In the late 1960s, a young Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Oliver Masucci) leaves his mark on the Munich theatre scene, putting on many a controversial play, but he realizes even then that it's films where his future lies. So with his loyal troupe of followers he makes the transition - with some success, too. However, from early on is that he can't keep his private and professional life apart, and thus has the habit of casting his respective boyfriends - be that Ulli Lommel (Lucas Gregorowicz), Günther Kaufmann (Michael Klammer), El Hedi ben Salem (Erdal Yildiz) or Armin Meier (Jochen Schropp) - regardless of their talents (or lack of), while keeping his longtime friend and almost-lover Kurt Raab (Hary Prinz) at bay. He also lets his filmmaking being controlled by his mental state and thus has days where he just insults everyone on set, and he's no stranger to mental cruelty either, but on the other hand is allergic to criticism. Also his growing fame, like the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and awards in sub-categories in both Cannes and Venice, doesn't do him any good as it not only feeds his ego in an unhealthy way but also because it brings with it money, pressure, and easy access to drugs. At the same time, the suicides of two of his lovers hit him harder than he'd ever admit openly. So ultimately he gets more and more erratic on set, really drives away all but the most loyal of his entourage, and ultimately proves to be on a downward spiral there's no escape from ...

Now doing a bio-pic on a director as iconic and eccentric as Rainer Werner Fassbinder is risky business for sure, as dry, factual realism simply wouldn't do the man and artist any justice. This film rather elegantly circumvents this dilemma by setting much of the film in a less-than-real world with much played out in front of crudely painted-on sets, by using dialogue directly lifted from Fassbinder's movies to intentionally break the barrier between fact and fiction, and by choosing an emotional over factual approach - all of which Fassbinder would have in all probability readily approved of. That said, the film as such doesn't live up to Fassbinder in approach, as it's direct where Fassbinder was always subtle, its political agenda seems almost mainstream now while it was considered revolutionary and controversial back in Fassbinder's day (after all 4 to 5 decades do make a difference when it comes to controversy), and the film doesn't seem nearly as multi-layered as Fassbinder's oeuvre as a whole is - but that said, it's still a very well-told and (especially for a bio-pic) well-structured drama that dares to take chances while never forgetting to entertain, and maybe most importantly that makes one curious to check out some of Fassbinder's own output - which alone would already be worth the price of admission.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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