While it is without an interesting piece of work, I couln't help but think how surreal this film is. It is so awfully simple and wierd at the same time. While the description of foreigners in the West is rather accurate the whole plot seems unnatural from the first dance to the collapse due to pain. With that said, I enjoyed the atmosphere in the movie a lot. Definatly something in it's own league.
shareIt's that wonderful direction and the use of colour - it's easy to make a film beautiful when it's set in Versaille, or mountains etc, but this film makes mundane clutter beautiful with it's unusual use of colour. That, IMO, is what accounts most for the surreal edge - the style.
My movieblog: http://cinecism.blogspot.com
The direction is highly stylized; many scenes even freeze in tableaux. I don't think the director was aiming for strict realism or verisimilitude.
That's just Fassbinder's style. He almost always stays grounded in a sort of basic realism, always simple -- but not simplistic. He explores themes easy that any middle- or lower-class person can understand, but he doesn't seem too concerned with shooting in a "natural" or "normal" way. His work is experimental to a very basic degree, almost like a more restrained Godard... he doesn't seem too interesting in following a linear plot path, or directing scenes in a straightforward way, yet he hardly ever goes into pure abstraction or surrealism. Still, he explores it enough to pique my interest.
shareThe main thing that makes one wonder is what may have been our dear director´s agenda in making practically all German characters besides the old woman - plus one or two other possible exceptions - so openly, unashamedly rabid xenophobes and racists. It´s like a bloody Third Reich there all over again.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
You are right, this film has an unrealistic touch, although I think surreal is the wrong word since it is not dreamlike in any way.
Fassbinder was not only influenced by Godard but mainly by the German theater scene. You need to understand how much he is influenced by Bertolt Brecht to understand what he doing with his actors. What you feel is unrealistic is, in my opinion, mainly due to the acting. As Brecht believed, actors do not fuse with their characters, they rather stand next to them and use them as models for types of people in our society. That being said, many of the characters have a strong moral position in the film but don't necessarily feel as if they could really exist. The same counts for the two protagonists. As touching and socially relevant their actions and words might be, they are not really realistic.
It becomes even more obvious if you are a German native speaker. Although the language and the use of words seems to be very much that of the working class, there is an overemphasized poetry of simplicity that feels real and absolutely unreal at the same time.
making practically all German characters besides the old woman - plus one or two other possible exceptions - so openly, unashamedly rabid xenophobes and racists. It´s like a bloody Third Reich there all over again.
And all the pieces matter (The Wire)share
It´s like a bloody Third Reich there all over again.I think this is true throughout Europe and with the rise of Islamic militancy this film has a terrible present-day relevance.
A bird sings and the mountain's silence deepens.share