The Austin Film Society screened Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen Seele auf - 1974) on September 8, 1998 - 7:00, 9:30 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas. Here are some impressions from me. (Others are also welcome to submit theirs. See page bottom for details). 

Two impressions: 

One: Richard Linklater, artistic director/ co-founder of the AFS, said in one of his introductions to this Fassbinder Retrospective that Fassbinder isn't a "realistic filmmaker". Be that as it may, we can safely say that if this film Ali had been produced in Hollywood by a Hollywood studio today, Denzel Washington (or Sidney Poitier back in the early 70's) would have been cast as Ali and some pretty veteran Hollywood actress (or Katherine Hepburn back in the early 70's) would have been cast as Frau Kurowski. The casting would have sought to sanitize, to make more palatable the shocking subject matter (age difference, racial mix) by Hollywoodizing it with the prettiness and perfection of the actors playing it and thus extend the fantasy to the subject matter, sustaining the illusion that such things happen only in a world of Hollywood's imaginary making but never in the real world (Heaven forbid Hollywood should ever suggest such things do happen in the real world--specially not back in the days when Ali was made!!).

Not ruled by a Hollywood studio, Fassbinder was free to cast his two leading roles in Ali as he saw fit or as the subject matter called for: two ordinary, very ordinary looking people, perhaps not the greatest actors in the world, but perfect for their roles. By casting such "realistic" looking actors for such "realistic" roles, he gave his film an essential touch of realism and poignancy that would have been badly lacking had they been cast with two excessively pretty, perfect Hollywood actors. (If anyone knows otherwise for a fact, feel free to correct me, that is, if Fassbinder could have afforded them, would he have used pretty, perfect-looking Hollywood actors for these roles? I would be very disappointed to hear that he would have... Incidentally, this film is a re-make of Sirk's melodrama from the 50's All That Heaven Allows, which, in typical Hollywood fashion, cast Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman--who was Ronald Reagan's wife at some point!--in the leading roles. Sirk, however, did cast a few furtive darts of criticism at the America of the 50's with his film just like Fassbinder sought to cast a few of his own at the Germany of the early 70's!). 

Two: The Ali-Frau Kurowski relationship and thus the film itself is a wave that crests and then dips. When the pressure on the relationship is external (their family, friends, neighbors, the world are against it), the relationship grows stronger and blossoms. When the external pressure eases and everything is well with the world again, the relationship starts to fall apart from internal pressures: it implodes ("I want some couscous," says Ali to Frau Kurowski, "you never cook couscous").

As the relationship implodes from these internal pressures, Ali himself implodes physically, literally: he collapses from internal bleeding, a ruptured stomach victim of an ulcer that plagues stressed-out foreign workers in Germany: the perfect metaphor for the imploding relationship [before medical science knew that ulcers are caused by bacteria not stress, that is. At the AFS mail-out, a volunteer whose name I forget, suggested that Ali might have been poisoned by his Moroccan lover. He is welcome to post this intriguing theory here, if he so desires].

This metaphor for the imploding relationship reverts back to the title itself [calling into question our friend's little "poisoning theory"]: fear (e.i., stress) gnaws, eats away at our insides, our entrails, our very innards; it depresses the immune system and leaves us susceptible to disease (ulcer-causing bacteria in this case); it literally desiccates and decimates us: Fear does eat the soul--specially in the industrial but racist, puritanical, repressive societies. Great little title for a great little movie... 

An excellent and daring film (for its time) in more ways than one... 

Thanks to the AFS and the Alamo for the screening! 

More comments anyone? 

nan(d:o)