Werner Fassbinder's 'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul' is loosely based on American director Douglas Sirk's 1955 soap opera, 'All That Heaven Allows'. While Sirk's tale is about a middle class suburban housewife falling for a lower-class gardener who she employs, Fassbinder has bigger fish to fry. His tale focuses on Emmi, a 60ish West German cleaning woman who one day strays into a bar populated by Moroccan immigrants and ends up dancing with Ali, a dark-skinned Moroccan who works at an auto body shop. Fassbinder's strategy is to expose a deeply prejudiced German society who react poorly to Emmi and Ali, after they end up as a couple.
For awhile, Emmi is the true hero of the piece, as she endures all kinds of rejection from friends and family, who can't stomach the idea of a good German woman shacking up with (in their eyes) a 'lowly' Arab. The hostility is so intense from the German side that one wonders if Fassbinder has created a coterie of bad stereotypes. Fassbinder himself plays Emmi's son-in-law, a dyed in the wool neo-Nazi if there ever was one and his hatred of all immigrants may represent the bigoted voice of a certain group of reactionaries that still probably exist today, all over Europe. But when one of Emmi's sons smashes a TV set in their first encounter with Ali and they all walk out (including Emmi's daughter and other son) and vow never to talk to the mother again, it's a little too much. The same goes for Emmi's gossipy neighbors and the grocer who Emmi has patronized for years—they too end up shunning her after meeting Ali for the first time. Only a reasonable landlord and a group of even-keeled police officers refuse to play the nasty race card, as Fassbinder suggests that there are only a few good eggs amongst all the bad apples.
Are people who have such bigoted inclinations, so blatant about their prejudices? In real life, I say no. They would naturally try and project an image to the contrary, that they're actually tolerant when deep down they're not. Fassbinder's bunch of German nasties become much more palatable in the second half as they now do a 180 and try to suck up to Emmi. Fassbinder makes it clear that their big turn-a-round is hypocritical, because they act entirely out of self-interest and not because they've developed a humanitarian bent. A neighbor now needs Emmi's extra space in her apartment where they can store some extra clothes belonging to a relative who has just come into town. And one of Emmi's sons want her to watch their children as he and his wife need to be at work. There's also the grocer who realizes he's losing business from a good customer and now pretends that he has no problem with Ali and Emmi as a couple. The second half machinations in which friends and family make much more of an effort to accommodate a couple that they deep down despise, rings much more true than the blatant bigots Fassbinder tries to pass off as real people in the first half.
Fassbinder wisely brings Emmi down a peg or two in the second half, suggesting that her Nazi past (she reveals she was a Party member "like everyone else") is not entirely behind her. After all the hatred brings her to tears in the first half of the film and the unexpected acceptance occurs once she and Ali come back from a vacation, now she's more than willing to join forces again with her unprincipled neighbors (the gossipy women), to the detriment of a new apartment dweller, a cleaning woman from Yugoslavia, who ends up automatically ostracized and the new punching bag for the apartment ladies from hell. Emmi shows further signs of corruption, when she treats Ali as an object, showing off his muscles to her new found fawning friends and attributing his mood swings to a "foreigner mentality".
While the bulk of German society is taken to task, Fassbinder refuses to even things up on the other side. Heaven forbid that Fassbinder would ever suggest that there's a dark side to the immigrant experience in Germany. Ali is such a non-descript 'good guy', one can only dub him the 'Marty' of the New German Cinema. Despite being put off by all the racism he encounters everyday, he's willing , out of the goodness of his heart, to take Emmi for his wife, despite her physical unattractiveness. The more saintly a portrait Fassbinder paints of Ali, the more you get to sneer at the horrible racist German society, responsible for his lack of acceptance and outright ostracism. Sure, Fassbinder, will throw in a few 'imperfections'—he goes running back to the German barmaid and has a sex with her because Emmi won't cook his favorite 'cous-cous'. But in the end, he'll take that last dance with Emmi before collapsing from a stomach ulcer, brought on by all the stress caused by the bad, bad Germans!
The height of irony is our German 'Marty', the actor Ed Hedi ben Salem, ended up in prison after stabbing three people and then committing suicide. Salem was Fassbinder's lover in real life and it's obvious that his fictional character, 'Ali', is nothing more than a completely idealized vision of immigrants as victims. That is not to say that xenophobia in German society doesn't exist as well as outright racism—but Fassbinder, in his zeal to prosecute the failings of his own people, is unable to strike a balanced tone, where the foibles of both sides are dealt with fairly and impartially.
In its strongest moments, 'Ali' represents a plea for tolerance of people with different customs. In her strong performance as 'Emmi', Brigitte Mira represents the individual who's willing to 'go it alone', fighting a misguided establishment bent on living in the past by rejecting those who embrace 'alternative lifestyles'.
For awhile, Emmi is the true hero of the piece, as she endures all kinds of rejection from friends and family, who can't stomach the idea of a good German woman shacking up with (in their eyes) a 'lowly' Arab. The hostility is so intense from the German side that one wonders if Fassbinder has created a coterie of bad stereotypes. Fassbinder himself plays Emmi's son-in-law, a dyed in the wool neo-Nazi if there ever was one and his hatred of all immigrants may represent the bigoted voice of a certain group of reactionaries that still probably exist today, all over Europe. But when one of Emmi's sons smashes a TV set in their first encounter with Ali and they all walk out (including Emmi's daughter and other son) and vow never to talk to the mother again, it's a little too much. The same goes for Emmi's gossipy neighbors and the grocer who Emmi has patronized for years—they too end up shunning her after meeting Ali for the first time. Only a reasonable landlord and a group of even-keeled police officers refuse to play the nasty race card, as Fassbinder suggests that there are only a few good eggs amongst all the bad apples.
Are people who have such bigoted inclinations, so blatant about their prejudices? In real life, I say no. They would naturally try and project an image to the contrary, that they're actually tolerant when deep down they're not. Fassbinder's bunch of German nasties become much more palatable in the second half as they now do a 180 and try to suck up to Emmi. Fassbinder makes it clear that their big turn-a-round is hypocritical, because they act entirely out of self-interest and not because they've developed a humanitarian bent. A neighbor now needs Emmi's extra space in her apartment where they can store some extra clothes belonging to a relative who has just come into town. And one of Emmi's sons want her to watch their children as he and his wife need to be at work. There's also the grocer who realizes he's losing business from a good customer and now pretends that he has no problem with Ali and Emmi as a couple. The second half machinations in which friends and family make much more of an effort to accommodate a couple that they deep down despise, rings much more true than the blatant bigots Fassbinder tries to pass off as real people in the first half.
Fassbinder wisely brings Emmi down a peg or two in the second half, suggesting that her Nazi past (she reveals she was a Party member "like everyone else") is not entirely behind her. After all the hatred brings her to tears in the first half of the film and the unexpected acceptance occurs once she and Ali come back from a vacation, now she's more than willing to join forces again with her unprincipled neighbors (the gossipy women), to the detriment of a new apartment dweller, a cleaning woman from Yugoslavia, who ends up automatically ostracized and the new punching bag for the apartment ladies from hell. Emmi shows further signs of corruption, when she treats Ali as an object, showing off his muscles to her new found fawning friends and attributing his mood swings to a "foreigner mentality".
While the bulk of German society is taken to task, Fassbinder refuses to even things up on the other side. Heaven forbid that Fassbinder would ever suggest that there's a dark side to the immigrant experience in Germany. Ali is such a non-descript 'good guy', one can only dub him the 'Marty' of the New German Cinema. Despite being put off by all the racism he encounters everyday, he's willing , out of the goodness of his heart, to take Emmi for his wife, despite her physical unattractiveness. The more saintly a portrait Fassbinder paints of Ali, the more you get to sneer at the horrible racist German society, responsible for his lack of acceptance and outright ostracism. Sure, Fassbinder, will throw in a few 'imperfections'—he goes running back to the German barmaid and has a sex with her because Emmi won't cook his favorite 'cous-cous'. But in the end, he'll take that last dance with Emmi before collapsing from a stomach ulcer, brought on by all the stress caused by the bad, bad Germans!
The height of irony is our German 'Marty', the actor Ed Hedi ben Salem, ended up in prison after stabbing three people and then committing suicide. Salem was Fassbinder's lover in real life and it's obvious that his fictional character, 'Ali', is nothing more than a completely idealized vision of immigrants as victims. That is not to say that xenophobia in German society doesn't exist as well as outright racism—but Fassbinder, in his zeal to prosecute the failings of his own people, is unable to strike a balanced tone, where the foibles of both sides are dealt with fairly and impartially.
In its strongest moments, 'Ali' represents a plea for tolerance of people with different customs. In her strong performance as 'Emmi', Brigitte Mira represents the individual who's willing to 'go it alone', fighting a misguided establishment bent on living in the past by rejecting those who embrace 'alternative lifestyles'.