Fear Eats the Soul (15)
Fassbinder at his blistering best reveals the hypocrisy and racial prejudice at the heart of German society.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Starring: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi Ben Salem, Barbara Valentin
W.Germany, 1974, 1 hour 32 minutes, subtitles
Wed 3 March 2.00pm The Courtyard Hereford
A deceptively simple tale of the unlikely love affair between an ageing cleaner and a young Moroccan immigrant exposes the racial prejudice and moral hypocrisy at the heart of German society. Drawing upon the conventions of Hollywood melodrama (it's heavily influenced by Douglas Sirk's masterpiece All That Heaven Allows), Fassbinder uses dramatic and visual excess to achieve a degree of psychological and political truth beyond mere social realism. A true maverick and extraordinarily creative filmmaker (he made 43 films in 17 years before committing suicide at the age of 37) Fassbinder himself plays the reptilian son-in-law.
"If this were the only film Fassbinder ever made, it would still be one of the great works of cinema." Not Coming To A Cinema Near You
Winner of 2 Prizes at Cannes Film Festival 1974
