Focus on R.W. FASSBINDER II: Germany in Autumn (1978)

Now that I have come to the end, I admit that I have come at Fassbinder in a roundabout way. For the record, I was never planning to dive this deep. I started pseudo-chronologically (that is to say, I was working my way chronologically through the films I big ticket films I'd selected while concurrently watching the 13 episode masterwork, Berlin Alexanderplatz). I got hooked early and added another raft of films (mainly early-ish works). And finally (recently) I filled in the gaps with the Antitheater stuff and the filmed stage works. After going about it in such a haphazard manner, I'm rather taken aback with how perfectly this final film, Germany in Autumn, closes everything off.

Admittedly, Fassbinder isn't solely responsible for this anthology documentary dealing with the German Autumn (the eventful couple of months in 1977 which saw the R.A.F. kidnap and kill a prominent German businessman, hijack a Boeing 737 and attempt to secure the release of prominent leaders who subsequently ended up dead, by their own hands the German authorities would have everyone believe), but his opening half hour is some of his most impressive, and most personal, work.

It makes for a revealing farewell. The scenes, which see Fassbinder and his then lover Armin Meier at home prepping Berlin Alexanderplatz and dealing with the political situation outside, are impossibly realistic. It is in many ways a heartbreaking portrait of the director at work and a window into just how immense Fassbinder brought his psychological and intellectual intensity to bear in his private and (through his art) his public life.

This is not the satiric take on the material that the director would put out two years later in The Third Generation, the political situation to hand has a very real and very oppressive impact on Fassbinder’s existence. Within his dour apartment, conversations with Meier on the actions of the R.A.F. and the government’s dealings with them quickly descend into violence. Similarly, an interview with his mother, filmed to provide a temperature test of the community, doesn’t take long to spark. Fassbinder’s beliefs are deeply held, endlessly turned over and his expectation is that everyone around him will engage with them and, if they don’t hold to them themselves, to be prepare to defend themselves as rigorously.

Seeing Fassbinder in action – even in this cinematic self-portrait, which could well be toned down – is quite frankly frightening. He’s an intellectual bull in a china shop society. It is no wonder many of those around him shattered including, tragically, Meier himself, who killed himself a year later in Fassbinder’s apartment.

The director himself, of course, would barely last another five years.

(Following on from all that, it is difficult to discuss the remainder of Germany in Autumn. Suffice to say that its collage and juxtaposition of various forums, viewpoints, demonstrations and public funerals makes for compelling viewing. I’d be interested to see other documentary films take such an expansive approach to their subjects.)

This post contributes to Director Focus: Rainer Werner Fassbinder II.