“It’s true that all the men you knew were dealers / Who said they were through with dealing / Every time you gave them shelter” – Leonard Cohen, “The Stranger Song” Many of the great songwriters like to evoke forms of narrativity within the potent imagery of their lyrics. One immediately thinks of Bob Dylan… Read more »
Much has been made of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s relationship with the great Hollywood auteur Douglas Sirk, and of Fassbinder’s predilection toward working within a mode of overwrought melodrama – the kind of “weepies,” largely intended for female audiences, that Sirk was most comfortable working with in the ‘50s. Those who study Fassbinder have even come… Read more »
There are several ways you could measure the success of All About Eve (1950). You could measure it in terms of critical reviews, which were positive. You could measure it in terms of how many Oscars it won — 6, including Best Picture. But you can also measure its success in terms of its impact… Read more »
One of the things that the notorious film and theater artist Rainer Werner Fassbinder was famous for was his productivity. He created dozens of feature films, several for television, at least three miniseries, and wrote 24 plays. Fassbinder had the type of career where an 8-hour miniseries such as Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day… Read more »
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) opens to Emmi Kurowski (Brigitte Mira), a German cleaning woman, timidly entering a bar one night on her way home to get out of the pouring rain. Fassbinder’s frame composes her at a distance; she is isolated and alone and by the looks of it, lonely…. Read more »