elf (06/11/82)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder died the other day at the age of 36 or so. I guess he is best remembered in North America for "Marriage of Maria Braun". He made well over three dozen movies however and I, for one, will miss him. In keeping with his somewhat anarchistic lifestyle, the only suitable eulogy I can think of is...so it goes.
upstill (12/02/82)
What is it about Fassbinder that is so striking? Hard to say, really.
He could be really embarrassingly bad, especially when filming other
people's scripts (as in Despair, for example). I think the main reason
he seems so important is quasi-political: he never, ever settled for
mediocrity when he could take a chance doing something different. Of
course, this means he fell on his face a lot, and that much of his
work is very self-conscious. But it also means that he did produce
some stunningly brilliant moments. About half of Lili Marleen is like
that. Yes, he was very gifted technically (in Chinese Roullette, the
movements of camera and character communicate as much as any other aspect
of the film), but only when he was interested in what he was doing.
Werner Herzog said an interesting thing about Fassbinder, comparing
him to a sort of wild man thrashing around in the bush, making much
sound and fury and occasionally some good, but leaving a large
swath for others to follow in his wake.
Steve