::: RETROSPECTIVE - RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER :::

CINEMA OF VICIOUS CIRCLES

G P Ramachandran

“

The more real things get, the more like myths they become. There

have always been

myths, but the myths of earlier times were, I’m

convinced, bad ones, because they made

people sick. So certainly,

if we can tell evil stories to make people sick, we can also tell

good

myths that make them well.

”

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982), director,

scriptwriter, and actor, is an iconic figure of German

cinema. Fassbinder is described as the “enfant terrible”

of German cinema. It was Fassbinder, Werner Herzog,

and Volker Schlondorff who gained international

attention with New German Cinema in the vacuum after

many leading talents left Nazi Germany.  Thomas

Elsaesser describes Fassbinder’s work as the “cinema of

vicious circles”. Fassbinder himself famously defined

cinema as “a holy whore.” Fassbinder’s life and cinema

are deeply intertwined: it was as if he shot to worldwide

fame from a dark existence. While moralists sat judgment

on his bisexuality and his indulgence in drugs, film-

lovers and critics held his work close to heart