just got The Criterion Channel and they have a good selection. I haven't watched everything but I like everything that I have seen so far. I do like that he wasn't shy about male nudity and showing some very interesting images and a view into some unique lives.

If they remade Querelle which modern actor could pull off the title role?

In A Year Of 13 Moons and Ali: Fear Eats The Soul are masterpieces, while I find a lot to like in Satan’s Brew, Martha and Despair. Of course, Berlin Alexanderplatz is often mentioned as his most significant work - I own it but have not carved out the 17-hour commitment to watch it all quite yet. The one I haven’t been able to track down but I am dying to see is Lili Marlene. Fingers crossed Criterion acquires it sometime soon.

R2, great question! Hmm, well MY choice off the top of my head would be Henry Cavill. Yum!

R3, Lili Marlene seemed to have been his biggest hit in the US. And it does have a wider appeal than most of Fassbinder which makes its absence baffling.

I can't understand the impetus to remake Petra von Kant, especially with a male lead, as a "tribute" to Fassbinder or filmmaking in general. In any case Fassbinder was bisexual, as his messy personal life attests. His depictions of women (particularly in Petra von Kant) and gay men along with his idiosyncratic politics were controversial in the '70s and for those reasons it's hard to imagine Gen Z embracing his work.

I love his miniseries Acht Stunden sind kein Tag (Eight Hours Don't Make a Day), which was on the Criterion channel at one point, the BRD Trilogy (Maria Braun, Lola, Veronika Voss) and Mutter Küsters Fahrt zum Himmel are good, too.

So if Petra is a man and the others are still women, that takes out the queerness.

So now Petra is heterosexual.

R7, the new one will have Petra as a gay man that is more or less inspired by Fassbinder in real life, and his love interest(s) in the new version is a man.

I look forward to every Ozon film.

R9, 8 Femmes is required viewing

Fassbinder was another deplorable German Nazi, peddling anti-Jewish stereotypes as "art".

R6. Are you the bisexual troll? Because OP is correct. Fassbinder was gay. His first and only wife attests to this fact and she's pretty fired up that many are trying to rewrite his history.

Thank you for the link R12

I’m not a “bisexual troll,” R12. He had male and female lovers irrespective of his matrimonial status, and he usually physically abused his female partners (see: Irm Hermann or even Craven) or allowed his male partners to abuse him (see Hedi ben Salem). Craven’s interview shows a jealous woman (of Juliane Lorenz in this case) staking out her own fame. Why are you so interested in a German filmmaker when you can’t even read German?

Plenty of great art has been created by bad men.

He was gay, Bisexual Troll, and you're calling his ex wife a jealous cunt for saying so? That's rich.

I have never been able to see Querelle on any streaming or TV site. One of those movies I need to see - but I’m not buying it.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was hast du nur getan? Bist dem weissen Pulver, geworden Untertan.

Why does Isabelle Adjani look like she's 25? At her age, that's just creepy.

Welt am Draht (World on a Wire) (1973) is one of my favorite films of all time. Absolute perfection.

I've not seen any of his films in full, but as a kid I remember Querelle being played on our World Movies channel here (SBS) and just seeing the scene where Brad Davis gets fucked up the arse in his sailor suit. I felt all funny and knew then that there was something different about me.

Adjani can’t leave her face alone. Not unlike Kidman

I love Fassbinder. Fox and His (horrible) Friends upsets me every time I watch it.

Years ago Ozon also directed a film based on a Fassbinder play called Water Drops on Burning Rocks, which is pretty entertaining.

R23, it does upset me too. But it’s too real that I can’t not consider it one of the best films I’ve seen

I like films about making films like truffaut’s “day for night” so fassbinder’s “Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)” really appealed to me. It was from around the same time as the Truffaut film but has a grittier feel - as do all fassbinder’s films, but from what I remember it was still a good watch.

I also liked “Mother kusters goes to heaven” from what I remember.

A lot of his films I did not like the first time I saw them but after giving them another go I have come to like them. “Fox and his friends” comes to mind.

When I first learned about fassbinder it was because he was constantly being compared to Douglas Sirk. I loved the 50s melodramas of Sirk so I wanted to find more films like “all that heaven allows”, “written on the wind” and “imitation of life”… and fassbinder’s “ali- fear eats the soul” often came up through my searches. Well I gave it a go and was pretty disappointed that it wasn’t this glamorous melodrama that I expected but more a gritty social realist film that I honestly found quite ugly to look at. I’ve since grown to appreciate it but find it more Mike Leigh rather than Sirk.

I wanted to love “Veronika Voss” but I didn’t. I’ll have to rewatch it though as certain scenes have stayed with me and I may like it more now.

Such an incredible filmography. His work is more often than not dazzlingly sordid, stylish and colorful, with great cinematography and gritty, well-formed characters (often using the same cast members) in strange but very realistic situations. I like Querelle but it’s never been my favorite.

The Third Generation, Fox and His Friends, Why Does Herr R. Run Amok, A Year In 13 Moons, Bitter Tears of…, Ali Fear Eats the Soul are some that spring to mind as having loved, without looking them up (I may have gotten some of those titles wrong) I even watched Berlin Alexanderplatz (didn’t love it).

What's Hanna Schygulla been doing all these years?

I just saw Satan’s Brew for the first time last week, having seen 20+ Fassbinder films thus far. It’s depraved, sadistic and crazy in a way beyond even Artaud (who it is dedicated to, actually). What a unique artist he was… I can’t even imagine making a movie like that today.

OP- If she's so great how come I've never heard of her ( Isabelle Adjani) till now.

R30 uh, because you're ignorant when it comes to French cinema?

70’s/80’s Berlin is captured so beautifully in his films.

Why is it so hard to get your hands on Lili Marleen these days?

It was probably his biggest hit in the US. Now it is the one film you cannot find streaming or on DVD.

Has r30 never been on DL before???

This scene is a family favorite here.

R34 Or seen a movie? I guess she’s no Jessica Chastain.

I did a thread on Billy Wilder a couple of weeks ago and not one person replied. I was kind of surprised. Is Fassbinder really more popular on DL than Billy Wilder (he must be)?

Sirk influence is everywhere but especially in Petra von Kant: it’s an exercise in claustrophobia—actors are swallowed up by costumes and sets!

[quote]I did a thread on Billy Wilder a couple of weeks ago and not one person replied.

I missed it, R36, but you've got my attention. I'll search for it now.

Great adaptation of a classic German novel.

r36 If you start a new thread at the wrong time, it can get lost in the shuffle.

[quote]What's Hanna Schygulla been doing all these years?

When Sandra Bernhard used to go on David Letterman, there was a period where she was always bringing her up and talking (joking?) about working with her.

Love his work.

What do people think is the best work of his for a newbie like myself? I am curious about watching Querelle in full (I am poster R21 above), though I've heard mixed reactions to it.

Brad Davis & Querelle; there's nothing more to say.

Yeah Baby!

Brad Smith really threw himself into roles didn't he?

Hanna S. shows up for old time's sake in PETER VAN KANT, which I rather liked.

She's resisted going under the knife or starving herself, unlike Adjani.

"Hansel and Gretel are alive and well And they're living in Berlin She is a cocktail waitress He had a part in a Fassbinder film" --Laurie Andesron

Love Laurie Anderson. "What Fassbender film is it...?"