Fear eats the soul : (Angst essen Seele auf) / Laura Cottingham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cottingham, Laura.

Series:

BFI film classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fassbinder, Rainer Werned, 1946- Angst essen Seele auf.

Fassbinder, Rainer Werned.

Angst essen Seele auf (Motion picture).

Physical Description:

86 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 19 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : BFI, 2005.

Summary:

In Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen Seele auf, 1974) an ageing cleaning woman, Emmi (Brigitte Mira), marries a much younger, immigrant Moroccan mechanic, Ali (El Hedi ben Salem). Set in Munich during the 1970s, Fear Eats the Soul melds the conventions of melodrama with a radical sensibility in order to present a portrait of racism and everyday hypocrisy in post-war Germany. Emmi's family (including her slovenly and spiteful son-in-law Eugen, played by Fassbinder himself), neighbours and workmates turn against her viciously. It is a film about the way conventional society detests anything and anybody unfamiliar - but also a film about the hopes and limits of love. Intricately directed and designed to show Munich life in all its shabby kitschiness, and beautifully performed, Fear Eats the Soul may be Fassbinder's finest film.

Laura Cottingham celebrates Fassbinder's achievement, placing Fear Eats the Soul in relation to his extraordinarily prolific career in theatre, film and television. Her analysis pulls back the thin curtain that separated his work from his tumultuous life. She also explores the director's debt to the lush Hollywood melodramas made by fellow-German Douglas Sirk, especially All That Heaven Allows (1955). In a detailed scene-by-scene analysis of Fear Eats the Soul, Cottingham shows how Fassbinder managed to combine beauty and tenderness with fierce political critique.

Contents:

A Career of Despair 7

The Theatre and Its Anti-Teater 14

An Imperfect Realism 19

Mirroring Douglas Sirk 25

The Story of a Marriage 28

'Fear Eats the Soul' 45.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (page 86).

ISBN:

1844570711

OCLC:

57485224