Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Bad Wörishofen, May 31, 1945-Munich, June 10, 1982) was a German film, theater and television director, actor, producer and writer. He was an important representative of the New German cinema. He also came to be in charge of photography and, above all, the editing of many of his works.

Fassbinder's main theme was the exploitability of emotions. His films dealt with the Nazi past, the German economic miracle, or the terror of the Red Army faction. Other prominent themes in his films include love, friendship, identity and, in general, the agony of interpersonal relationships.

Trajectory

Beginnings

Fassbinder

He was the son of a military doctor and a translator, who separated when he was six years old. He stayed with his mother, Liselotte Eder (who would collaborate in some films), and sometimes lived protected by his grandmother. Normally in his films his father figure does not appear, and many of his plots are transpositions of events and personal affections (including his actors).

His artistic career began in the field of theater: between 1967 and 1976, Fassbinder wrote, adapted or directed more than 30 plays with the help of his collaborators. Among his most important plays are Gotas de agua Falling on Burning Stones (Tropfen auf heisse Steine, Fassbinder's original play staged in 1985 by Klaus Weisse for the Munich Theater Festival), The Burning Village (Das brennende Dorf, original by Lope de Vega, adapted by Fassbinder and directed by Peer Raben), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Die bitteren tränen der Petra von Kant, original work by Fassbinder and directed by Peer Raben, which Fasbinder would make into a film in 1972) and Uncle Vanya (Onkel Wanja, original by Anton Chekhov, adapted and directed by Fassbinder in Frankfurt).

He began his film career in 1969 with two films. Love is colder than death she was presented at the Berlin Film Festival. Katzelmacher, which won the international critics award, was based on a play by Fassbinder himself, which he had staged at the Antitheater in Munich, an avant-garde theater directed by him; the film was lively, indirect in style and highly expressive, with no desire to be coherent.

But the influence of American melodrama on Fassbinder erupted soon, starting in 1971, when he saw a series of Douglas Sirk films in a retrospective, and decided to go and meet him personally at his home in Lugano (Switzerland). Sirk's films, and conversations with him, made him look for a more popular cinema, to go out in search of the public, leaving behind his first more artistic stage (influenced by the Nouvelle Vague, which he recognizes in the generics of his first film). His goal from then on was to create movies "like Hollywood, but without the hypocrisy." With Douglas Sirk's model in mind and applying the precepts of the playwright Bertolt Brecht, Fassbinder searched for a way to communicate with the audience without sentimental tricks, rejecting the viewer's natural empathy, and presenting the stories in the most cold, intellectualized and detached way..

This intention gave rise to a daring and modern style of filming (as modern as his first films, but with a different attitude). The presence of the camera becomes almost visible to the viewer, due to the angles, movements and planes it makes, thus achieving an unnaturalness that seeks to distance the viewer and force them to judge the stories without sentimental manipulation. His first “estranged melodrama” was The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), which was his first international success.

Portrait of Germany

Fassbinder's prolific film career (more than 40 films in less than 15 years) allowed him to do an exhaustive review of Germany: its history, its society, its culture, its geography, and the malaise of the time in which he lived, due to the violence of relationships with which he lived. Fassbinder filmed all over the country, setting his stories in Bavaria, Baden, Frankfurt, Coburg and Berlin. Many critics point out that Fassbinder's films are indispensable for understanding Germany today.^{[citation needed]}

Konrad Adenauer, German chancellor between 1949 and 1963

Fassbinder portrayed all social classes: the bourgeoisie in Chinese Roulette, the merchants in The Merchant of the Four Seasons, the proletariat above all in Journey to the happiness of Mama Küsters, the lumpen in Love is colder than death, the bosses in The Third Generation, the intellectuals in The Roast Satan, journalists in Veronika Voss's Anxiety, artists in Lili Marlene, immigrants in Katzelmacher. Hence he has been called the Balzac of German cinema.

He brought major works of German literature to the movies, such as Effi Brest (1894) by Theodor Fontane (perhaps the most important German writer of the century XIX, whose novel is considered the German Madame Bovary), or Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) by Alfred Döblin (which portrays the social and moral crisis of pre-Nazi Germany), as well as a dramatization of a peasant revolt from the 15th century (Trip to Niklashauser).

He produced a trilogy about the post-war Federal Republic of Germany, the "Adenauer era": Lola, Maria Braun's Marriage and The Anxiety of Veronika Voss. He also portrayed the birth of Nazism in Desperation , as well as its rise and fall in Lili Marleen .

In addition, he portrayed the most current social issues of his time, such as the extreme left terrorism of the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF), in his film The Third Generation, or xenophobia in Katzelmacher and We are all called Ali. He also participated in the collective film Germany in Autumn together with other left-wing directors, to give his point of view on the events of 1977 relating to the RAF.

A personal style

Fassbinder's style is very varied (classical, baroque, realistic, allegorical, expressionist, distant, modern), not only considering the whole of his filmography but also each film in particular. Fassbinder is often referred to as a great stage director, as each shot was painstakingly crafted to make a strong aesthetic impact on the screen, either through his understatedness or his twisted technical ingenuity. In his early films, slow, often static, and even repetitive shots abound: this is illustrated, for example, by Katzelmacher (1969) if he compares himself to Martha (1973).

His close collaboration with cameraman Michael Ballhaus allowed him to carry out all kinds of daring twists, achieving some real technical daring on film, as in Chinese Roulette (1976). Both rehearsed for the first time, in Martha (1973), the complete 360-degree turn, which has become Ballhaus's personal hallmark in his subsequent career in Hollywood under the orders of directors such as Martin Scorsese., Francis Ford Coppola or Paul Newman, among others.

Plaque in the “Filmhaus” of Bad Wörishofen.

But aesthetic and technical daring were never mere exercises in style. They were always behind an aesthetic and ethical program that Fassbinder inherited from the masters of Hollywood melodrama, such as Raoul Walsh, from whom he always took his last name as a pseudonym (Franz Walsh), or Douglas Sirk, whom he met personally, which changed his way of making movies, and with whom he collaborated as an actor in his last film, the short film Bourbon Street Blues (1978).

When Michael Ballhaus left for Hollywood, Fassbinder worked with Xaver Scharzemberger, with whom he shot such important films as The Anxiety of Veronika Voss, Lola or the mythical television adaptation of Berlin Alexanderplatz, the novel by Alfred Döblin.

In his last films his style became even more complicated, making his works more difficult and distanced from the viewer, such as The third generation, A year with 13 moons (both filmed by himself) or Querelle, which appeared posthumously.

Fassbinder died at the age of 37, after a heart failure, apparently the result of the interaction between sleeping pills and cocaine. His death in 1982 marked a certain end for the New German cinema.^{[citation needed ]}

Themes

Beyond women's cinema

Fassbinder and Hanna Schygulla in the Mostra of Venice (1980)

Loneliness, fear, despair, anguish, the search for one's own identity and the annihilation of the individual by conventions, unrequited love, dream happiness and tortuous desire, the exploitation of feelings and their Compared to a mere commercial transaction, intimate passions as a way of portraying an era (that of Germany in the 1970s, which is still dragging the consequences of the postwar period, "of democracy that he received as a gift")^{[citation required]} and bear witness to its economic, political, moral and sexual cracks: these are the great themes of Fassbinder's cinema, in which women will almost always play an essential role, a figure that will serve as an excuse to highlight the oppressive mechanisms that occur in the relationship, to propose various formulas for female emancipation, and to represent the German nation itself in his films about the "Adenauer era" through three her oines "struggling to survive the ravages of the past":^{[citation needed]} Maria Braun (played by Hanna Schygulla in Marriage of Maria Braun), Lola (played by Barbara Sukowa in Lola) and Veronika Voss (played by Rosel Zech in Veronika Voss's Anxiety ).

In his filmography, full of unforgettable female characters, we must highlight some actresses with whom he worked intensely, such as Hanna Schygulla, Margit Carstensen, Ingrid Caven or Irm Hermann, with some of whom he had romantic relationships. All of them from the same generation, they were part of his team from the beginning, but he also worked with older actresses, such as Brigitte Mira, an older actress and singer that he claimed by giving her leading roles in We are all called Ali (1973) and Mama Küsters' Journey to Happiness (1975).

Gay cinema

Although Fassbinder, who was married twice and had relationships with people of both sexes (with four men, very stormy), never tried to make a "gay cinema" in which gayness was treated as an issue, instead almost all his films feature homosexual characters and, as he himself said, "you can always notice a gay sensibility in all my films", typical of his personality. In addition, some of his films have a homosexual character as the protagonist, such as The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Law of the Strongest or Querelle (based on the novel Querelle de Brest published by the French author Jean Genet in 1947).

The Double (Doppelgänger)

A theme that is constantly repeated throughout his filmography is the theme of the splitting of personality. His films are full of mirrors, characters suffering from identity crises, confusion and traps. Fassbinder himself believed that to be an artist he had to double himself, live two lives in one, and perhaps that explains his incredible productivity.

Two non-German novels that he adapted for film deal with this theme:

• In DesperationVladimir Nabokov, the protagonist believes that he has found the solution to his existential crisis by knowing his double, and plans to replace him to be that other person and to break up with his existence.
• In Querelle de BrestJean Genet's, the two brothers who come together provoke confusion in others and even their own.

Presence of music

Tomb of Fassbinder in the cemetery of Bogenhausen, Munich

The particular treatment of sound in his films helped Fassbinder achieve his desired "dramatic detachment." I played with the dubbing (sometimes making the actors not dub themselves, but another character in the story), with the soundtrack (modifying the real relationship of the noises with respect to space or time) and with the music. that he included in his films.

Although he always had the collaboration of the musician Peer Raben, with whom he composed as lyricist several songs that would be recorded by Hanna Schygulla or Ingrid Caven, he also chose very carefully for his films foreign musical themes, from classical music to pop songs, whether he was a big fan.

In some movies you can hear songs by Leonard Cohen, Kraftwerk or The Walker Brothers, usually because the character chooses to listen to that music. Examples are when the character played by Margit Carstensen in Fear of Fear listens to Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire" to calm her mental fragility, or plays "In My Room" over and over again. of the Walker Brothers. In The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant you can hear "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "The Great Pretender" by The Platters. In Chinese Roulette the girl and her babysitter listen and dance to Kraftwerk's “Radio-Aktivität”. Finally, in A Year of 13 Moons the protagonist cries in an arcade where the sound of the games and "A Song for Europe" by Roxy Music are mixed.

Main works

Cinema and television

• 1966 - The tramp (Der Stadtstreicher(Chortometraje)
• 1967 - Little chaos (Das kleine Chaos(Chortometraje)
• 1969 - Love is colder than death (Liebe ist kälter als der Tod)
• 1969 - The gods of the plague (Götter der Pest)
• 1969 - Katzelmacher
• 1969 - Why does Mr. R run amok? (Warum läuft Herr R. Amok?)
• 1970 - Rio das Mortes (TV)
• 1970 - Coffee (Das Kaffeehaus(TV)
• 1970 - Whity
• 1970 - The trip to Niklashausen (Die Niklashauser Fart(TV)
• 1970 - The American soldier (Der amerikanische Soldat)
• 1970 - Attention that dear prostitute (Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte)
• 1970 - Pioneers in Ingolstadt (Pioniere in Ingolstadt(TV)
• 1971 - The merchant of the four seasons (Der Händler der vier Jahreszeiten)
• 1972 - The bitter tears of Petra von Kant (Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant)
• 1972 - Wild game (Wildwechsel(TV)
• 1972 - Eight hours don't make a day (Acht Stunden sind kein Tag(TV)
• 1972 - Freedom in Bremen (Bremer Freiheit(TV)
• 1973 - The World Connected / The World in Wire (Welt am Draht(TV)
• 1973 - Nora Helmer (TV)
• 1973 - Martha (TV)
• 1973 - We all call ourselves Ali (Angst essen Seele auf)
• 1974 - Fontane Effi Briest (Based in Theodor Fontane's novel)
• 1974 - The law of the strongest (Faustrecht der Freiheit)
• 1974 - Like a bird in the wire (Wie ein Vogel auf dem Draht(TV)
• 1975 - Journey to the happiness of Mom Küsters (Mutter Küsters Fahrt zum Himmel)
• 1975 - Fear of fear (Angst vor der Angst(TV)
• 1975 - I just want you to love me. (Ich will doch nur, dass Ihr mich liebt(TV)
• 1975 - The roast of Satan (Satansbraten)
• 1976 - Chinese roulette (Chinesisches Roulette)
• 1976 - Bolwieser / The wife of the railway (Bolwieser(TV) (Based in the novel by Oskar Maria Graf)
• 1977 - Women in New York (Frauen in New York(TV)
• 1977 - Desperation (Despair, Eine Reise ins Licht(Based in a book by Vladimir Nabokov)
• 1977 - Germany in Autumn (Deutschland im Herbst(Episodio)
• 1978 - The Marriage of Mary Braun (Die Ehe der Maria Braun)
• 1978 - In a year with thirteen moons (In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden)
• 1978 - The third generation (Die Dritte Generation)
• 1979 - Berlin Alexanderplatz (TV)
• 1980 - Lili Marleen
• 1981 - Lola
• 1981 - Theatre in trance (Theater in trance(Documentary)
• 1981 - The anxiety of Veronika Voss (Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss(Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival)
• 1982 - Querelle (Based in Jean Genet's novel)

Theater

• 1965 - Water drops on burning stones (Tropfen auf heisse Steine)
• 1966 - Nur eine Scheibe Brot
• 1967 - Leoncio and Lena (Leonce und Lena) (from Georg Büchner)
• 1967 - The criminals (Die Verbrecher(of Ferdinand Brückner)
• 1968 - Ingolstadt, for example (Zum Beispiel, Ingolstadt(from Marieluise Freisser)
• 1968 - Axel Caesar Haarmann
• 1968 - Katzelmacher
• 1968 - Chung
• 1968 - How Mr. Mockinpott managed to free himself from his sufferings (Mockinpott(from Peter Weiss)
• 1968 - Orgy Ubu (Orgie Ubu(from Alfred Jarry)
• 1968 - Ifigenia in Táuride (Iphigenie auf Tauris(from J.W.Goethe)
• 1968 - Ajax (from Sófocles)
• 1968 - The American Soldier (Der amerikanische Soldat)
• 1968 - The opera of the beggar (Die Bettleroper(of John Gay)
• 1969 - Prepared Sorry Now
• 1969 - Anarchy in Bavaria (Anarchie in Bayern)
• 1969 - Gewidmet Rosa von Praunheim
• 1969 - Coffee (Das Kaffeehaus(from Carlo Goldoni)
• 1969 - Male (Werwolf(from Harry Baer and R.W.Fassbinder)
• 1970 - The burning village (Das brennende Dorf(from Lope de Vega)
• 1971 - Pioneers in Ingolstadt (Pioniere in Ingolstadt(from Marieluise Fleisser)
• 1971 - Blood on the cat's neck (Blut am Hals der Katze)
• 1971 - The bitter tears of Petra von Kant (Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant)
• 1971 - Freedom in Bremen (Bremer Freiheit)
• 1972 - Liliom (from Ferenc Molnár)
• 1973 - Bibi (from Heinrich Mann)
• 1973 - Hedda Gabler (from Henrik Ibsen)
• 1974 - The fools die (Die Unvernünftigen sterben aus(from Peter Handke)
• 1974 - Germinal (from Emile Zola)
• 1974 - Miss Julia. (Fraulein Julie(of August Strindberg)
• 1974 - Uncle Vania (Onkel Wanja(from Anton Chejov)
• 1975 - The trash, the city and the death (Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod) (Work of very conflictive theatre, because it was a certain anti-Semitism, which he denied.)
• 1976 - Women in New York (Frauen in New York(from Clare Booth)

Awards and distinctions

Venice International Film Festival

About Fassbinder

Books

• Pérez EstremeraYann (1970). A new German cinema?. Tusquets.
• Martínez TorresAugustus (1983). R.W. Fassbinder. JC.
• BaerHarry (1986). I'll sleep when I'm dead. Rainer W. Fassbinder febril life. Seix-Barral.
• LardeauYann (2002). Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Chair. ISBN 84-376-1977-7.

Articles

• Muhm, Myriam (13 September 1980). «Credo in un solo individual perennially incerto and protagonist della Storia (Interview with Fassbinder on Berlin Alexanderplatz). La Repubblica (Rome). Consultation on 29 April 2018.
• Muhm, Myriam (16 June 1982). «With lui scompare the ‘sporca’ of the German nuova». La Repubblica (Rome).
• Muhm, Myriam (20 October 1983). «I lost just a blink of the Rainer Werner?». La Repubblica (Rome).

Documentaries

• I don't just want you to want me. (Ich will nicht nur, dass ihr mich liebt, 1992), Fassbinder documentary directed by Hans Günther Pflaum.