Fassbinder

by Tony Rayns

Fassbinder by Tony Rayns

Genres: Film

62 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1976

Reviews

[Brian O'Connell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this one for school. It’s a brief collection of essays, written while Fassbinder was still alive and working. It’s intriguing to see critics working out ideas about the filmmaker’s body of work in the moment, but it’s also limited by the lack of a full perspective on his oeuvre. The essays cover a diverse and frankly rather scattered range of topics; nonetheless they are all well-written and perceptive (and interestingly, mostly highly critical of what is characterized as a pessimistic or defeatist attitude taken by the films—not a position I share). The most interesting selections come from Thomas Elsaesser, who covers the same ground in greater depth and detail in his brilliant Fassbinder’s Germany. Christian Braad Thomsen’s interviews with RWF himself contain some essential remarks and insights, but have probably been reprinted or are otherwise freely available somewhere else. All in all, I got something out of it, but there are more comprehensive analyses out there.