Fear devours Fassbender

Kathleen 2022-03-24 09:03:48

A


man who is obsessed with old film has his own reasons.

Those yellowed and jittery images, as well as the unique texture of 16mm films, always have the magic power to delight moviegoers. Watching old movies on the screen is like a wire-bound book that was unintentionally dug out from the cabinet when I was a child, with a dusty smell of time blowing on my face. But when I read it carefully, I can see some vicissitudes of the author.

Fassbender, the talented director who died young.



Two


Fassbender's films have no intimacy with the audience, and the director seems to be intentionally isolating the audience. In one of the opening scenes, several characters in the film stare intently at the camera, which seems to be an exchange, but it feels more like a confrontation. After a few seconds, the characters unfold their behavior, the camera moves, and the story takes place.

This is in a small bar in Germany. German old lady Amy accepted the invitation of Moroccan worker Ali to dance with him. On such a melancholy rainy night, an old lady who has been a widow for many years and a prostitute living in a foreign land sympathize with each other because of their loneliness, and it is not strange that they fall in love.

It is not the patent of a talented person and a beautiful woman to have a one-night relationship and a private order for life. Is this a class concern in another sense?



Three,


they should be happy. At least they are not affected by worldly prejudice. Amy is an understanding old lady with the stamina of life, and she knows that when people ask for something from her, they will always change their stance on them. And Ali is not unkind, he has his own circle of friends, and he is kind to others.

Yet they are afraid. After watching the movie, I pondered the title "Fear Eats the Soul" for a long time and couldn't understand it. Perhaps this fear comes from within themselves, from uncertainty about their own "safety".

The director said in the opening title: Happiness is not always happy. It's an interpretation of life, like Ali's stomach ulcer at the end. The doctor said: "This is a common disease of foreign workers. It will recover, but it will relapse after half a year." After listening to this, Amy hugged her husband and lost her voice. Maybe she knew in her heart that life was hard labor and sorrow. This kind of crying is nothing but a catharsis.

Unlike her, Ali suffers from culture phobia, or "culture shock". If life goes on, he may have to bear more than the woman: can't have sex, can't communicate, can't eat his favorite food... This is a real fear, a fear that can eat the soul.

Ali's pronunciation is not good. When he met a woman he didn't like, he said: "This woman is not good", and I suddenly saw it as "This woman is no god.".

This woman is not God. I suddenly thought: Isn't this what Ali really wanted to say?

Sartre said: "Others are hell."



The


camera in this film is almost rigid, and the characters' expressions are always shot from strange angles. The drama of the performance and the plot makes the audience lose the sense of participation in life.

But when I looked through the railing at the women sitting on the stairs talking, I thought of Yasujiro Ozu.



Five


sharp and quiet films. The director's compassion for the characters is always hidden behind the story.


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Extended Reading
  • Timmy 2022-03-22 09:02:59

    Red is a hint of lust, and it also symbolizes potential fear and threat. A large number of secondary shots are taken through barbed wire, doors and windows, and stairs, and the characters seem to be in a confined and narrow space. Fassbender learned from Bresson's minimalism and deconstructed the rejection of dissidents in the German national character in the post-Nazi era [in today's Germany, it seems to be too leftist], strictly speaking, the ending is not pessimistic , but reverts to a pathological normalization

  • Napoleon 2022-03-14 14:12:31

    I slept with another woman. It doesn't matter, not at all. Amy said. I don't want to find another woman, I just feel very disturbed. You are a free man. You can do whatever you like. But when we are together, we should treat each other better, otherwise life will be nothing to miss. I love you much. I love you too, when we are together, we have nothing to fear.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul quotes

  • Emmi Kurowski: We'll be rich, Ali... and we'll buy ourselves a little piece of heaven.

    Ali: Why heaven?

    Emmi Kurowski: Oh, just a fancy of mine.

  • Emmi Kurowski: But when we're together, we must be nice to each other. Otheriwse, life's not worth living.