fox & his friends is a good start (some may disagree, but whatever)
At the beginning?
all i’ve seen by him is Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and i found it to be (aside from fantastic) eminently approachable. i’m eager to see some of his other stuff, so this topic is useful to me too
the brd
I started with Veronika Voss from the BRD trilogy, personally
My personal favourites are:
Beware of a Holy Whore
Fox and His Friends
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Love is Colder than Death
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Love is Colder than Death might be a good place to start though if you’re unfamiliar with Fassbinder’s work. Ali is also a good place to start.
I’d choose one of these:
Like people were saying: 1.Beware of a Holy Whore,
or 2.Ali, Fear Eats The Soul
or another suggestion: 3.The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
and Berlin Alexanderplatz is good too but it’s about fifteen hours long, so I don’t know if you want to start with that one to begin with, but I’d say that’s worth seeing at some point.
Thank you all for the advices.
I started by The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and I was bewitched by the beauty of the mise-en-scène, the décor, the costumes… The story is devastating :)
I think that Ali: Fear Eats The Soul is the obvious choice. It is a sweet, sad and straight forward story. The mix of emotive drama and cerebral themes in harmony. The film of his that I saw that really made me want to see more though, was the rather obscure, An American Soldier. A very weird and funny noir. At least that’s what I remember.
I just saw my Ali: Fear Eats the Soul as my first Fassbinder this morning. Definitely.
@Laali: I think I’ll approach Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant as my second Fassbinder.
I second The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant ♥
This was the first I’ve seen and I’ve loved ever since.
I’m getting Fox and His Friends in netflix soon and Ali: Fear Eats The Soul
My personal favorite is The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant as well, followed closely by Berlin Alexanderplatz.
My first Fassbinder was in a high school German class—The Marriage of Maria von Braun. I think that or Ali: Fear Eats the Soul or Effie Briest might provide the best introduction to Fassbinder.
I’d stay away from Querelle or Love Is Colder than Death. The latter film isn’t bad, but it is rather oblique. Querelle, though based on the Jean Genet book, is some whack camp. There are some entertaining touches though, like when Jeanne Moreau sings a song based Oscar Wilde’s words “Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves.”
Back in 1973 I saw — all in the same week — “The Merchant of Four Seasons,” “The American Soldier,” “Beware of a Holy Whore” and “The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant.”
As you can well imagine I was hooked from that point on.
“Querelle” is rather special, but it’s a great film nonetheless.
I would seek out “Fox,” “Fear Eats the Soul” and “Martha” above all, and then launch into “Berlin Alexanderplatz.”
After that be sure and check out "In a Year of 13 Moons, " Lola," “Veronika Vos” and “The Third Generation.”
THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS was the first of his films that I saw. It took him more than a year to make that film which is a long chasm between projects for a man as astonishingly prolific as him. It was in that period that he rediscovered Douglas Sirk’s films.
I have a tougher time with Fassbinder’s earlier films like KATZELMACHER or PETRA VON KANT and BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE.
I love, without reserve, his melodramas(FOX, ALI, MERCHANT), THE THIRD GENERATION, his made for TV films like MARTHA and I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME, the BRD Trilogy, EFFI BRIEST and of course, BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ
I would start with:
Marriage of Maria Braun
Veronika Voss
Lola
Fox and His Friends
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Don’t start with Beware of a Holy Whore. But wherever you start with Fassbinder, you have to be prepared for his style and approach, it’s unique. After seeing a few you get used to his persistent, unrelenting theme of power in relationships.
my first fassbinder movie was Martha, then I saw Whity, then Lola, which is my favorite at the moment, then Beware of a Holy Whore.
I have seen some of Querelle online and orange musky cinematography is awesome, add Franco Nero, I am there, its no worse than seeing Crusing or for that matter Salo.
The Third Generation is awesome I love the opening titles
I began with Fear Eats the Soul.
To see the uniqueness of RWF’s vision, I would begin with a double feature of “The Third Generation” and Chabrol’s “Nada.”. Both films—in their wonderfully different ways—focus on anarchist terrorist fringe groups. The pairing will enable you to see some telling contrasts between RWF and Chabrol (and, by extension, between New German Cinema and Nouvelle Vague).
Begin at the beginning.
Bruno Leal
R.W. Fassbinder (1945-1982).
This man made so many films… For so long I wanted to see some of his films, but I just don’t know where to start or what’s essential on his filmography… anyone can help me?