Please Do Not Forget... 05.24.09: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Posted by Erik Luers on 05.24.2009

New German cinema reaches a high point........

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1974 film, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, is primarily about a special connection between two people of vastly different backgrounds. While this concept certainly isn't anything new or groundbreaking today (nor was it thirty-five years ago), the power of the piece resides in the small, tiny details. The woman, Emmi, is much older than her male counterpart, Ali, and yet that isn't what her family takes an issue with — at the very least, the age factor isn't verbally discussed in the film. Ali is an Arab from Morocco and, in 1970s modern Germany, a poor and disregarded outcast. He is the scum of Munich to everyone but his friends from work (and even there, prejudice lingers), and Emmi, a lonely motherly figure that happens to walk into a bar one time on a dark and rainy night. Emmi and Ali enjoy each other's company because they understand one another's pain; Fassbinder creates two outcasts that are united by circumstance and the universal need for companionship. It's a shame that everyone else in town has to get in the way of their union.






It has been noted several times by various film scholars throughout the world that Fassbinder's film is an homage, or updated retelling, of Douglas Sirk's 1951 bright and colorful melodrama, All That Heaven Allows. Sirk's film starred Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman, two people of a considerable age difference. That in turn is the basis for the film, two lovers who cannot be together because of the (some would say opposing) age gap between them. Wyman's character, Cary's family opposes of the relationship — Hudson's character, Ron, is also of a lower social status than Cary's — and along the way a nice, shiny television set will be watching all who enter the living room. Maybe it's the first sign of electronic voyeurism.

Fassbinder, in love with Sirk's film, took this idea and gave it a West Germany specified plot, filled with race, fear, and prejudice. He cast his then boyfriend, El Hedi ben Salem, in the title role and comedienne, Brigitte Mira, as his leading lady, and the film was set to begin shooting in Munich.

Due to the terrible and tragic incident at the 1972 summer Olympics, many people who resided in Germany who "looked like" Ali were hated and pushed away. Here were a bunch of foreign workers, the German caucasian people probably thought, who had come over here to steal our jobs and take up space and bed our women. They keep to themselves and don't even bother to learn our language. Fassbinder shows the native townspeople as gossip hungry leeches, always looking for the next scandal to complain and rant over.

Take the female co-workers of Emmi, for instance. They talk and talk about seemingly minor issues (one housekeeper was fired for stealing, aren't they all entitled to long, overdue raises?, etc.), and seem to be pessimistic and close minded by nature. A little bit of schrandenfreude goes a long way here. The women in Emmi's apartment are no different. When one woman first sees Emmi walk upstairs with Ali, she rushes over to another woman's apartment door and knocks furiously. The woman comes out and is alerted of this so called scandal. The two women wonder what a seemingly respectable woman like Emmi would be doing up there with a dirty foreigner. "Maybe she wants to buy a carpet," one woman responds.

And that is the attitude in which Ali is shamefully viewed. When Emmi tells her son in law, Eugen (played by Fassbinder himself) and his wife the she is in love with a Moroccan man, they brush it off as if she were merely telling a joke. When she gathers the whole family together to tell them that she has gotten married, everyone freaks out and derogatory terms like "whore" fly with reckless abandon. Her son, Bruno, even kicks in the screen of her television set (perhaps a direct homage to Sirk's film).

According to her children, Emmi has become a whore because she is dating outside her race. Eugen has an extreme prejudice towards people of Ali's nationality because they have been promoted over him at work. Rather than take orders from the uneducated foreigners, Eugen chooses to stay home and feign sickness. Emmi is bringing "one of them" into their family, and so they cut off all ties with her. In Christian Braad Thomsen's book, "Fassbinder: The Life and Work of a Provocative Genius", the author notes that the original working title for this film was, All Turks are called Ali, and one would be correct to assume the Kurowski family feels the same way.

Kurowski? Well, that's certainly not a German name. No, Emmi's husband was Polish, and she too met him when he was considered a work heavy but undesirable foreigner. When he died in the 1950s, she obviously retained her Polish married name. It is then quite ironic that her own children never stop to think about their parents being of different races (was the father viewed more favorably because his skin color was not of a darker complexion?) One of the catty women in Emmi's apartment questions the last name, too, and does not believe it to be German.

Does Emmi relate to Ali because she too has been outcast and deemed a "fake" German? Does the loneliness only leave her more vulnerable and uninhibited to people that might walk up to her in a bar and ask for a dance? She is ashamed of being a cleaning woman, but Ali doesn't judge her. When she first tells him about her children, he asks why, if they live so nearby, do they not visit her more often. Rather than come up with an excuse filled, off the cuff answer, she explains that some people have different customs than others, and then invites him upstairs for a drink. Thomsen writes, "with this sudden decision to disregard what is acceptable for elderly cleaning ladies in the company of a young immigrant gastarbeiter, the plot gets underway."

However, one could quite successfully argue that the plot gets underway as soon as we see the opening shot of a rain puddle on the side of a city street. We can see other cars drive past it as their image is reflected in the water, and this leads to a key Fassbinder visual device: mirrors and the reflections they posses. Several times in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul we see images reflected in a mirror that would appear to have significant and substantial meaning to the narrative. The puddle of rain shown as the opening credits come up tips the viewer off to this. When Emmi takes Ali to her apartment and looks in the bathroom for a toothbrush for him, the mirror's presence is noted. When Emmi enters the bathroom in another scene, we see the image of a naked Ali in the shower, thoroughly washing himself. Being nude in the shower is a moment of intimacy for nearly any person, and Fassbinder shows us this via the mirror as if to allow Ali some privacy (or at least enough so that we are not caught). In a crucial later scene, Ali uses a public restroom, looks in the mirror, and begins to slap himself in the face, all the while remaining freakishly still and emotionless.

What is Fassbinder getting at by using this idea of reflection in a film about oppressed love and racism? The characters are always seen in mirrors (or using mirrors) during private, reflexive moments. After all, some would consider the act of looking into a mirror as being an act of vanity and narcissism. But no, the two leads in this film aren't vain at all, although they do possess the desire to be loved and accepted.

In his article, "An Anatomy of Racism", author Shohini Chaudhuri describes the film as working on a level of exhibitionism and the Gaze; so many shots here consist of people staring at one another ominously. There is a link between the concept of perception and mirrors, and the question of artificiality may arise. In a mirror, what we see is not a true, three dimensional image but a reflection, a noble copy. In front of us is a replica of ourselves, though it is not really ourselves, but a piece of glass that presents our image back to us (hence the accusation of vanity). Fassbinder shows the characters in this film a unique yet falsified version of themselves, and the viewer is allowed to ponder the internal meaning. On a side note, it must also be pointed out that the television set possess a reflection and is destroyed accordingly, perhaps because of that very trait.

As theoretical and esoteric as this all may unfortunately sound, we must remember that both Emmi and Ali are good, moral people. They are not afraid of their reflection but rather, are disappointed by it. The color of his skin leaves Ali feeling inferior. The age of Emmi proves that her current relationship may be destined for failure. It is sadly ironic and morose that the two people we observe through mirrors are the two with the greatest heart. Ali is shown in a hospital bed, sick and asleep, as Emmi walks over to his bedside. Interestingly, the camera does not follow her but pulls into the mirror on the left side of the frame. We look through the mirror to see Emmi walk over to her husband, and we see it clearly. Fassbinder anoints the room with an angelic glow and its inhabitants appear peaceful and saintly.

The stare, or the gaze as Chaudhuri identifies it, is prominent at many moments in the film, and it adds depth and a still and somber mood to every frame. When Emmi first walks into the bar, she appears innocent and meek as she takes a seat at the nearest table to the front door. Ali, his friends, and the blond bartender, stop what they are doing and and watch Emmi's every move. They simply watch her as if they were preying on the weak. Are we to immediately feel bad for Emmi and side with her due to a palpable sense of danger (do we have her maternal instinct as well)? As we will soon find out, we are not to be afraid of the other people in the bar. They are as alarmed as Emmi.

Let's get back to the stare though. Fassbinder slowly shows us everyone's face, in shock and frozen still, and the camera takes its time showing us their faces (Jean Epstein's reaction to these moments would prove orgasmic). Everyone stops speaking and waits for Emmi's next move. This scene is so still that the tension rises to an almost catastrophic level and the viewer may laugh out of the sheer awkwardness of it all. When Emmi asks for a drink, the silence and gaze are willingly broken. She has been accepted into their community and you can almost hear a sigh of relief. Although fast, the stand off is very confrontational and, as Robert Stam and Louise Spence noted in "Colonialism, Racism, and Representation: An Introduction", "one mediation specific to cinema is spectator positioning. The paradigmatic filmic encounters of white and Indians in the western, as Tom Enselhardt points out, typically involve images of encirclement". This also leads to the idea, very present in this scene, of power in numbers. Emmi is entering a different environment — filled with people who think she and her people hate them — and the hush in the air prepares the viewer for the worst. It may remind some of classic cowboy saloon fights, as each men stood poised and drew their weapon.

There are other moments where the stare and the role of the spectator come into play. As Emmi and Ali sit outside, surrounded by a sea of bright yellow lounge chairs, a group of people stand and watch them. The idea of a dark skinned man and a white woman is mind boggling and horrifying to them, and how dare this couple try to pass it off as normal and human in public. The people group together and view from afar like the vultures Fassbinder may wish us to see them as. The camera shows Ali and Emmi among the empty chairs in a wide shot and, even though they have each other, they still feel alienated.

Another moment arrives in the already discussed wedding announcement sequence. When Ali is shown to Emmi's family in the living room for the first time, the camera pans across their faces, catching each subtle glimmer of disgust. Again, this scene plays much like the first scene in the bar, as Emmi's family stares down Ali as if to nonverbally challenge him. Both leads have gone through the same discrimination, and it is quite interesting Fassbinder decided to show Emmi's moment of alienation first (in the bar). We assume that the film will be about her oppression. While there is some validity to that, we soon realize that Ali is the one under attack by an entire country, and he is the one most in danger.

One complex visual device used which seems to indicate the desire for power (or the lack thereof) is the use of steel railing and bars on staircases and windows. When Emmi takes Ali up to her apartment, the first curious neighbor she comes across is protected by railing; her face is shown through the wooden boundaries. She is protected and secluded from Emmi and her foreigner guest (whom she may feel is an intruder). A moment similar to this occurs when Emmi's co-workers hear about her recent love interest. As they take their brief lunch break and eat their home prepared sandwiches, Emmi realizes that she is rudely being ignored. As she tries to get their attention, the women take their belongings and sit further down the steps, away from the outcast Emmi. These prove to be very childish, schoolyard tactics.

Fassbinder than shows Emmi through the railing on the spiral staircase, and it evokes a sense of imprisonment. She is literally excluded by steel bars and left to suffer and eat her food in silence. Later, when Emmi is accepted into the group, a young Yugoslavian co-worker is introduced. When the women's conversation leads to raises, the women walk down the steps and leave the new girl alone. Fassbinder again shows us the image of a woman (this time the Yugoslavian worker), secluded and forced out by her own kind. This image gives off a sense of sadness as we see Emmi graduate from the oppressed to the oppressor. Surely Emmi could identify with the Yugoslavian woman as she was just in her shoes a few short months ago, and yet she doesn't appear to have learned much from the other women's mistakes.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is an intimate piece which begs to be given a closer look, as Fassbinder captured the cultural climate of West Germany in the 1970s and all of the fear and intimidation that came with it. And yet, at its heart, the film is a poignant character study, focusing on two people who, on the surface, couldn't be more different. As the film begins, questions may arise as to what kind of relationship the two will have, and the film only lets its audience know so much. Is there a sexual attraction between the two characters, or do they become good friends because of the bad, harmful people around them? Fassbinder asks us to decide and accept them. Are they each other's respective shoulder to cry on? And, should they learn not to cry as fear, in itself, eats the soul? The film asks a lot of questions, but it also has a lot of meaning, and that is why it stays in the mind long after having been seen.