Fassbinder's World

Author: Ronald Hayman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: "The genius of German New Cinema" Fassbinder (1945-1982) created across three realms: film, television, and theater, with his cinematic creativity particularly remarkable. From 1965 until his death in 1982, Fassbinder completed 43 works, surpassing his peers with a relentless stream of masterpieces that won numerous awards at international and domestic film festivals. Although his works subverted the fundamental sequence of cinematic language, they retained a deep allure for audiences through the form of melodrama and garnered intense attention from critics. On the other hand, Fassbinder was also a lonely boy; he was moody, impatient, vengeful, disorganized, and often unreasonable, causing pain to his friends and family. The author of this book offers a sharp critique: "Only the anger and cold, sexless ecstasy that exist within the corrupted nervous system of an artist are the true source of creative inspiration. An artist must become both inhuman and superhuman; he must maintain a strange and detached relationship with all of humanity."