FM-A072-1974

Ali\: Fear Eats the Soul \(Angst essen Seele auf\)

Video

DVD

F&MS

No

Available

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, already the director of nearly twenty films by the age of twenty-nine, paid homage to his cinematic hero, Douglas Sirk, with this updated version of Sirk's "All that Heaven Allows." Lonely widow Emmi Kurowski (Brigitte Mira) meets Arab worker Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love - to their own surprise, and to the shock of family, colleagues, and drinking buddies. In "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen Seele auf)," Fassbinder expertly uses the emotional power of the melodrama to reflect the ethnic tensions within German society. Includes: - intro by director Todd Haynes - Interviews with actress Brigitte Mira and editor Thea Eymèsz - Short film "Angst isst Seele auf" (2002) - From the BBC: "Signs of Vigorous Life: New German Cinema" - Excerpt from "The American Soldier" featuring Margarethe von Trotta