Fassbinder and his movies— an ongoing diary
I’m always fascinated by the movies of Fassbinder. Static poises, deadly power dynamics and ambivalent conversations. When I decided to write up an entry about Fassbinder, I was caught a little surprised to find myself often procrastinating the actual writing, due to the fear not being able to attribute clearly my affection to this German director.
There was a documentary in 2000 titled “Fassbinder’s Women” directed by Rosa von Praunheim. A description in the beginning reads, “the willing victims of Rainer Werner Fassbinder” (“Die glücklichen Opfer des Rainer Werner F.”). The documentary started with Irm Hermann, one of his actresses and lovers, paying visit after more than twenty years to the tomb of Fassbinder in Munich. When asked how did she feel at the moment as the documentary began rolling, she answered in the most sentimental, sincere manner, ich bin wirklich glücklich (I am actually happy in German). As she recounted her relationship with Fassbinder, she claimed she was physically abused consistently. At one juncture, upon being insulted, she was reportedly sitting on top of the balcony with her legs flinging in the air threatening to jump down from the three/four-storey flat the commune lived together, action of which Fassbinder dismissed by daring her as an act of a “silly cow”. The sadistic side of Fassbinder and the indulgence of his “victims” are deafening.
I could not recall which movie of Fassbinder made me fall head-to-toes to his cinematography. I do remember, however, in The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), the post-WWII survival mode of a wife’s die-hard, almost religiously succumbing love to her long-absent husband moved me tremendously. Was she still faithful to her husband, despite having trespassed a number of lover bodies? It was her insistence in maintaining, however via much controversial manners, often to secure financial source, on the foundation / home of a bourgeois unit that made me explore every reason why she still clung on the hopeless man figure despite all his failings.
This reminds me of Pedro Almodóvar’s movies. His tendency on women. Both Fassbinder and Almodóvar are known for their homosexuality. Both produced movies which sympathizes with women. In terms of men, they may have taken different approaches: whilst Almodóvar depicts men with cowardice and irresponsibility (see the boyfriend Iván to Carmen Maura in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, 1988; also Paco in Volver, 2006), Fassbinder’s men seems to always suffer head-on with despair but they don’t feel sorry for their recklessness (see Franz in Love is Colder than Death, 1969; the director Jeff in Beware of a Holy Whore, 1971)
Another documentary by Hans Günther Pflaum, “I don’t just want you to love me” (Ich will nicht nur, daß ihr mich liebt)(1993), pays a triumphant tribute, if not unfair, to the director. It discussed most about how profound the influence Fassbinder made to the then German directors, briefly narrated on the how-he-had-come-to-fame events, had some cuts back to his mother, and solicited views on his cinematic choreography. One of the “Chapters” had even gathered all of the cameramen he had worked with to recount their experience working with Fassbinder. But most of the Erfahrungen (experience) were rather uneventful. Nonetheless, it was a resourceful (if not introductory) documentary to learning Fassbinder.
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In 1966, Fassbinder made a short film lasted barely 9 minutes Das Kleine Chaos (Little chaos). You’d notice many of the previous documentary we have talked through made reference to this clip, partly because some of the lines syncs back to the well-speculated character of Fassbinder. Say this last line of his as he counting the banknotes (cleverly covered by the frame for avoidance of being accused of using fake notes):
RWF: “What are you going to do with your shares?”
Woman: “I’m going to get a dress, a cut and stuff like that.”
RWF: And you?
Man: [indistinguishable] You?
RWF: Me? I’ll go to the movies!
It was no surprise one would say Fassbinder was under the influence of Jean-Luc Godard. Indeed the scene in Das Kleine Chaos where RWF reads from a book with the book half-covering his face is a direct tribute to JLG’s classic take:
