So in many respects, here and elsewhere, and again, it does admittedly come down to what could be done in the 1950s versus the 1970s, Rainer Werner Fassbinder is indeed like Douglas Sirk, but like Douglas Sirk turned up to 11.
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a fascinating examination of sexual intensity and infatuation gradually undercut by acrimony and deceit
Always inventive, never repetitive, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was among the world’s most fascinating filmmaking figures, responsible for several masterworks. Among them, ‘Ali’ may be the best of the best.
“All That Heaven Allows stands as the defining work of Sirk’s career, the greatest of his films made in the midst of a decade in which he turned conventional ‘women’s pictures’ or ‘weepies’ into profound, virtually unparalleled conflicts played out in domesticated arenas.”
Riffing on Terek Puckett’s terrific list of director/actor collaborations, I wanted to look at some of those equally impressive leading ladies who served as muses for their directors. I strived to look for collaborations that may not have been as obviously canonical, but whose effects on cinema were no less compelling. Categorizing a film’s lead …
For three decades, Pedro Almodovar has been the most internationally successful purveyor of queer cinema. His first film, 1980’s Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap, was released just two years before Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s too-soon swan-song, Querelle. Though the directors possess distinctly different approaches to the medium (Almodovar hasn’t yet gone sci-fi ala World on A Wire, for instance), their films were among the first brashly and unapologetically queer films that were both critically accepted and widely seen.
Love is Colder Than Death (1969) Rainer Werner Fassbinder The style of this film is unlike any that came before or after. R.W. Fassbinder openly embraced his love of Noir and French New Wave to make a shadowy burst of a film that takes a bumpy boat ride full of moments of manic ferocity and …