Fear Eats the Soul [Angst Essen Seele Auf] ***** (1973, Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Irm Hermann, Barbara Valentin) – Classic Movie Review 6198

Writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1973 drama is one of his greatest films, a straightforward account of an unlikely love affair between a 60-year-old Munich charlady (the splendid Brigitte Mira) and a 30-year-old Moroccan immigrant worker (El Hedi Ben Salem).

When Emmi and Ali decide to marry, it is their lot to meet appalling prejudice and have their relationship rocked by unthinking racists and stupid moralists.

The director uses the conventions of the Hollywood melodrama to tell his story and touch the emotions as well as to bring home the cold truths of the situation, indicting the German attitudes of the day. The film pulls off the trick of being both moving and extremely sharp.

Fassbinder himself plays the horrible son-in-law.Also in the cast are Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann, Peter Gauhe, Elma Karlowa, Anita Bucher, Gusti Kreissl, Doris Mattes, Margit Symo, Hark Bohm, Lilo Pempeit (Fassbinder’s mother) and Karl Scheyd.

It is shot by Jürgen Jürges and produced by Christian Hohoff.

This time Fassbinder uses background music rather than a specially written score.

It is also known as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.

It won the FIPRESCI Prize and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1974 but failed in its bid for the Palme d’Or.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6198

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