Co-presented by the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles: Double Feature: ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL, 1974, MOTHER KUSTERS GOES TO HEAVEN, 1975 May 31, 2012

Thursday, May 31 – 7:30 PM
Between 1969 and his death at age 37 in 1982, brilliant enfant terrible German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder made 30 films and numerous television productions. Even as he averaged two to three films per year, his work maintained a meticulous, rigorous style, marked by stunning shot composition, laser-precision blocking and deep characterization. Film critic and ardent fan Roger Ebert wrote: “Fassbinder was a genius. That much everyone admitted.”
Co-presented by the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles: Double Feature: ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL, 1974, Janus Films, 93 min. When robust young Moroccan guest worker Ali (El Hadi ben Salem) and quiet, unassuming Emmi (Brigitte Mira), a white German woman easily 20 years his senior, meet in a bar, the chemistry is palpable and the two become a couple. But 1970s Germany is not kind to cross-generational, cross-racial relationships, and Emmi and Ali find their romance suddenly up against a closely guarded barrier of hostility and envy from friends and family. A surprisingly tender film from Fassbinder that often is considered his best, ALI follows the soul-wearing difficulties of prejudice, homesickness and unconventional love. In German with English subtitles. [35mm]
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MOTHER KUSTERS GOES TO HEAVEN, 1975, Janus Films, 120 min. Frau Kusters (Brigitte Mira) gets the terrible news that her husband Herrmann has gone berserk after layoff announcements at the local tire factory, killed his supervisor and then committed suicide. As reporters sensationalize the deaths, Frau Kusters finds no comfort from her self-involved children, and befriends German Communist Party members Karl and Marianne Thalman (PEEPING TOM’s Karlheinz Bohm and THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT’s Margit Carstensen), who crash Herrmann’s funeral and see his death as a revolutionary act. Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s brilliant send-up of Germany’s class structure, blood-sucking media and armchair activism features a superb cast and is shot impeccably by cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. In German with English subtitles. [35mm] 14 more Fassbinder films in June at the Aero and Egyptian! Check American Cinematheque website for updates.
Trailer

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