Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)

30-some feature films. 24 plays. 3 tv miniseries. Many drugs, many relationships. Dead at 37. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a chaser (in more ways than one), and remains among that rare class of film artists that turned cinema into a verb, into an ongoing process and processing of the world around him. What’s astounding is that his films, while so specific to postwar german society, have a universal resonance that makes them just as worthwhile today.

In talking about his most well-regarded film about the unlikely romance between a moroccan immigrant and an older german woman, Angst essen Seele auf, we untangle the association with Douglas Sirk’s hollywood films, how Fassbinder broke new ground with subjects under-seen in movies, and how immigration and xenophobia remain so fraught in the age of nation-states.

Afterwards (56:00), Zach shares 5 albums from 1974 worth listening to.

Next week: A Woman Under the Influence (1974) by John Cassavetes

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Intro music by hetchy