Fox and His Friends (1975) B+ Rated: Seventeen Fassbinder Films.

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.

STREAMING: Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ AND THE CRITERION COLLECTION

https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967

https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967-table-summary

https://thebrownees.net/fifty-two-post-hays-code-queer-films-released-in-the-decade-1967-1976

https://thebrownees.net/fififty-two-post-hays-code-queer-films-released-in-the-decade-1967-1976-table-summary

Seventeen Fassbinder Films Rated! He was astonishingly productive over a period of fourteen years.

11969Love is Colder than DeathUlli Lommel
Hanna Schygulla
Ingrid Caven
B-Dietrich LohmannIngrid Caven was
married to Fassbinder
from 1970-1972.
Fassbinder’s first of numerous feature collaborations with composer and onetime lover Peer Raben.
21970Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?Kurt Raab
Ingrid Caven
B
Dietrich Lohmann
Co-directed
and co-written
by Michael Fengler
31971Beware a Holy WhoreHanna Schygulla
Eddie Constantine
B-Michael Ballhaus
41972The Merchant of Four SeasonsHans Hirschmuller
Hanna Schygulla
Irm Hermann
Kurt Raab
BDietrich Lohmann
51972The Bitter Tears of Petra von KantMargit Carstensen
Hanna Schygulla
Irm Hermann
Eva Mattes
A+Michael BallhausFassbinder’s masterpiece
61974Ali: Fear Eats the SoulBrigitte Mira
El Hedi ben Salem
Barbara Valentin
Irm Hermann
A-Jurgen Jurges
71974Effi BriestHanna SchygullaB-Dietrich Lohmann
81975Fox and His FriendsMichael Rainer Fassbinder
Karlheinz Bohm
B+Michael Ballhaus
91977The Stationmaster’s WifeElizabeth Trissenaar
Kurt Raab
Udo Keir
A-
(the uncut
TV version)
Michael BallhausMade 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.
101978DespairDirk BogardeCMichael BallhausScreenplay by Tom Stoppard
Based on the
novel by Vladimir Nabokov
Fassbinder’s first
English-language film.
111978In the Year of 13 MoonsVolker Spengler
Ingrid Caven
CRainer Werner FassbinderMade in
response to
the suicide of Fassbinder’s
lover
Armin Meier
121979The Marriage of Maria BraunHanna SchygullaBMichael Ballhaus
131980Berlin AlexanderplatzThe 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 SchwarzenbergerFourteen-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.
141981Lili MarleenHanna Schygulla
Giancarlo Giannini
Udo Kier
B-Xaver Schwarzenberger
&
Michael Ballhaus
The first film in the BRD trilogy.
151981LolaBarbara Sukowa
Armin Mueller-Stahl
C-Xaver SchwarzenbergerThe 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.”
161982Veronika VossRosel ZechAXaver SchwarzenbergerThe second film of the BRD trilogy.
171982QuerelleBrad Davis
Franco Nero
CXaver SchwarzenbergerBased on “Querelle of Brest” by Jean Genet

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