I'm going to limit my comment to one aspect of this brilliant movie: the acting. I think Ali: Fear Eats the Soul may be the single best-acted film in the history of cinema. It's a simple story told simply but the unique and realistic performances create an emotionally charged, unforgettable experience for the viewer. Ali is completely Ali. Emmi is completely Emmi. There is not a hint of artifice in either performance. The only other performance I can think of which is similar is Bjork's dazzling turn in Dancer in the Dark.
There is so much to discuss in Fassbinder's work but what always strikes me in his films is the performances. No director has ever produced a body of work with actors who act the way Fassbinder's actors do. And not always in the same way. Ali features completely natural acting. Despair features highly stylized acting - pure artifice to counter the pure guilelessness of Fear Eats the Soul. The American Soldier - well, you have to see that film to believe it, especially the ending. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant displays what might be identified as a "typical" Fassbinder type of performance with passive, languid characters merely posing - or rather posed by Fassbinder.
When we think of auteurs, we think of writer/directors but the actors and their performances are the tangible realization of that auteur's vision. Fassbinder knew how to manipulate this dimension of the medium of film as well or better than any other director.
There is so much to discuss in Fassbinder's work but what always strikes me in his films is the performances. No director has ever produced a body of work with actors who act the way Fassbinder's actors do. And not always in the same way. Ali features completely natural acting. Despair features highly stylized acting - pure artifice to counter the pure guilelessness of Fear Eats the Soul. The American Soldier - well, you have to see that film to believe it, especially the ending. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant displays what might be identified as a "typical" Fassbinder type of performance with passive, languid characters merely posing - or rather posed by Fassbinder.
When we think of auteurs, we think of writer/directors but the actors and their performances are the tangible realization of that auteur's vision. Fassbinder knew how to manipulate this dimension of the medium of film as well or better than any other director.