Rainer Werner Fassbinder on the set of Satan’s Brew.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s BRD trilogy: The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Lola (1981), & Veronika Voss (1982)
What do you think is needed for the perfect Sunday morning?
Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Caviar, champagne, the Eighth Symphony of Mahler, “Radio-Activity” by Kraftwerk, the Sunday Bild paper, a book so exciting you don’t want it to end, a friend, a good friend, and the possibility of unplugging the phone.
“We lived down there on Sendlinger Street. Rainer’s grandma had forgotten to buy salt. As she was cooking she sent Rainer—he was five at the time—down to the grocer’s and told him to buy salt. Rainer didn’t come back. Grandma guessed where he’d gone and went to the Asam Church. He was standing at the front of the altar, looking around. She signaled to him to come, but he wouldn’t. This went on for a while until suddenly he said: You told me I’d find Lord Jesus in church, but I can’t see Him anywhere.”
— Lilo Pempeit, Fassbinder’s mother who appears in more than twenty of his films.
“I met Rainer Werner again at the Oscars here in Los Angeles in 1980. An unexpected sight, with his bow tie and tuxedo and everything. I’d never seen him like that. It didn’t really suit him. He had heard that I had trouble with Coppola about my film. We were looking down at all this Hollywood hustle and bustle. He put his arm around my shoulder and said: “I know you’re having serious trouble. If you want me to beat Coppola up, just show me where he is.” And he would have. I did my best to keep him away from Coppola. I think he would have punched him right in the nose.” — Wim Wenders
The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Part 4: 1980 - 1982
Berlin Alexanderplatz | Lili Marleen | Lola | Veronika Voss | Querelle
“What I would like is to make Hollywood movies, that is, movies as wonderful and universal, but at the same time not as hypocritical.”
The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Part 3: 1975 - 1979
Fear of Fear | I Only Want You to Love Me | Satan’s Brew | Chinese Roulette | The Stationmaster’s Wife | Despair | In a Year with Thirteen Moons | The Marriage of Maria Braun | The Third Generation
“All I want to do now is to tell stories, stories about things that are important and exciting. Not important in the sense of pointing out society’s scars, but in the sense of freeing people, which is important to me, and encouraging them to express their pain.”
The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Part 2: 1971 - 1975
Beware of a Holy Whore | The Merchant of Four Seasons | The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant | World on a Wire | Martha | Ali: Fear Eats the Soul | Effi Briest | Fox and His Friends | Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven
“I work out of fear of loneliness. When you work, you’re not as lonely as when you don’t work. I have specific and very human reasons for doing so much.”
