Fassbinder's view of women

I find Fassbinder's refusal to sentimentalize his characters remarkable and I'm not so sure that the behavior of the female characters is unrealistic. Actually, despite the melodramatic tempo of Berlin Alexanderplatz, I think the characterizations are honest to a brutal degree. Fassbinder's cynicism serves the material well, since it drains any hint of sentimentality from the proceedings.

You mentioned the landlady Frau Bast as lacking any moral sense. I disagree. I think her hesitation suggests a tension between her morals and her maternal love for Franz. One knows mothers of drug addicts, for example, whose enabling behavior suggests a lack of moral sense, but it is more complex than that. Sometimes it is difficult to do the right thing when loved ones are engaging in destructive behavior. It is clear that Frau Bast is a sort of surrogate mother-figure for Franz, and their dynamic shifts from warmly personal to coldly impersonal (mother-son to landlady-tenant) in a way that is likely confusing for Franz--and probably for her as well. Brigitte Mira is a great actress. During the scene where she watches Franz beating his wife to death, she appropriately registers fear, disbelief, disappointment, and moral conflict all at once. It's no wonder she is unable to decisively act at this moment... In a peculiar way, enabling Franz's weakness has indirectly implicated her in the crime she is witnessing. Franz is more than a tenant for Frau Bast. I read the scene as a willfully-oblivious mother (not a landlady) walking in on her son committing a heinous crime. She can no longer ignore the brutal nature of her progeny which, until now, unconditional love has made her overlook. It's a Freudian primal scene with the roles reversed.

Regarding Mieze, she is the sort of girl who is not too bright and affects a pliable child-like flirtatiousness to win male attention and approval. Having failed to develop a meaningful adult identity, she remains a fundamentally immature girl-woman prone to petulant and hysterical tantrums. This type of naive personality, arrested in a state perpetual childhood, is doomed to be destroyed by men. These women always seem to attract the wrong type of men--hence Reinhold's obsessive infatuation toward her. Honestly, her interactions with Franz have a perverse father-daughter dynamic. He condescends to her, she sits on his lap, not to mention her unsubtle Lolita-esque wardrobe--very strange. You could almost imagine Franz bribing her for sexual favors with sweets in the manner of a twisted pedophile. At any rate, it is clear that this is not a healthy relationship between equals. I have encountered too many young women like Mieze who project a low degree of intelligence and high degree of precocious sensuality in their interactions with men, and things usually don't end well for them. I think there is a clear moral lesson to Mieze's character arc.

Eva, on the other hand, is a mysteriously divine presence in the film. She appears in the narrative at crucial moments like a classic deus ex machina--resembling a guardian angel for Franz. Gradually, the reason for her unyielding devotion to Franz is revealed. He used to be her pimp. Of course, it's strange that this would inspire such loyalty. It suggests how difficult her previous life was that she thinks so fondly of Franz. Presumably, she was a street urchin who was "rescued" from starvation and homelessness by Franz and we can imagine that he faithfully protected her from more aggressive clients. The ethos of the movie seems to be that criminal deviance emerges from desperation. In the brutal context of post World War I Germany, it is certainly believable that a pimp could appear as a savior to a desperate woman. She seems to have transcended her circumstances and acquired a successful life for herself. No surprise, then, that she romanticizes Franz the more her material circumstances improve. If not for him, she would probably have perished in the gutter...


The best female character in the film from a moral standpoint might be Lina--Franz's first girlfriend after being released from prison. She is supportive, patient, sincere and decent. Wanting a respectable life for herself and Franz, she helps him secure an honest job selling shoelaces door-to-door. Franz, being weak-willed and governed by passion, predictably cheats on Lina while carrying out his job duties. Though he may not understand the significance his own callous behavior, it is clearly a function of his fundamental self-destructiveness. He persistently ruins any positive developments in his own life through his own weakness of character. In the end, she wearies of Franz and moves on.

I'm certainly overlooking some female characters, but it's been a very long time since I saw the film. Actually, the most memorable female archetype presented in Berlin Alexanderplatz for me is the laughing prostitute who mocks Franz's impotence early in the film. In this simple moment, it is clear that woman is the dominant sex, and men can only helplessly fumble about... She is the most powerful woman in the whole movie! With a merciless cackle, she reduces men to insignificance.


And you will know my name is The Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!