Angst essen Seele auf

Fassbinder’s ode to his cinematic hero Douglas Sirk is a moving variation on the latter’s All That Heaven Allows from 1955. A cleaner in her 60s (Brigitte Mira) meets a much younger guest worker (El Hedi ben Salem) in a bar. To their own surprise and the shock of their families, colleagues and drinking buddies, they fall in love. The neighbours start gossiping and Emmi’s children are ashamed. Social pressure and prejudices slowly drive the couple apart. Fassbinder expertly uses the emotional power of classic Hollywood melodrama to expose racial tensions in German society. It is all too apparent how relevant his film still is.

Although he shot it in only 15 days, Fassbinder paid great attention to the suggestive composition and framing. Doorways and windows seem to cage the characters, making their isolation and exclusion tangible. That makes this fiercely political, yet tenderly romantic tale even more moving.