Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Watson's draws on a wide assortment of Fassbinder interviews--many of which are not available in English--and on theoretical and critical approaches employed in the Frankfurt School, performance and reception theories, gay and lesbian film theory, and studies of melodrama and camp. Watson also incorporates his own interviews with Fassbinder's mother and with the woman who served as Fassbinder's film editor and companion during the final four years of his life. A comprehensive, balanced study, 'Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder' also features an annotated bibliography, extensive notes, a filmography of Fassbinder's works, and a listing of films and television programs that examine Fassbinder and his achievements."--Back cover.

This book is an attempt to trace and illuminate, through interviews with colleagues, friends, and contemporaries, different perspectives about Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

A Companion to Rainer Werner Fassbinder is the first of its kind to engage with this important figure. Twenty-eight essays by an international group of scholars consider this controversial director's contribution to German cinema, German history, gender studies, and auteurship. A fresh collection of original research providing diverse perspectives on Fassbinder’s work in films, television, poetry, and underground theatre. Rainer Werner Fassbinder remains the preeminent filmmaker of the New German Cinema whose brief but prolific body of work spans from the latter half of the 1960s to the artist’s death in 1982. Interrogates Fassbinder’s influence on the seminal ideas of his time: auteurship, identity, race, queer studies, and the cataclysmic events of German twentieth century history Contributions from internationally diverse scholars specializing in film, culture, and German studies. Includes coverage of his key films including: Gods of the Plague (1970), Beware of a Holy Whore (1971), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Martha (1973) (TV), World on a Wire (1973), Effi Briest (1974), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Fox and His Friends (1975), Fear of Fear (1975), Chinese Roulette (1976), In a Year With 13 Moons (1978), Despair (1978), The Third Generation (1979), Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) (TV), and Querelle (1982).

In a French bordello, a young sailor meets a murderer who also is his supposed brother.

This film analysis textbook contains sixteen essays on historically significant, artistically superior films released between 1922 and 1982. Written for college, high school, and university students, the essays cover central issues raised in todays cinema courses and provide students with practical models to help them improve their own writing and analytical skills. This film casebook is geographically diverse, with eight countries represented: Italy, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, and India. The essays, sophisticated yet not overly technical or jargon-heavy, are perfect introductions to their respective films as well as important contributions to the field of film studies in general. The books critical apparatus features credits, images, and bibliographies for all films discussed, filmographies for the directors, a glossary of film terms, the elements of film analysis, a chronology of film theory and criticism, topics for writing and discussion, a bibliography of film criticism, and a comprehensive index. Understanding Film: A Viewers Guide bucks the trend of current film analysis texts (few of which contain actual film analyses) by promoting analysis of the chosen films alongside the methods and techniques of film analysis. It has been prepared as a primary text for courses in film analysis, and a supplementary text for courses such as Introduction to Film or Film Appreciation; History of Film or Survey of Cinema; and Film Directors or Film Style and Imagination.

Publisher description

Of all the filmmakers who created a new international cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, the young German writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) was unquestionably the most prolific and the most gifted. This bold book of writings by and about Fassbinder includes contributions by film historians and critics, plus an illustrated filmography and recollections by Fassbinder's colleagues and friends. 67 photos.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder is one of the most prominent and important authors of post-war European cinema. Thomas Elsaesser is the first to write a thoroughly analytical study of his work. He stresses the importance of a closer understanding of Fassbinder's career through a re-reading of his films as textual entities. Approaching the work from different thematic and analytical perspectives, Elsaesser offers both an overview and a number of detailed readings of crucial films, while also providing a European context for Fassbinder's own coming to terms with fascism.