Rainer Werner Fassbinder
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"In the universities, Marxists and structuralists rejoice: Fassbinder's work, with its infinite number of variations on a small range of themes --class oppression, victimization, sadomasochism -- is a treasure trove, a quarry, an inexhaustible oil well."--"The Twilight Zone" (1982) by David Denby |
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Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945 – 1982) was a German filmmaker known for such films as The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) and Querelle (1982). Fassbinder influenced directors such as François Ozon, who directed Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes (2000) and Peter von Kant (2022).
Overview
His first feature-length film was a gangster movie called Love Is Colder Than Death (1969); he scored his first domestic commercial success with The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972) and his first international success with Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), both of which are considered masterpieces by contemporary critics. Big-budget projects such as Despair (1978), Lili Marleen and Lola (both 1981) followed.
His greatest success came with The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), chronicling the rise and fall of a German woman in the wake of World War II. Other notable films include The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Fox and His Friends (1975), Satan's Brew (1976), In a Year with 13 Moons (1978), and Querelle (1982), all of which focused on gay and lesbian themes.
Fassbinder died on 10 June 1982, at age 37, from a lethal cocktail of cocaine and barbiturates. His career lasted less than two decades, but he was extremely prolific; he completed over 40 feature films, two television series, three short films, four video productions, and 24 plays. His films dealt with the Nazi past, the German economic miracle or the terror of the Red Army Faction.
Biography
Fassbinder was born in the Bavarian town of Bad Wörishofen. In his short life he not only made 43 films (including two shorts and the 15 ½ hour Berlin Alexanderplatz), but he also worked as an actor (film and theatre), cameraman, composer, designer, editor, producer and theatre manager.
Fassbinder's prodigious cinematic output is legendary. He made, on average, a film every hundred days. His intense discipline and phenomenal creative energy when working were in violent contrast with the excesses of abasement and tortured relationships of his personal life with the people he drew around him in a surrogate family of actors (including Udo Kier, Kurt Raab and Hanna Schygulla), technicians and cameramen (notably Michael Ballhaus) in a similar way to John Cassavetes.
Fassbinder was openly gay and many of his films dealt with gay characters - keeping with his interest in characters that were deemed outsiders by society.
Fassbinder died at the age of 37 from an overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills. There is debate as to whether the overdose was accidental or not. His death is often considered to mark the end of New German Cinema.
There is a biography in English, Fassbinder: The Life and Work of a Provocative Genius by Christian Braad Thomsen, translated by Martin Chalmers (ISBN 0-571-17842-1).
Filmography
All titles written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder unless stated otherwise. According to Hanna Schygulla, Fassbinder had no part in making of Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?, that was realized off his idea by Michael Fengler, his assistant. Same might also argue that this is the case for The Niklashausen Journey.
Year | English title | Original title | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1965 | This Night | This Night | Short. Nonextant. |
1966 | The City Tramp | Der Stadtstreicher | Short. |
1966/67 | The Little Chaos | Das kleine Chaos | Short. |
1969 | Love Is Colder Than Death | Liebe ist kälter als der Tod | |
1969 | Katzelmacher (aka Cock Artist) | Katzelmacher | Based on his play. |
1970 | Gods of the Plague | Götter der Pest | |
1970 | The Coffee House | Das Kaffeehaus | TV film. Based on a play by Carlo Goldoni. |
1970 | Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? | Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? | Co-directed and written (improvisation instructions) with Michael Fengler. |
1970 | The American Soldier | Der amerikanische Soldat | |
1970 | The Niklashausen Journey | Die Niklashauser Fahrt | TV film. Co-directed with Michael Fengler. |
1971 | Rio das Mortes | Rio das Mortes | TV film. |
1971 | Pioneers in Ingolstadt | Pioniere in Ingolstadt | TV film. Based on a play by Marieluise Fleisser. |
1971 | Whity | Whity | |
1971 | Beware of a Holy Whore | Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte | |
1972 | The Merchant of Four Seasons | Händler der vier Jahreszeiten | |
1972 | The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant | Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant | Based on his play. |
1972-1973 | Eight Hours Are Not a Day | Acht Stunden sind kein Tag | TV series, 5 episodes. |
1972 | Bremen Freedom | Bremer Freiheit | TV film. Based on his play. |
1973 | Jail Bait | Wildwechsel | TV film. Based on a play by Franz Xaver Kroetz. |
1973 | World on a Wire | Welt am Draht | TV film in two parts. Based on the novel Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye. Co-written with Fritz Müller-Scherz. |
1974 | Nora Helmer | Nora Helmer | TV film. Based on A Doll's House by Ibsen (German translation by Bernhard Schulze). |
1974 | Ali: Fear Eats the Soul | Angst essen Seele auf | Inspired by Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows. |
1974 | Martha | Martha | TV film. Based on the story "For the Rest of Her Life" by Cornell Woolrich. |
1974 | Effi Briest | Fontane - Effi Briest oder: Viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und Bedürfnissen und dennoch das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen | Based on the novel by Theodor Fontane. |
1975 | Like a Bird on a Wire | Wie ein Vogel auf dem Draht | TV film. Co-written with Christian Hohoff and Anja Hauptmann. |
1975 | Fox and His Friends | Faustrecht der Freiheit | Co-written with Christian Hohoff. |
1975 | Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven | Mutter Küsters Fahrt zum Himmel | Co-written with Kurt Raab. Based on the short story "Mutter Krausens Fahrt Ins Glück" by Heinrich Zille. |
1975 | Fear of Fear | Angst vor der Angst | TV film. Based on the novel by Asta Scheib. |
1976 | I Only Want You to Love Me | Ich will doch nur, daß ihr mich liebt | TV film. Based on the book Lebenslänglich by Klaus Antes and Christiane Erhardt. |
1976 | Satan's Brew | Satansbraten | |
1976 | Chinese Roulette | Chinesisches Roulette | |
1977 | Women in New York | Frauen in New York | TV film. Based on the play by Clare Boothe Luce. |
1977 | The Stationmaster's Wife | Bolwieser | TV film in two parts. Based on the play by Oskar Maria Graf. |
1978 | Germany in Autumn | Deutschland im Herbst | Fassbinder directed 26-minute episode for this omnibus film. |
1978 | Despair | Despair - Eine Reise ins Licht | Screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. |
1978 | In a Year of 13 Moons | In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden | |
1979 | The Marriage of Maria Braun | Die Ehe der Maria Braun | Co-written with Pea Fröhlich and Peter Märthesheimer. |
1979 | The Third Generation | Die dritte Generation | |
1980 | Berlin Alexanderplatz | Berlin Alexanderplatz | TV series, 14 episodes. Based on the novel by Alfred Döblin. |
1981 | Lili Marleen | Lili Marleen | Based on Der Himmel hat viele Farben, the autobiography of Lale Andersen. Co-written with Manfred Purzer and Joshua Sinclair. |
1981 | Theater in Trance | Theater im Trance | Documentary. |
1981 | Lola | Lola | Co-written with Pea Fröhlich and Peter Märthesheimer. |
1982 | Veronika Voss | Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss | Co-written with Pea Fröhlich and Peter Märthesheimer. |
1982 | Querelle | Querelle | Co-written with Burkhard Driest. Based on the novel Querelle de Brest by Jean Genet. |