AFTER HIS UNTIMELY DEATH IN 1982, AN ENTIRE MICROECONOMY OF GERMAN FILMMAKING COLLAPSED OVERNIGHT
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
BOTTOM LINE: Fassbinder’s companion piece to “Bitter Tears,” which he had made three years previously. Here, he casts himself against type as a working-class gay man who wins the lottery and then falls in love with the elegant son of an industrialist (Peter Chatel). His lover tries to mold him into a gilt-edged mirror of upper-class values, ultimately swindling the easily flattered “Fox” out of his fortune. A fascinating look at gay life in the seventies, it’s one of at least a dozen great movies Fassbinder wrote and directed in the decade before his untimely death. Karlheinz Böhm, who starred in Michael Powel’s “Peeping Tom” in 1960, is the older sophisticate who introduces Fox to his circle of wealthy friends.
The name of Fassbinder’s character, Franz “Fox” Bieberkopf, was taken from Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz. which the director later adapted for television.
Seventeen Fassbinder Films Rated! He was astonishingly productive over a period of fourteen years.
| 1 | 1969 | Love is Colder than Death | Ulli Lommel Hanna Schygulla Ingrid Caven | B- | Dietrich Lohmann | Ingrid Caven was married to Fassbinder from 1970-1972. Fassbinder’s first of numerous feature collaborations with composer and onetime lover Peer Raben. |
| 2 | 1970 | Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? | Kurt Raab Ingrid Caven | B | Dietrich Lohmann | Co-directed and co-written by Michael Fengler |
| 3 | 1971 | Beware a Holy Whore | Hanna Schygulla Eddie Constantine | B- | Michael Ballhaus | |
| 4 | 1972 | The Merchant of Four Seasons | Hans Hirschmuller Hanna Schygulla Irm Hermann Kurt Raab | B | Dietrich Lohmann | |
| 5 | 1972 | The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant | Margit Carstensen Hanna Schygulla Irm Hermann Eva Mattes | A+ | Michael Ballhaus | Fassbinder’s masterpiece |
| 6 | 1974 | Ali: Fear Eats the Soul | Brigitte Mira El Hedi ben Salem Barbara Valentin Irm Hermann | A- | Jurgen Jurges | |
| 7 | 1974 | Effi Briest | Hanna Schygulla | B- | Dietrich Lohmann | |
| 8 | 1975 | Fox and His Friends | Michael Rainer Fassbinder Karlheinz Bohm | B+ | Michael Ballhaus | |
| 9 | 1977 | The Stationmaster’s Wife | Elizabeth Trissenaar Kurt Raab Udo Keir | A- (the uncut TV version) | Michael Ballhaus | Made for German TV Later, an inferior cut version was released in cinemas. Alternative title “Bolweiser.” The first Fassbinder movie to be edited by his partner for the last five years of his life, Juliane Lorenz. |
| 10 | 1978 | Despair | Dirk Bogarde | C | Michael Ballhaus | Screenplay by Tom Stoppard Based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov Fassbinder’s first English-language film. |
| 11 | 1978 | In the Year of 13 Moons | Volker Spengler Ingrid Caven | C | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Made in response to the suicide of Fassbinder’s lover Armin Meier |
| 12 | 1979 | The Marriage of Maria Braun | Hanna Schygulla | B | Michael Ballhaus | |
| 13 | 1980 | Berlin Alexanderplatz | The third film in the BRD trilogy. This is a loose adaptation of Heinrich Mann’s “Professor Unrat,” which Josef von Sternberg previously adapted as “The Blue Angel.” | A- (the uncut TV version | Xaver Schwarzenberger | Fourteen-episode West German TV series. Released theatrically in the United States. Also broadcast on PBS, Bravo and Channel 4. Based on the novel by Alfred Doblin. |
| 14 | 1981 | Lili Marleen | Hanna Schygulla Giancarlo Giannini Udo Kier | B- | Xaver Schwarzenberger & Michael Ballhaus | The first film in the BRD trilogy. |
| 15 | 1981 | Lola | Barbara Sukowa Armin Mueller-Stahl | C- | Xaver Schwarzenberger | The third film in the BRD trilogy. This is a loose adaptation of Heinrich Mann’s “Professor Unrat,” which Josef von Sternberg previously adapted as “The Blue Angel.” |
| 16 | 1982 | Veronika Voss | Rosel Zech | A | Xaver Schwarzenberger | The second film of the BRD trilogy. |
| 17 | 1982 | Querelle | Brad Davis Franco Nero | C | Xaver Schwarzenberger | Based on “Querelle of Brest” by Jean Genet |
STREAMING: Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ AND THE CRITERION COLLECTION
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