Mother Kusters’ Trip to Heaven

Mother Kusters’ Trip to Heaven (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)

Frau Kusters (Brigitte Mira) is preparing dinner late one seemingly ordinary afternoon in her seemingly ordinary kitchen in Frankfurt, Germany. Mrs. Kusters wants to add canned sausages to the stew, her annoying daughter-in-law thinks otherwise. The point, we soon find out, is moot: Mr. Kusters has murdered the personnel director at the soap factory where he works before committing suicide.

Berlin Alexanderplatz – Part I ‘’The Punishment Begins’’

(Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1980)

Adapted from the Alfred Döblin novel of the same name, the short series of 15 ½ hours is an achievement in storytelling and book adaptation. With the boldness of Herr Fassbinder and his fascination for the History of Germany in the first half of the 20th Century Berlin Alexanderplatz holds a cult status amongst cinephiles.

In a Year With 13 Moons

In a Year With 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)

This drama follows the last few days in the life of Elvira (formerly Erwin) Weisshaupt. Years before, Erwin told a co-worker, Anton, that he loved him. "Too bad, you aren't a woman," he replied. Erwin took Anton at his word. Trying to salvage something from the wreckage love has made of his life, he now hopes that Anton will not reject him again.

Veronika Voss

Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)

Munich, 1955: A sports journalist meets Veronika Voss (Rosel Zech), an UFA actress who supposedly had an affair with Goebbels. Now declining, Voss is kept by her "kind" doctor, Dr. Katz, supplying her house, food, clean clothes and her favourite: morphine. Voss, trying to come back towards the cinema, cannot perform an absurdly simple scene, but it attracts the attention of the journalist, who suspects that something's very wrong regarding her doctor.

Lola (1981)

Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981)

West Germany, late 1950s: Lola is a singing prostitute working in a brothel that the town's bigwigs, even the mayor, like to frequent. To the annoyance of the corrupt construction entrepreneurs, especially a crass man named Schukert, the town's new building commissioner von Bohm is an honest and idealistic man who tries to clean up the building license politics from bribery and cheating. 

The Marriage of Maria Braun

The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)

A World War II widow seeks to adjust to life in postwar Germany.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)

This film has an all-female cast and is set in the home of the protagonist, Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen). It follows the changing dynamics in her relationships with the other women.

Ali : Fear Eats the Soul

Ali : Fear Eats the Soul aka Angst essen Seele auf (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)

Emmi, a woman truly in the second half of life, falls in love with Ali, a Berber guest worker more than ten years younger. When they both decide to marry, everybody seems to be against them. When the folks calm down a bit, Emmi and Ali get deeply unsure about their relationship.

Shot in 15 days, this “throwaway” film by German New Waver Rainer Werner Fassbinder became his most famous and recognized movie. Based on Douglas Sirk’s melodrama All That Heaven Allows, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is far from being a remake of the 1955 gem. It is a film that portraits a situation that creates reactions from the audiences. Almost forty years later, it is easily conceivable that a couple of a German woman in her sixties and an Arab man in his thirties will be rejected and seen as “dirty”.