Ali - Fear Eats the Soul - Criterion Collection (1974)

Fear Eats the Soul is one of Fassbinder's best films.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder made three of his best films in the early 1970s, The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) (Händler der vier Jahreszeiten), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), (Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant), and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) (Angst essen Seele auf), for which he won the International Critics Prize at Cannes in 1974. Fassbinder made Fear Eats the Soul on a shoestring budget in just 15 days in September, 1973. It tells the story of two people drawn together by mutual loneliness, a widowed white cleaning lady, Emmi (Brigitte Mira), and a much younger black Moroccan immigrant mechanic, Ali (El Hedi ben Salem, Fassbinder's partner at the time). Their sudden decision to marry results in discrimination, contempt, and public rejection. Not only are they are shunned by their neighbors, Emmi's three children (from her former marriage) reject Ali. Their relationship seems to offend everybody. However, despite their differences in age and race, Emmi and Ali genuinely care for one another in an indifferent and hostile world. The stress on their relationship causes Emmi and Ali need to rethink their relationship. This beautiful and poignant love story offers Fassbinder's sharp crticism of the hypocrisies of German society.

The Criterion edition of this highly-recommended film features a new high-definition digital transfer, an introduction by director Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, Safe), interviews with actress Brigitte Mira and editor Thea Eymèsz, a short film Angst isst Seele auf (2002), "Signs of Vigourous Life: New German Cinema," a 1976 BBC television program, the original theatrical trailer, and new and improved English subtitle translation.

G. Merritt November 30, 2007

The Best Film of the New German Cinema?

The New German Cinema that flowered in the 1970's had many directorial wunderkind -- Herzog, Wenders, Volker Schloendorff. But with this film, Rainer Werner Fassbinder nosed ahead of the pack with the international arthouse audience. In many ways it's a very accessible film, largely because Brigitte Mira is so wonderful in her heart-breaking portrayal of sad, lonely Emmi who knows that to love and be loved is more important than anything else. But for some viewers, Fassbinder's development as a filmmaker from his roots in theatre make his work seem strangely artificial and 'stagey'. This film is no exception. Trademark Fassbinder techniques are all over this one, from his lurid color palette; the even, slow movement of his edit; the slightly stiff, delayed-reaction mannerisms of the actors; the mirror shots; the carefully orchestrated dialogue. What cannot be ignored is how bold and forceful his filmmaking had become by this mid point in his career. Fassbinder tells a story of racism in German society, and its lingering connection with Nazism, that is shocking and terribly moving. I know some viewers feel that the way the story turns mid-way is contrived, but again Fassbinder is taking a brutally realistic viewpoint; that people will hide their true feelings when their self-interest is at stake. What is truly refreshing, and something that could never be done by a Hollywood director, is the way Fassbinder ends the story. It's an incredible mix of hope, optimism and despair that refuses to tie things up in a nice, "happy' parcel. By disdaining an ending that puts the world right again, Fassbinder created a film that lives in the memory and which rightfully makes a claim to greatness. November 18, 2007

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

A scathing satire on romance, racism, and German-Arab relations, Fassbinder's "Ali" is a brilliant reminder that love can soothe only when it is sanctioned by a social community. Inspired by Douglas Sirk's 1955 "All That Heaven Allows," the film deals with human vulnerability and the alienating effects of isolation due to age, class, and one's skin color, glimpsing a tender but troubled relationship between two outcasts. Mira, one of Fassbinder's favorite actresses, is simply heartbreaking as Emmi, a 60-ish woman with a realistic outlook on sex and love. Achingly intimate and peppered with poignant humor, "Ali" is one of the writer-director's most soulful works. July 3, 2007

"The story of impossible love"

This powerful and gentle film tells the story of love and marriage of Emmi, a 60+ widowed German cleaning lady and Ali, a Moroccan immigrant mechanic who is more than 20 (I think close to 30) years her younger. Their affair and the decision to marry shocked everyone who knew Emmi: her grown children, her neighbors, coworkers (mostly, middle-aged widows as herself) and even the owner of a neighborhood grocery shop where she has been a loyal customer for years. The way clever and observant Fassbinder looks at their struggle to keep the relationship is deeply pessimistic - the couple could survive the obstacles that society would create for them. They can survive disapproval, misunderstanding and prejudice but at the very moment they think all problems are in the past, they find the emptiness inside and two lonely hearts together are even worse than one. The more I think of it the more I realize that "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" is among the best, the most poignant, gentlest and heartbreaking descriptions of unavailability for happiness ever filmed. What makes the movie even more poignant is the fact that both Fassbinder and El Hedi ben Salem, the man whom Fassbinder loved and who played Ali committed suicide in the same year, Fassbinder - a few weeks after El Hedi. The film is also a love letter to El Hedi. In one of the film's most moving scene, Emmi looks at the man with whom she so suddenly and desperately fell in love with admiration, longing, and wise sadness while he dries himself after the shower. It is not only Emmi looks at Ali, it is Rainer looks with love and affection at the man he loved through the lenses of his camera.

4.5/5

January 11, 2007

Two generations from Hitler

The movie is misnamed. The title makes you think that it is a horror flick, but there is little fear and no soul-eating going on.

A dark skinned Arab man from Morocco lives in Germany in the 1970s. The German people, just one or two generations from that happy Nazi Generation we were all so fond of, detest all foreigners and call most of them Ali. The greatest shame would be for a German woman to marry one, God Forbid. That would make her a whore.

Enter Emmi, a middle aged German widow. Enter Ali, a young Arab man who turns out to like middle aged German widows who are nice. They dance, they talk, they go to bed, they get married. It is an impulse marriage. They hardly know each other, and the engagement is a matter of hours, not months.

Much of the impact of the movie comes from the reaction that Emmi's neighbors, co-workers and children have to her apostasy. They shun her. One of her sons kicks her tv set in. It really doesn't pay for someone to be non-German in Germany. It gets you despised. A generation or two after murdering every Jew in sight, these lovely people are two minutes away from doing it again, to other foreigners in their midst. It reminds me of how proud the German people are of themselves in those beer commercials, and those car commercials, as they boast of their German heritage. I've never once seen a Toyota commercial boasting of its Japanese origin. On the contrary, many Toyota commercials are more American than apple pie, French fries and baseball.

It surprised me that a German language film would be propaganda against the German people. I'm not exaggerating. For half the film, you can't help but hate Germans because of how they are portrayed here.

The movie takes a sharp turn later on, and stops being a propaganda film against the German people and their racism. It starts to be about our happy couple, Emmi and her forbidden husband Ali. Each of them begins to show a fault or two, like Emmi's crotchety ways, bullying Ali about not eating couscous and becoming more German, and Ali's reaction, to seek out some solitude and an old girlfriend.

As for the German people, they stop being "haters" and start being "takers", as they decide to stop harassing and shunning poor Emmi because after all, they need a favor or two. For example, the son who kicked in her tv set now needs babysitting services, so he apologizes to mom. The store owner who threw the apostate couple out of his store changes his ways after realizing that he sure could use her patronage.

This is an eye opening movie. I had heard that the German people are extremely racist still, and hate Turks and other foreigners, and in fact attack them every chance they get, like German shepherds who were brought up badly. Well, now we get to see it, and from a German director no less.

I think it is an interesting touch that Fassbinder has his heroin Emmi going to Hitler's favorite restaurant. This is symbolic of the whole movie. She really has no aversion to Hitler, though she is warm and tolerant of foreigners if they just ease up on the couscous. October 13, 2006

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