It's easy to see what inspired Rainer Werner Fassbinder to make this film about a relationship that is looked down upon in society. Fassbinder being gay probably spent his whole short life having to endure the stares of others. This film is about an older woman named Emmi Kurowski (Brigitte Mira) who is probably near 60 and one night she wanders out of the rain and into a bar to get dry. The owner of the bar is a tall buxom blond woman and she asks a man at the bar to ask her to dance. He does and she agrees to dance with him. Afterward they talk and he introduces himself as Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) and he is from Morocco and works at a garage. He walks her home and she invites him in for a drink. It gets late and she invites him to stay over and gives him some of her late husbands pajamas. During the night he comes into her bedroom and says he wants to talk. When she wakes the next morning he is asleep and naked in her bed. Over the next few days they continue to spend more time together until they decide to get married. Foreign workers are looked down upon in German society and Emmi's children and friends are both shocked and disgusted by her behavior. After their wedding they both have to suffer through racial taunts and snubs by everyone they come into contact with. After time has passed everyone seems to get more used to them but Emmi and Ali seem to be having some difficulty.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Ali starts spending more time away from Emmi and he has been going to the home of the blond bar owner because she makes a dish that he likes called "Couscous". One night Emmi finds him playing cards at the bar and they start to dance. He explains to her the way he is and she says she doesn't mind. But Ali doubles over in pain and ends up in the hospital where he is told that he has a tear in his stomach lining from an ulcer which is suppose to be common with foreign workers because of the incredible stress they live with. Fassbinder made this film in less than a month to just stay busy in between bigger projects but this may be the most personal film he ever made. Salem was not a trained actor but he had worked in a few of his films in small roles. Salem and Fassbinder were lovers in real life and you can make a case that the character of Emmi was in fact Fassbinder. Salem seems perfectly cast as Ali and in every shot that we see him standing he looks stiff and uncomfortable. This gives the appearance that his character being a foreigner is out of place in society which is what Fassbinder wanted. Salem was in fact from Northern Africa and in interviews it was known that he felt lonely and out of place in Germany. One of the interesting things about the script is that the relationship between these two was more out of comfort than anything physical. Ali goes to the blonds home because she makes couscous for him. He sleeps with her but he doesn't care about that, couscous makes him comfortable. These two characters at different points in the film take a good hard look at themselves and figure that this is who they are and despite they're troubles they want to be with one another. The use of color is very evident in many of the scenes and along with "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" the color red is used. This is a well shot film and we see every facial expression of every character in a scene. When Emmi tells her family of her marriage the camera pans to every face in the room and we witness the shock on their faces. Fassbinder himself appears in this film as Emmi's son in-law. Salem would end his life committing suicide in prison after stabbing three people. Fassbinder's last film was "Querelle" and its dedicated to him. Of course, shortly after making that film Fassbinder killed himself. Like I mentioned earlier, this is probably Fassbinder's most personal film.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Ali starts spending more time away from Emmi and he has been going to the home of the blond bar owner because she makes a dish that he likes called "Couscous". One night Emmi finds him playing cards at the bar and they start to dance. He explains to her the way he is and she says she doesn't mind. But Ali doubles over in pain and ends up in the hospital where he is told that he has a tear in his stomach lining from an ulcer which is suppose to be common with foreign workers because of the incredible stress they live with. Fassbinder made this film in less than a month to just stay busy in between bigger projects but this may be the most personal film he ever made. Salem was not a trained actor but he had worked in a few of his films in small roles. Salem and Fassbinder were lovers in real life and you can make a case that the character of Emmi was in fact Fassbinder. Salem seems perfectly cast as Ali and in every shot that we see him standing he looks stiff and uncomfortable. This gives the appearance that his character being a foreigner is out of place in society which is what Fassbinder wanted. Salem was in fact from Northern Africa and in interviews it was known that he felt lonely and out of place in Germany. One of the interesting things about the script is that the relationship between these two was more out of comfort than anything physical. Ali goes to the blonds home because she makes couscous for him. He sleeps with her but he doesn't care about that, couscous makes him comfortable. These two characters at different points in the film take a good hard look at themselves and figure that this is who they are and despite they're troubles they want to be with one another. The use of color is very evident in many of the scenes and along with "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" the color red is used. This is a well shot film and we see every facial expression of every character in a scene. When Emmi tells her family of her marriage the camera pans to every face in the room and we witness the shock on their faces. Fassbinder himself appears in this film as Emmi's son in-law. Salem would end his life committing suicide in prison after stabbing three people. Fassbinder's last film was "Querelle" and its dedicated to him. Of course, shortly after making that film Fassbinder killed himself. Like I mentioned earlier, this is probably Fassbinder's most personal film.