Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) User Reviews

A German Update of "All That Heaven Allows"

[evanston_dad · 9/10 · 14 September 2007]

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's quietly powerful film is a sort-of remake of Douglas Sirk's "All That Heaven Allows," a film and director greatly admired by Fassbinder, but it has a sharper edge than Sirk's film. In "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul," the couple fighting a society's prejudice and resentment of their unconventional love must fight some of their own prejudices as well. In Sirk's film, the only thing imposing on the complete happiness of Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson was the busy-body ostracism of family and friends who didn't approve of the relationship between a rich society widow and her working-class gardener. In "Ali," Fassbinder suggests that happiness isn't something that's gained from the approval of others, but rather is the responsibility of the individuals involved. One of the things I liked best about this film is that as the German society gets used to the unconventional romance and begins to accept our two protagonists, the couple themselves begin to struggle to maintain a grip on the happiness they thought would be their's by right.

Fassbinder's unconventional couple are a frumpy German widow and a Moroccan immigrant 10-15 years younger than her. I gather from this film that Moroccans (or Arabs in general) were about as hated and feared in Germany at the time of this film's release as blacks were in America during the worst of the civil rights movement. So you can imagine how the couple's initial courting and subsequent marriage is handled by their neighbors, friends and family. Fassbinder himself was gay, and many suggest that the film is an allegory for the way homosexuals were persecuted. Fassbinder's private life undoubtedly informed his film, but the movie is really more universal than that. It really applies to anyone who's ever suffered the judgement of a group of people over something that didn't even affect those people, and really, who can honestly say that they've never been subjected to that?

Fassbinder directs in a low-key, unfussy style, yet he creates images and scenes that linger in the head long after the film is over. It's a lovely film, very well acted, scripted and directed. It's not exactly sad, because it argues that societies are able eventually to adapt to new things and accept things they originally rejected. But it's not exactly happy either, because it suggests that relationships don't necessarily become easier just because external obstacles are removed.

Grade: A

"The story of impossible love":

[Galina_movie_fan · 9/10 · 15 October 2006]

This powerful and gentle film tells the story of love and marriage of Emmi, a 60+ widowed German cleaning lady and Ali, a Moroccan immigrant mechanic who is more than 20 (I think close to 30) years her younger. Their affair and the decision to marry shocked everyone who knew Emmi: her grown children, her neighbors, coworkers (mostly, middle-aged widows as herself) and even the owner of a neighborhood grocery shop where she has been a loyal customer for years. The way clever and observant Fassbinder looks at their struggle to keep the relationship is deeply pessimistic - the couple could survive the obstacles that society would create for them. They can survive disapproval, misunderstanding and prejudice but at the very moment they think all problems are in the past, they find the emptiness inside and two lonely hearts together are even worse than one. The more I think of it the more I realize that "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" is among the best, the most poignant, gentlest and heartbreaking descriptions of unavailability for happiness ever filmed. What makes the movie even more poignant is the fact that both Fassbinder and El Hedi ben Salem, the man whom Fassbinder loved and who played Ali committed suicide in the same year, Fassbinder - a few weeks after El Hedi. The film is also a love letter to El Hedi. In one of the film's most moving scene, Emmi looks at the man with whom she so suddenly and desperately fell in love with admiration, longing, and wise sadness while he dries himself after the shower. It is not only Emmi looks at Ali, it is Rainer looks with love and affection at the man he loved through the lenses of his camera.

Is it love?

[Mort-31 · 8/10 · 3 September 2002]

First of all, this film has definitely the best (German) movie title ever. It loses much of its power when it's translated but in German it is absolutely fascinating.

On the other hand, Fassbinder's movies and especially this one are not untranslatable, which is positive. The story about a love (is it?) between two people of different age and origin is universal and, though set in a very xenophobe and intolerant Germany, should be understood by everybody all over the world. Fassbinder is a master in guiding his actors so they can they play naturally and believably without using a particular local accent or slang that is probably more realistic.

I do not completely agree with the film's utterly pessimistic view on practically all the characters in the movie; I think his portray of contemporary society is a little bit exaggerated (and it was even twenty-five years ago). However, I acknowledge that by means of exaggerating like this, Fassbinder makes his criticism clear and evokes a particularly bad feeling (of guilt?) in the viewer's belly. While the story is rather sad, it includes a lot of (sarcastic) side-swipes on society as it is.

Angst essen Seele auf (oh, this is a marvellous title!) is maybe a more silent version of Harold and Maude; more silent but not less interesting.

Sad. True. Beautiful.

[RWiggum · 10/10 · 13 August 2003]

Munich, in the mid-70s: She enters the exotic bar because it's raining and maybe because she's a little curious what this place with that strange music is like. He asks her for a dance because his friends tell him to do so. He accompanies her home. He stays for the night. The fall in love. They marry.

All that sounds like your average Hollywood romance. But that's only half the story of 'Fear Eats the Soul'. Here's the other half: She, Emmi Kurowski, is a 60 year old, widowed cleaner, mother of three married children. He, Ali, is a black foreign worker from Morocco, 20 years younger than her, speaking a rather bad German (a more faithful translation of the German original title 'Angst essen Seele auf', a quote from Ali, would be 'Fear Eat Soul'). This film is not a cheesy romance, it is the story of two people who love each other and struggle with the rest of the world to be accepted.

But the people around them have problems. The neighbors are talking about them, Emmi's colleagues ignore her, the merchant refuses to serve them, and Emmi's children don't want to understand it - her son Bruno even destroys the TV set in his anger.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder is arguably the greatest German director ever, and with more than 40 films, TV series, TV films plus 16 theater plays he wrote, directed and often also (co-)starred in in a career that lasted only a mere 15 years, he is certainly one of the most efficient directors in film history. His best films are a criticism of German society after World War II by simple, but memorable stories with very well observed characters. And 'Fear Eats the Soul' displays Fassbinder's qualities best. In very simple shots (facial expressions, the use doors to stress the loneliness of his characters), he makes this films very emotional.

The film is sometimes described as naive. That's wrong. Maybe it is naive to believe that a 60 year old widow and a black 40 year old worker will fall in love. But the rest is as well-observed as a film can be: The fact that people's reactions change when they realize that it's easier to accept them and take advantage of them. That Emmi eagerly joins her colleagues as soon as they have found a new victim. That Ali goes to the waitress of his bar to get the two things Emmi can't give him - sex and his favorite dish.

And then the film has some amazing acting. But from the entire cast, Brigitte Mira as Emmi Kurowski stands out. Actually a comedic actress, she shines in this drama as a woman who struggles for acceptance. Her speech outside a restaurant, when all the waiters stare at them but don't serve them, is heartbreaking, her entire performance is unforgettable.

At first sight, 'Fear Eats the Soul' is a small, simple romantic film. But look closer and you'll see it is so much more, it is a comment on subliminal prejudices and selfishness. It shows what a film can do, even if its budget is tiny, if it only believes in the power of its story.

The film which made the greatest impression on me

[boboxbury · 17 January 2002]

This is the film which made the greatest impression on me ever. As a young serviceman stationed in West Germany throughout the 1970's & 80's I used to watch a great deal of German Television, to try and understand the German people and their culture.

One night,wife and children asleep, I happened upon: "Ein Film von Rainer Werner Fassbinder"

What a revelation!! Suddenly here was a film which showed all human life in its most passionate, desperate, vital but delicate form.

It certainly made a great impression on me and even now, 26 years later, I can still see, feel and react to each thought, idea aand feeling that coursed through me at that time.

Truly a wonderful film and a genius of a director.

It helped me understand love.

A poignant, honest, and revealing work of art

[howard.schumann · 10/10 · 7 November 2005]

Two lonely people connect with each other at a local bar in Munich, Germany. The bar is frequented by foreign workers, mostly Arabic, who come to socialize and escape from the rejection they feel as foreign workers. Inspired by the Douglas Sirk melodrama All That Heaven Allows, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul by German master Rainer Werner Fassbinder is a simple and direct statement of love between an older woman and a younger man and also a biting commentary on the mentality of prejudice and the state of German society during a period of economic resurgence.

Shot in a period of only fifteen days, Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) is a fortyish Moroccan auto mechanic who feels estranged from his culture amidst the condescension and hostility of German society. Emmi Kurowski (Brigette Mira), who is probably close to sixty, is a lonely cleaning lady who lost her husband many years ago and finds the outlets for companionship very limited. To escape from the rain, Emmi ducks into the bar where a few foreign workers gather as the jukebox plays haunting Arabic songs. On a dare, Ali asks Emmi to dance and the two become friends after he accompanies her to her home and stays overnight. Speaking in broken German, Ali's terse answers to her questions underscore his inability to fully blend into German society. As Ali says, "German Master. Arab Dog".

Emmi is a native German who once belonged to the Nazi Party but shrugs it off by asking "Wasn't everyone?" She is an innately good person but full of the contradictions of German society. They are drawn to each other out of a desperate need for love but as they see more of each other, they are subject to increasing hostility from nosy neighbors, co-workers, and members of Emmi's family. The resentment reflects not only ageism but also the reaction to foreign workers who in their view are usurping their jobs. In a classic scene, Emmi tells her children that she is going to marry and introduces Ali as they sit in stunned silence and disbelief staring at her until one of the sons kicks in the television set as the rest get up and leave.

Even after they are married, the hostility continues and the couple are subjected to condescending service in restaurants and neighbors telling the landlord's son about Emmi's "lodger" and calling the police to report a disturbance when friends gather to listen to music. In a powerful sequence, Ali and Emmi sit alone in a garden restaurant surrounded by empty yellow chairs and the restaurant staff stands transfixed, looking at them from the doorway. After Emmi breaks down in tears, they decide to go on a short vacation, hoping that things will turn around when they return. Surprisingly they do when hypocritical neighbors and family members suddenly discover that they are in need of assistance from the couple.

The fears have been implanted, however, and the newlyweds' deep-seated insecurities come to the surface despite a noticeable change in attitude from the people around them. Ali longs for his native food that Emmi cannot or will not cook and turns to the buxom owner of the local bar for sex and Couscous. After a brief separation, they return to the bar where they first met as the film takes an unexpected turn. Brigette Mira turns in a solid performance as the lonely old woman, giving her the strength of character to withstand all of life's rejections. El Hedi ben Salem is magnificent as the strong stoic African who is able to give of himself to a very different kind of partner. With limited dialogue, the camera-work enhances the feeling of isolation with wide shots that render the couple vulnerable to the stares of neighbors, family, waiters, and bar owners. A poignant, honest, and revealing work of art, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is an immediate addition to my list of favorite films.

Intolerance Everywhere

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 13 July 2014]

The world can be a really cruel place. In this work by Fassbinder, we see the racism and intolerance of German society toward a Moroccan man. A sixty year old woman begins a relationship with a much younger man and he ends up sharing her bed. Of course, the gentleness is no match for the ugliness that transpires as the neighbors and the landlord begin to see him as a pig. He is a gentle, trusting soul. She is old and alone. Her children have left her alone and she works each day as a cleaning lady. There is an oppressive weight on these people who are still suffering from the angst of post World War II Germany. This is an intense film and very believable. The acting is superb and that's what really makes it cook. The sad thing is that those who oppress are not worth the time of day, yet they are able to hold forth with their hatred and intolerance.

Strangely compelling

[ian_harris · 8/10 · 31 March 2003]

A thought experiment. You put Mike Leigh and Spike Lee together and ask them to remake Harold and Maude with even fewer laughs and without much music. Sounds awful?

This movie is actually strangely compelling. It is minimal in so many ways - in particular the minimal use of language. I only have "get by on a visit with occasional reference to phrase book" German and even less Arabic, yet I could have managed this movie without subtitles. So little is actually said in words. Yet so much is said.

This movie seemed so relevant today - when the gossipy women worry about bombs and terrorism because "Ali" is an "Arab" (actually he is a Berber) you think about our society some 30 years on and despair a little. The scene when the frau tells her family that she has married "Ali" will stick with me for some time.

It's hard to explain why, but there is something really special about this movie and it is well worth seeing.

Aggressive critique of bigoted German society undermined by idealized immigrant portrait

[Turfseer · 6/10 · 23 July 2012]

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'.

Tremendous examination of race, ageism and exclusion.

[A_Roode · 9/10 · 16 April 2006]

According to Roger Ebert, El Hedi ben Salem, committed suicide in prison in 1982. He stabbed three people in a German nightspot and apparently later told Rainer Werner Fassbinder that he didn't need to be afraid anymore. Watching 'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul,' that statement strikes me as being very interesting and very thought provoking.

There are many great moments, but one which stands out for me is when Emmi and Ali sit alone at a table at an outdoors restaurant. They are surrounded by a sea of empty tables, isolated and alone except for each other. It is hard to miss the symbolism here and I'm sure there are some who would believe that Fassbinder was laying it on a bit thick. I'm not one of those people. To reinforce the loneliness of their situation, the camera pans back to the restaurant. The workers are all standing, huddled together and staring in a mixture of disbelief and horror at the couple. Emmi, long on the verge of a breakdown, begins to cry, curse them, yell at them; Ali comforts her quietly and takes her hands in his own.

'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul' is the story of a 60 year old German woman who falls in love and marries a 40 year old Moroccan. How they act with each other and are reacted to by German society is the larger scope of the film. The pairing can represent a number of things: 1) Ageism: Emmi's adult children find not only the unimagined libido of their mother distasteful, they find her choice of partner sickening as well. 2) Inter-racial marriage: Though German, Emmi was regarded suspiciously for having once been married to a Polish man. At least, the film implies, he was white. Ali is described with every imaginable hate-filled epithet and Emmi is named 'whore' and every synonym for it. 3) Gay marriage: Fassbinder and El Hedi Ben Salem were lovers. It isn't much of a stretch to substitute two gay men for an old woman and a Moroccan. Would the reaction be any different in the vast majority of countries around the world?

One of the film's best sequences is the opening. Emmi is trying to avoid the rain so she seeks shelter in a bar haunted almost exclusively by Arab men. Beautiful camera work and menace as the shot comes from their eyeline (standing in a cluster at the far end of the bar) to her eyeline (sitting -- cowering even -- at a table as far away as possible). This idea of xenophobia is established in the opening reel of the film. "Ali," as he introduces himself to her is not even his real name. He explains that Germans don't have the patience or energy to use his full name (El Hedi ben Salem M'Barek Mohammed Mustapha) and so give him a generic name that is used for all Arab men: Ali.

I find the notion of Xenophobia interesting. Fassbinder suggests that society needs or uses xenophobia as a source of power. Inclusion and exclusion are how each strata of society empowers itself. The working class is here empowered by excluding non-native Germans. We learn that Arab men tend to end up in the hospital every six months with perforated ulcers. "But why?" asks Emmi. "The stress," answers the doctor. "We patch them up but they'll be back in six months with another."

I'm not a speaker of German so I had to rely on the sub-titles. I thought it was very interesting translation though. Emmi is given perfect syntax. Ali's phrases are often clipped and simplistic. His ideas are complex "Fear eats the soul," but his expression of them are not. A good idea of Fassbinder's to exaggerate the difficulties for Ali to integrate -- his attempt to purchase 'Libelle,' a new kind of margarine, from an ignorant and racist storekeeper is very effective.

The interesting switch that the film uses with this notion of exclusion is that while terrible, it may pass. It doesn't go away, but it does have transference. Ali and Emmi want to escape it for a while so they go on vacation. When they come back, the ignorant shop keeper now wants their business (money talks and the supermarket down the street is killing him). The neighbors who had once demanded Emmi sweep the stairs more frequently (Ali is constantly sneered at as being "one of those dirty Arabs") is now courted at for her large storage closet in the basement. Her co-workers once ostracized her but include her when juicier gossip than her inter-racial marriage combines with the hiring of a girl from Bosnia (and the poor Bosnian girl takes Emmi's place in exile, sitting on the stairs alone as the other three look at her from a distance and gossip). Her children come back to her when it is more convenient to have Emmi babysit grandchildren than it is to try and pay for daycare.

Paradoxically, the reintegration of Emmi into society tests her marriage to Ali more strongly than her expulsion from it. He would like to eat Couscous. She scolds him and says that she not only doesn't know how to cook them, but that Ali should get used to eating normal German food. Ali becomes a showpiece. There is a dehumanizing scene where her friends come to the apartment and Ali is forced to stand flexing his muscles so that they can walk around him inspecting him and feeling how big his muscles are. The question, heading into the final act of the film, is whether the connection that Ali and Emmi first felt can save their marriage. They were equals once, but they may not be now.

'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul,' aggressively examines societal reaction to the marriage, and then more subtly looks for the under-lying reasons. There is much here for anyone who wants to be well rewarded by a very excellent film.

Fassbinder's look at forbidden love

[rosscinema · 7/10 · 3 November 2003]

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.

human and political: a rare combination

[jason_dcruz · 8/10 · 11 January 2005]

One of the things I found most interesting about this decidedly politically conscious movie is that the heroin, Emmi, has almost no political consciousness at all. She is not interested in righting any historical wrongs, nor in atoning for Germany's Nazi past. She does not court a coloured man because of liberal values or liberal guilt.

Quite the contrary: on her wedding day she is eager to eat at a swish restaurant where it was said that Hitler once dined. Moreover, she desperately wants to be accepted by her family and peers: she is no maverick or desperado. Emmi is simply a genuinely good person who is lonely and falls in love with a man who comes from Morocco who is also a genuinely good person who is lonely.

Brigitte Mira is beautiful, endlessly fascinating in this film.

A study in a very idiosyncratic romantic match and the intolerance of contemporary German society

[crculver · 6/10 · 23 July 2018]

The original title of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1974 film "Fear Eats the Soul" is deliberately ungrammatical German: ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF "Fear Eat Soul". That is due to one of the two protagonists we meet: Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) is a Moroccan immigrant working in Munich. He toils as a car repairman and has learned some very basic German, but he has been hindered from assimilating to German and fully learning the language by both lack of time and a German society that deliberately keep his kind at arm's length. But one night at a pub, he meets by chance Emmi (Brigitte Mira) a 60-something widow. They dance and Emmi falls in love with this tall, dark, and handsome stranger who makes her feel feelings again after so many years. Ali's own thoughts and motivations remain more mysterious, but he too seems to have been wracked with loneliness, and he recognizes in this woman two decades his senior a soulmate. The result is initially a very idiosyncratic romantic comedy.

Sadly, as an opening title of the film reads, "Happiness is not always happy". The flip side of this couple's burgeoning love is the suspicion, jealousy, fear, and hatred that Emmi and Ali encounter from the citizens around them. Emmi's neighbours gossip and disparage her for bringing "trash" into their block of flats; Emmi's adult children reject her new partner; and the local grocer refuses to serve Ali. The drama of the film is Emmi and Ali's attempts to weather this storm of social rejection and make their relationship work. Some small hope remains in a handful of Munich people who see nothing wrong with this couple.

The acting here is memorable. El Hedi ben Salem was not a professional actor. In fact, he was one of Fassbinder's lovers, the two met in a bathhouse in Paris. Yet El Hedi ben Salem's awkwardness on screen actually fits his role perfectly, because Ali is ill at ease and unsure of what to do in this foreign land he has immigrated to. Most of the strong acting demands are placed on Brigitte Mira, a veteran of German film and television for decades, and she pulls this off marvelously. So much poignant emotion of a woman ruing the racism of her peers, or alive with love again after years of solitude, are expressed purely through her eyes, which Fassbinder often emphasizes with long camera takes. Fassbinder himself appears as Emmi's son-in-law (married to Emmi's daughter played by Irm Hermann, a stalwart of this director's productions), and though he gets little screen time, Fassbinder's facial expressions and sardonic dialogue are delightful.

Yet, in spite of its curiously heartwarming romantic pairing and touching plot about two lovers against a cruel world, ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF is not a perfect film. In the latter part of his film, Fassbinder seems uncertain of his point. In a bitter turn, he upends the romance we had become used to for a much more pessimistic view of human relationships where the original theme of racism and intolerance seems forgotten, or at least firmly pushed aside. He then ends the film at an arbitrary point, as if unable to come up with anything more conclusive.

Nonetheless, this is a classic film and worth seeing. One can also appreciate just how well Fassbinder anticipated here the cinema of Aki Kaurismäki with its characters who are "losers", the cold stares of onlookers, and the awkwardness of it all.

That Must Have Been Some Vacation!

[disinterested_spectator · 5/10 · 2 April 2015]

Emmi, a German woman who appears to be in her sixties, stops in an Arab bar to get out of the rain. She meets Ali, who is from Morocco, and who is at least twenty years younger than she is. One thing leads to another, and he ends up spending the night with her, and they become lovers.

There have been a lot of movies about couples that have to deal with prejudice and disapproval, but this one seems to be going for the gold. First, Emmi and Ali are a mixed-race couple in which the woman is the one who is white. Moreover, he is also foreign. And though religion never comes up, we suspect that she is Christian and he is Muslim. And then they are different in age by a generation. Just as society accepts a mixed-race couple better when the man is white, so too does society accept an age difference better when the older one is the man. But just as in this case the woman white, so too is she the one who is older.

Mixed-race couples of the same age can make a go of it, getting married and having children, if that is what they want. But when the woman is much older than the man, even of the same race, it is better for them to treat the relationship as a fling, and that means they should not live together, and they should definitely not get married. As the bartender says of their relationship, "Of course it won't last. So What?" But this movie manages to get them married anyway.

First, we find out that Ali shares a room with five other men. Since she lives alone, it seems to make perfectly good sense for him to move in with her. But later we find out that as a mechanic, he makes more money than she does as a cleaning lady. So, if she can afford an apartment all to herself, why can't he? Then the landlord objects to her subletting her apartment. In America, a woman could simply say he was her roommate, but I guess things are weird in Germany. So, she says that she and Ali are going to get married. She is not serious, saying this only to satisfy the landlord about his subletting objection, but Ali thinks it is a good idea. And so, against all reason, the movie contrives to get them married.

The rudeness and bigotry they experience from almost everyone is over the top, with people calling her a whore, ostracizing her, and even kicking in her television set. But let us assume that these vicious extremes of prejudice are the way things would have been in Germany in the 1970s. If so, then the total capitulation that follows is unbelievable. Emmi suggests that she and Ali should go somewhere on vacation, and that things will be different when they get back. It is an absurd prediction, but it comes to pass nevertheless. When they come back from vacation, everyone is nice to them. Granted, they all seem to want something from Emmi. But what a coincidence it is that so many people would want something from her all at the same time, and enough so for them to overcome the vehement prejudice we know them to harbor. But that is not the only change that happened while they were on vacation. Emmi and Ali have changed as well. Ali becomes sullen, cheats on her, and seems to be ashamed of his relationship with her. And Emmi begins to exhibit prejudice against foreigners. She tells him to help carry stuff down to the cellar, as if he were the hired help; she refuses to cook him couscous, saying he should get used to eating German food; and she and her friends talk about him while he is standing in the same room, discussing how clean he is, after which they examine him like some prize bull.

Actually, those who made the movie seem to be as obsessed with the question of Arab cleanliness as the characters in the movie. We have a scene in which Emmi gives Ali a toothbrush, a scene in which we see him taking a shower, a reference to his taking a shower, and a scene in which the female Arab bartender says she is going to get cleaned up before she and Ali have sex.

We expected there to be disapproval from others, and we expected Emmi and Ali to begin to suffer from their differences once the initial passion wore off. But the sudden shift from one extreme to another, separated only by that incredibly transformative vacation that we never see take place, but only hear about, is jarring.

And then, as we wonder how all this is going to work out between them, Ali collapses on the dance floor from a perforated ulcer. It is almost as if the people making this movie did not know how to end it, and so they just threw in a medical emergency at the last minute, leaving us with a final scene in which Ali is unconscious in a hospital bed.

Fassbinder's early masterpiece.

[ThreeSadTigers · 31 December 2007]

Fear Eats The Soul is one of the defining films of the New German Cinema movement of the late 60's and early 70's, and is perhaps the first true masterpiece by the maverick filmmaker, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fear Eats the Soul could also be seen as the first film that is characteristic of the director's trademark style; as he advances on the territory of earlier films like The Merchant Of Four Seasons and The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant, whilst all the while refining his style of camp Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama, and spiralling emotional despair. Like the majority of the director's work, Fear Eats The Soul focuses on a relationship between two characters from different backgrounds, in this case, an elderly German woman and a Moroccan immigrant.

Like his later film, Fox and his Friends, Fear Eats The Soul uses the central relationship to comment on contemporary German society and their treatment of the outsider. In 'Fox', it was the shallow upper-classes who passed scorn on the working-class carnival worker, essentially using his capacity for love (and his naive understanding of human emotion) in order to get their hands on his recent lottery winnings. In 'Fear', however, the villains of the piece are the same working class characters that seemed so simple and idealised in the film yet to come; the close-friends, neighbours and co-workers who should be celebrating the relationship, instead... set out to destroy it. In 'Fear', Fassbinder is attempting to hold a mirror up to the latent racism of the post-war generation, drawing on the country's dark past and sense of collective historical guilt. However, he doesn't feel the need to limit himself to the idea of race and racism. As with 'Fox', which used homosexuality to define the central relationship - but not the arc of the story - 'Fear' uses race as a device to simply underline the closed-minded suspicion, pettiness and capacity for causing pain that is central to the genetic make up of all human beings.

Are the characters in opposition to the relationship really out to harm Emmi and Ali, or can they merely see that this kind of relationship can never work? Fassbinder presents both sides of the story - having Emmi and Ali living a blissful, loved-up relationship, whilst all around them family members are turning their backs and neighbours are starting to talk - only to later then flip the coin - by having the friends and family slowly begin to accept the relationship and even admire Ali - whilst behind closed-doors the once vibrant relationship is beginning to wilt. Fassbinder asks the audience to bring their own painful experiences to the film in order to better understand the character's plight and to see that ultimately, regardless of the opinions of those around us, it is our own feelings that will consume and eventually destroy us.

As with most of the films from his mid-period career, Fassbinder is always doing something interesting with the camera and production design, trying to visualise the connection and later the defragmentation of the relationship through his use of mise-en-scene. The first scene, in which Ali and Emmi meet, is a master class in forced perspectives; as Fassbinder uses the camera and positioning of the actors to isolate our two protagonists from the other customers in the bar. He also shoots through doorways; having characters together but constantly distanced by the jarring production design that is constantly getting in the way and (sub-textually?) splitting the characters apart. One of the most talked about scenes in the film is the legendary "sea of yellow chairs" moment, in which Emmi and Ali sit quietly at a road-side café, watched, suspiciously, by the motionless employees and segregated by a sea of empty, plastic yellow garden furniture. The use of colour, although subtle when compared to later films like Lola and Querelle, is quietly overwhelming, particularly in the way Fassbinder moves from drab, white interiors (Emmi's bourgeois existence) to the vibrancy of the outdoors or the textural shades of the local bar (Ali's more sinful domain).

The political points and the insights into modern German society are intelligent and add a certain depth to what could have easily become just another routine melodrama, with Fassbinder really managing to cut through the black and white aspects (pun intended) of human nature, by contrasting loving and nurturing behaviour with actions and dialog that would suggest something else. Fassbinder never falls into the trap of presenting cloying sentiment and always remains true - despite anything else - to the hope and spirit of his characters.

Whether you want to view it as a straight romantic melodrama, or as a treatise on race, age differences and/or society in general is ultimately up to you. Fassbinder never underlines the actions or moral/ideological standpoints of his film, instead, choosing to tell a story and allowing the audience to bring their own interpretations to it. The performances are strong throughout, with Brigitte Mira bringing out the loneliness and vulnerability of Emmi, but at the same time, retaining an element of strength. The role of Ali was written specifically for Fassbinder's one-time lover, El Hedi Ben Salem, who, although limited as a performer, does manage to present the various emotional shades of the character well, and creates a real human being, regardless of limitation. Tragically, Salem would take his break up with Fassbinder very badly, stabbing a person to death towards the end of the 1970's, and taking his own life whilst in prison in 1982. Fassbinder would die of a drug-overdose later that year.

Fear Eats The Soul is a film that is coloured by the various tragedies of Fassbinder's life, though it never panders to self-pity. Although fairly bleak, like a lot of his films, Fear Eats The Soul urges us to find hope in even the most hopeless of situations, and remains one of Fassbinder's most touching and beautiful works

An actor's director

[csjlong · 10/10 · 1 December 2002]

I'm going to limit my comment to one aspect of this brilliant movie: the acting. I think Ali: Fear Eats the Soul may be the single best-acted film in the history of cinema. It's a simple story told simply but the unique and realistic performances create an emotionally charged, unforgettable experience for the viewer. Ali is completely Ali. Emmi is completely Emmi. There is not a hint of artifice in either performance. The only other performance I can think of which is similar is Bjork's dazzling turn in Dancer in the Dark.

There is so much to discuss in Fassbinder's work but what always strikes me in his films is the performances. No director has ever produced a body of work with actors who act the way Fassbinder's actors do. And not always in the same way. Ali features completely natural acting. Despair features highly stylized acting - pure artifice to counter the pure guilelessness of Fear Eats the Soul. The American Soldier - well, you have to see that film to believe it, especially the ending. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant displays what might be identified as a "typical" Fassbinder type of performance with passive, languid characters merely posing - or rather posed by Fassbinder.

When we think of auteurs, we think of writer/directors but the actors and their performances are the tangible realization of that auteur's vision. Fassbinder knew how to manipulate this dimension of the medium of film as well or better than any other director.

Understated Classic

[thieverycorp76 · 9/10 · 29 June 2009]

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is a film that intelligently blends social commentary with the lives of two individuals whose paths unexpectedly cross. Emmi Kurowski is an older widow who finds herself going through the motions of life without any meaningful relationships to share it with. To avoid a rain shower one afternoon she takes refuge inside a local bar and it's there where she meets Ali, a Morrocan mechanic who's much her junior. The two share a dance and their improbable relationship begins. What ensues is a union that sparks widespread aversion towards the couple and their resolve to overcome such animosity.

Fassbinder takes the cultural prejudice of a post war Germany and creates a film with universal appeal - one that is just as relevant in today's modern world as it was when it was made. He uses the central characters to depict the fears of not only themselves, but also of society in general. The pace he creates has a unique minimalistic quality and maintains an effortless flow throughout the entire film. Bridgette Mira's portrayal of the humble but enduring Emmi is outstanding and she anchors the film with great realism. A true understated classic of world cinema.

Still relevant after all those years

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 15 February 2016]

"Angst essen Seele auf" or "Fear Eats the Soul" is a German movie from over 40 years ago written and directed by one of the most controversial filmmakers of the 1970s, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This is probably my favorite work from him, even if I like "Martha" a lot as well. This one here is probably also the film of his that is the most accessible in terms of the contents. It is a very human tale. A lady in her early 60s falls in love with an immigrant 25 younger than her and we watch their struggles for most of the film. The struggles, however, have nothing to do with the relationship itself, but all come from the outside with the despicable reactions from neighbors, colleagues and even family.

The movie only runs for slightly over 90 minutes, so it is among Fassbinder's shorter works, but that takes nothing from how effective it is. You can easily divide it into two parts as almost everything changes when they return from a holiday that makes me think what exactly happened during that holiday. Mira's character has turned almost into one of the people she despised before because of their approach to the whole matter of falling in love with an immigrant. As a consequence, Ali withdraws considerably from her and has sex with the woman he slept with before he met the old woman. The ending is uplifting again, at least in terms of their relationship. It would not be Fassbinder if everything was happy again for everybody, so another tragic even occurs, one that puts a severe question mark on the whole matter of age being in the way of love. A great statement by the filmmaker and I also liked his approach on the idea that Mira's character's love can still exist and how it does not matter to her (or him) that he slept with somebody else. It's not about other people they are seeing. It is about the respect they have for one another and there are really sad scenes about said respect involving couscous and Ali's colleagues beforehand.

"Angst essen Seele auf" won an award in Cannes and it also gave Brigitte Mira a German Film Award for her excellent portrayal. No offense to El Hedi ben Salem, but he was mostly memorable in here through his physical presence and not through great acting. Mira carries the film from start to finish. The supporting actors play their parts well too, obviously helped through Fassbinder's excellent script. The scenes with her colleagues (first with her being the victim, then with somebody else being the victim and her being one of the offenders), at the little shop next door (including the legendary Walter Sedlmayer) or also at the pub and with her family were all mesmerizing to watch. Fassbinder himself plays one of the supporting characters as well, as often the case in his films. He is also a gifted actor. The male lead was played by his then-boyfriend. Sadly the two split up not much later and El Hedi ben Salem died only 2 years after this film an untimely death just like Fassbinder's in the early 80s. This adds another interesting note to the film as Mira lived for 3 more decades and died way into her 90s only 10 years ago.

All in all, this film is a great way to start Fassbinder in my opinion if you want to watch some of his works. It's certainly an easier watch than almost all of his other works. The action is very dialogue-driven, but the contents in terms of what happens still bring lots of significance and gravity. I am glad this film received the recognition it did back then and is still considered one of the best German films from the 1970s these days. Of course, I cannot say for sure how exaggerated the xenophobia in this movie is or if it was really like that in the 1970s as I was not yet born back then, but even in the unlikely event that it may not be 100% accurate from a historic perspective, it is so well-written and a truly outstanding character study down to the less significant characters. I highly recommend checking it out, especially in the face of the refugee situation in Germany right now. A must-see.

They just don't make them like this anymore

[Marwan-Bob · 8/10 · 11 April 2019]

A touching, honest, and revealing great film from a great director. It's hard to explain why, but there is something really special about this movie and it is well worth seeing.

Melodrama without the melodrama

[briancham1994 · 7/10 · 1 July 2020]

I watched this film as part of a university course and we had to watch this along with its original inspiration by Douglas Sirk. By comparison, this film has a very different style where it feels more serious and with big consequences. It is the opposite of cheesy in every way which may put off anyone looking for a traditional romance film.

Powerful and balanced

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 12 March 2019]

In a chance encounter, a German widow meets a Moroccan man twenty years younger than her, and the two progress from talking to friendship to marriage, much to the consternation of those around them. Her neighbors, co-workers, the grocer, and her children all convey varying shades of the ugliness of racism - and we see it both before and after they know about her relationship. Some of it comes from the mouths of sweet looking little old ladies, others from people like her son-in-law, a blue collar worker who is bitter over having a Tunisian boss and who denigrates foreigners while sitting on his ass on a pretend sick day, bossing his wife around and drinking a beer.

It's easy to think of the film positively because of its message of the need for tolerance, especially given how relevant that continues to be. I mean the title alone, from the Arabic saying "Fear Eats the Soul," how apt is that at a time when fear is used for such ugly purposes against immigrants, right? But the film is more than that, giving us unflinching honesty and three dimensional characters. I liked how many of them evolve over the movie, and while it has a clear message, it's also not simplistic. The couple have their problems too, and aren't perfect.

There are some scenes where such mean things get said that it may put a lump in your throat, but I never felt like it was heavy-handed, when it would have been easy to slip into that trap. How ironic it was that the couple have a fancy lunch at the restaurant that Hitler used to frequent from 1929 to 1933, and it's an easy leap to think that some of the characters in the film would be the type to embrace fascism a generation prior. But when she has her friends examine his muscles as if he were some kind of animal, and when later his friends laugh at her age in the auto shop - these scenes are just as brutal. We're also reminded that there are other immigrants and people deemed to be outsiders in the form of her first husband (from Poland), and a new hire to the cleaning lady team (from Yugoslavia).

I loved both the character of the old widow and Brigitte Mira's performance. She is earnest, direct, and brave. She has seen a lot over her years; she was a Nazi party member when young, married an immigrant after the war, been left alone by her adult children, and slaved over her cleaning job without getting a raise. She's lonely but she's dignified, and knows the value of kindred souls. She is consistently true to her feelings, not worrying what others may think, and the relationship she has with this man (El Hedi ben Salem) is based on communication and kindness. Then scene where she holds his hands on a patio and suggests they go away together to escape the hatred around them (including the staff of the restaurant who stand stone-faced and glare at them from afar) is quite touching. I loved the way Fassbinder slowly panned back at the end of it, almost a wish that they could just be left alone in their little island of happiness.

He made better films

[matthewjiles · 6/10 · 7 December 2005]

I've been watching a lot of Fassbinder recently and this one feels to be lacking something - at least for the first hour or so.

I was, as always, greatly pleased to have my emotions manipulated in an obvious manner, and felt really angry about the racism in German during the 1970s, just as I was meant to. I felt contempt for the 70s clothes everyone was wearing, too. (I feel we have come a long way in both areas). But the film woke up for me when suddenly the racism of the people vanished, and it solved nothing: we were faced instead with the Turkish man's inability to adapt to German culture. I was so expecting a pessimistic ending (with which I felt I was going to vehemently disagree), yet instead there was optimism.

Nonetheless, I would still recommend The Marriage of Maria Braun and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant ahead of this.

(Watch out also for Fassbinder showing once more that he is at least Tarentino's equal in the acting department.)

German Subtlety: An Oxymoron?

[B24 · 8/10 · 28 September 2003]

Actually the German characteristic seen usually as humorless and objective analysis of motivation is capable of great subtlety. It comes across as a blatant slap in the face subsequently revealed by introspective dialogue or camera work to consist of several layers of social commentary. In this film, the viewer is placed in an uncomfortable position of having to endure a kind of visceral commiseration with a totally absurd set of misfitted main characters while simultaneously working through his own emotional response to the true-to-life situations they encounter. In that it shows Fassbinder to be completely oblivious to sentimentality, the great bugbear of most German literary art.

The well-worn roadmap of twentieth-century German history is reflected in the dour but soft lines of aging actress Brigitte Mira's face as widow Emmi. Personal tragedy is implicit in her character, never suggesting, however, any need for condolence; rather, there is a sense of determination as profound as may be seen in any younger or more appealing heroine on task to make her life whole. That she embarks on a quixotic venture to do so is funny and sombre at the same time.

I think it is a mistake to rely solely on the notion that this is just another anti-racist, anti-bourgeois tract. It is as well a very sophisticated portrayal of all the dimensions of love in all its forms, very similar to the oft-cited precursor film "Harold and Maude." While not replete with any complex twists of plot, it is nevertheless a many-layered and engrossing slice of life that is accessible to a wide variety of viewers.

That is what excellent filmmaking is all about.

Great Female Lead , Poor Male Lead

[Negara · 6/10 · 28 March 2011]

This movie revolves around a sentimental and beautiful subject. The story is well written and the female lead has been chosen to perfection. She acts very well , doesn't over do it. Fear is visible in her face as the story goes on , also you can see the raw/shy love in her face.

However , the male lead gives a very poor performance showing little to no emotion. When he's sad , when he's happy , when he's in love , when he's enraged he just offers a blank face. Intentionally or unintentionally done , this lack of emotion somehow feeds the audience's alienation from the male lead and instead of caring about him and siding with him , you are made to believe how unusual a foreigner is, hence you would side with all the bad people as well. Probably a better Middle Eastern actor would side the viewer better with himself.

Altogether a movie that I enjoyed and a lead female that my hat's off to.

A childish and masturbatory take on love and racism.

[shikikainin · 3/10 · 18 March 2022]

If I was told that this film was written by a twelve year old fresh out of his first social justice lecture I would not have been surprised. None of the characters in this film acted remotely human, and I'm not even referring to the racism portion. The two leads fall in and out of love the same way we did as kindergarteners, the chicks in the bar acted like the mean girls from a high school film and everyone else is just a mindless NPC that says or does racist things. The only redeemable quality is the cinematography but even that is only above average. The particular scene where her children rejects her decision unintentionally made me laugh out loud because of how the camera just panned across all their disgusted faces for a good 15 seconds without anyone saying a thing.

Overall, I'd much rather think of this as a straight comedy and parody of what some people think racism is. It would otherwise be rather depressing to know that the person who made this is one of the most critically acclaimed directors of his time.