Analyse a Sequence from the Spirit of the Beehive or Jules Et Jim or All That Heaven Allows or Fear Eats the Soul. You Should Demonstrate How Style Contributes to Meaning and Describe the Relationship Between Your
Rainer Werner Fassbinders film Fear eats the Soul made in 1973 during the peak time of German
new cinema movement is significant study of a sincere relationship of two lonely individuals living
under cruel constrains of the close-minded society. It is a story of Emmi, an old widow living on her
own, working as a cleaner and Ali, a much younger Moroccan emigrant living in one room with
other six friends working day and night as a mechanic. The impossibility to escape the life of a
working class mother and emigrant worker has a crucial impact their relationship since the first time
they have met, regardless any racial or social differences. Their love is pure, based on the true
feelings, but is faced with a brutal reality of racism and prejudice coming from the family members
and close friends. Soon after the marriage Emmi and Ali are becoming to forgetting the promises
they have made to each other. Fassbinder was not afraid to use controversial characters to
symbolize diversity and question the state of a society. The truth is the major element of the film,
where everything is simple but on the contrary nothing actually is.
It seems to me that the simpler a story is, the truer it is. (R, W, Fassbinder 1992:11)
The essay will focus on the Fassbinders specific visual style and the relationship of the
main characters in relation to their different social backgrounds. In order to do that it is important to
acknowledge Fassbinders intention to simplify film and make it more understandable for the
audience by applying the plot of a classic Hollywood melodrama of the 50’s All That Heaven
Allows directed by Douglas Sirk and recreating it, in his own particular style.
This essay will analyze a sequence in which the main characters Ali and Emmi are sitting outside of
the restaurant alone, surrounded by empty bright yellow seats and watched by staring public. The
sequence appears in the middle of the film and
new cinema movement is significant study of a sincere relationship of two lonely individuals living
under cruel constrains of the close-minded society. It is a story of Emmi, an old widow living on her
own, working as a cleaner and Ali, a much younger Moroccan emigrant living in one room with
other six friends working day and night as a mechanic. The impossibility to escape the life of a
working class mother and emigrant worker has a crucial impact their relationship since the first time
they have met, regardless any racial or social differences. Their love is pure, based on the true
feelings, but is faced with a brutal reality of racism and prejudice coming from the family members
and close friends. Soon after the marriage Emmi and Ali are becoming to forgetting the promises
they have made to each other. Fassbinder was not afraid to use controversial characters to
symbolize diversity and question the state of a society. The truth is the major element of the film,
where everything is simple but on the contrary nothing actually is.
It seems to me that the simpler a story is, the truer it is. (R, W, Fassbinder 1992:11)
The essay will focus on the Fassbinders specific visual style and the relationship of the
main characters in relation to their different social backgrounds. In order to do that it is important to
acknowledge Fassbinders intention to simplify film and make it more understandable for the
audience by applying the plot of a classic Hollywood melodrama of the 50’s All That Heaven
Allows directed by Douglas Sirk and recreating it, in his own particular style.
This essay will analyze a sequence in which the main characters Ali and Emmi are sitting outside of
the restaurant alone, surrounded by empty bright yellow seats and watched by staring public. The
sequence appears in the middle of the film and
Bibliography: Elsaesser, T. (1996). Fassbinders Germany: History, Identity, Subject. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP. Fassbinder, R, W. (1992). Anarchy of the Imagination: Interviews, Essays, Notes. London: The Johns Hopkins UP. Mitchell, A. (2008). ‘Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Subject of Film’ in Phillips, J. Cinematic Thinking, Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema, pp. 128-145. Stanford, California: Stanford UP. Mulvey, L. (1989). Visual and other pleasures. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Filmography: Feat Eats The Soul. Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. 2006.