a felt tension between the fragile hearts bound in an unusual relationship and the rigidity of society around them is captured in the most beautiful scene in the movie “Ali: Fear Eat Soul”, which was summarized by Christine B Thomas “The deliberate stiffness of the arrangement constitutes an effective contrast to Emmi’s tears….Fassbinder, in a single moment, ably communicated what he had been striving for – Emotional density and Intellectual clarity, Identification and Distance, Sympathy and Observation…” This scene captures both the protagonists sitting at a road-side café, in complete isolation, amidst the “sea of yellow chairs” {I want the reader to see this movie and freeze his or her eyes on the sea of yellow chairs} and being watched over by frozen employees of the restaurant. Fassbinder, through this well-crafted movie, succeeded in questioning Germans’ attitude towards Non-Germans, racial conflicts in the country through a simple yet incredibly honest portrayal of a relationship between Emmi Kurowski, a 60-year old widow (a cleaner by profession) and her second husband Ali – a black foreign worker from Morocco, who is 20 yrs younger to her. The story unfolds on a rainy evening, when Emmi enters the bar that is frequented by young Arabs, a bit curious about the strange music coming from the jukebox. The regime of “frozen stares” *(Fassbinder’s way of creating “Frozen spaces – they could be between young and old, Germans and Non-Germans/the outsiders, the rigid society and those who broke the so-called societal norms) begins from the opening scene itself. ..sitting alone is not good. You look too sad, thus Ali approaches Emmi, the old lady and asks for a dance. A polite and simple talk on the dance floor, at Emmi’s doorstep and in her kitchen is just a beginning of a sincere bonding between two lonely souls. Ali feels he does not belong to the country he is working in, feels rejection everywhere and draws solace from his Arab buddies…Germans are not same people as Arabs.
Are not emotional networks deeper and profound than physical attraction ? and the social ambience around us fails to understand these deep waters. Emmi’s three married children are unable to hide their dismay and anger over mother’s decision to get married to the “outsider”, nosey neighbors rebuke the seemingly odd couple, and neighborhood grocer refuses to serve Ali when he shops for groceries. Emmi faces a cold-hearted and calculated indifference from her co-workers during lunch hour…isn’t the society a static framework? does n’t the society operate on “exclusion”, demonstrating it in long and cold stares, frozen human bodies and hushed silence, as the fragile love struggles to win its acceptance ? The couple takes a deliberate separation from the society they live and goes on a vacation. The society projects its needy and selfish image to them when they return from the vacation, both are accepted more easily and wholeheartedly for specific gains, and Ali is celebrated as an “exotic outsider”…but,happiness appears to be fleeting a guest to the couple, as their relationship faces internal stress, discordant weather – the usual suspect that springs out from a relationship suffocating under extreme age difference. While Emmi stays on as the steadfast individual with strong value system in the relationship and comforted by Ali’s presence in her life, Ali, the other hand, gradually becomes disillusioned about his identity. Unbearable silence builds home between them, and Ali could not suppress his sexual desires for long and searches for a younger female body. The contrast, he observes, between living with an older woman and a need to be with a woman of his age is brought out elegantly through the vibrancy that breathes in the young and buxom bar waitress’s apartment. Young and naked bodies are caught twisted and silhouetted against some unspoken loneliness. However, this sexual attraction does not last long and Ali plunges deep into a sense of guilt for having abandoned Emmi. What I really like about this movie is its simplicity, the poignancy with which it delineates the dynamics in a relationship that is so much in contrast to the set societal norms, the felt tensions and sadness in and around, the feeling of isolation and the fragile state of human mind in such scenario as captured by the camera, the silent observer, rather than in high-decibel melodramatic barrage of dialogues. Brigitte Mira as Emmi Kurowski gives an outstandingly strong performance – a simple, gentle-hearted woman with no expectations from the world, from the relationships she is part of. Too idealistic an image she may appear, but she makes the viewers feel that it is possible to be like her…..when we are together, we must be nice with each other. Otherwise, life is not worth living, Emmi says to Ali when they dance again.. {link : The stillness of the film is deeply sad...}
11 comments
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January 29, 2007 at 9:40 pm
alok
Oh Wow, You are watching such great movies. I Just love these two. And unlike you i think in case of piano teacher the movie is far better than the book. the pain and the humanity that she manages to bring in her character is missing from the book which seemed me to just a cold intellectual experiment.
and how did you come across fassbinder? he was really a great director.
January 30, 2007 at 3:16 am
jyothsnay
:-):-)well, the elite company, these days, I am moving with..you know it boy! not just mere watching critically acclaimed movies or directors, but blog them as well, is one of my deadlines I kept for self this year..tch wood, system is still going strong
the first one is “Ali:Fear eat soul”, indeed is a simple yet thoughtprovoking one.I am going to watch it again so that I can be firm when I blog it.”The Piano Teacher”, do agree with, Ms Huppert n the lad were brilliant in displaying a rich tavestry of emotions…but I felt somehow it needed some more space for the roles to develop…strictly my opinion boy…how are u?
n guess what I am watching today, “Blue Velvet”..watched half of it previous night, to be honest with u , didnt like the flavour it left in my mouth.I read about it on ur blog….remember!
me coming back to ur blog with full force…haha!
January 30, 2007 at 6:54 am
antonia2
oh once in a while some movies that even i know. Piano teacher isn’t so controversial…
just want to say a little good bye for now….maybe back in a little while.
take care, jyo and enjoy your tree.
January 30, 2007 at 2:52 pm
jyothsnay
Dear Ant 🙂
you will be back.I know that.dnot you know that your friends need you as much as you need them…umm, take care n be good n be in touch with the world.thank you for being so nice
January 30, 2007 at 4:26 pm
alok
Wow Blue Velvet!! I am a big fan of the movie. It does create some dissonant effect initially but thats only because it is not supposed to be seen as a regular “realist” film. the figures in the film are not real figures, they don’t represent human figures but are actually abstractions, phantoms of the hero’s brain. it shows his fears about sexuality, how he sees women as objects of mystery and how he is both attracted and repelled by grown-up sexuality. It is a fantastic film about growing up…
Fear Eats the Soul is on the other hand a more conventional film but still it works brilliantly as a work of social criticism, about how society and its institutions like family oppress individuals. the old woman is so heartbreaking in her role.
January 30, 2007 at 5:10 pm
antonia2
alok, I never really got blue velvet, the story, the plot. to complicated for a simpleminded person like me.but somehow I liked the couple.
jyo,you may be right about the friends, most certainly. thank you for your kind words, too. bye for a little while
January 30, 2007 at 5:14 pm
jyothsnay
surprisingly Ant
I didnt find Blue Velvet too complicated…Alok would be furious, but I felt it was just a scratch on the surface. those insane n intriguing dark corners of mind were portrayed in a meeker format. But I loved Alok’s interpretation which I felt so…we always think the world is so beautiful but the world behind the curtains n windows is so wretched..look, humans live there
The Piano Teacher, in comparison to this, a class apart, elegantly portrayed by both the leading characters
awwwwwwwwwwww, I still have not completed my reviews..anyway, will finish it n try to do justice to both like a disciplined school girl
January 30, 2007 at 6:37 pm
alok
Haha eminent bloggers. thank you. much honoured 🙂
don’t know what you mean by “meeker format.” It is just like a young boy discovering the grown-up world of hidden sexuality for the first time in life. It both attracts him and repels him. that Frank, Dorothy are all creatures of his mind, the story is what he tells to himself to better understand how his fears work. the imageries, the narrative (all that thing about drugs and detective work) are all derived from what he has seen in movies or read. they are nowhere supposed to be “real”. they are all ironic references to detective movies.
It will make more sense if you see David Lynch’s other films Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway… the women are not “real women” in Lynch’s films. they are projections of male fantasies… like in blue velvet good girl is blonde and bad girl brunette. it is how he sees women. Lynch is very pessimistic in his view of gender and sexuality but it also makes a lot of sense.
January 31, 2007 at 10:40 am
antonia2
“we always think the world is so beautiful but the world behind the curtains n windows is so wretched..”
i think exactly the other way round, life is shit actually, but occasionally reveales its beauty…
mulholland drive I really liked, I was already scared after the first 2 minutes and I really liked this lesbian relationship and how that evelovd and the complexity of it and then a the end, how it is being revelaed, that again, the brunette was the evil one…
February 1, 2007 at 1:56 pm
jyothsnay
Alok and Ant
me a bit unnerved but going to watch Mulholland Drive this weekend. Alok, have Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” and Truffaut’s “Jules and Jim” lined up at the movie couch..
did u like my review of Fassbinder’s Ali”Fear Eat soul?am kinda through the other one…
February 1, 2007 at 3:05 pm
alok
Very good post!! You are right about how camera works only as a silent observer and that’s what makes the film honest and moving even though there are no melodramatic high-flown dialogues. It was one of the constant themes of Fassbinder’s films. Even after the end of dictatorship society and its institutions still oppress the individual and raise all kinds of obstacles in the way of his/her self-development.
Also there was a Hollywood movie Far From Heaven which was a remake of this film. It is also quite good. And these two are both remakes of an old film All that Heaven Allows. Too many films !!
I really love both Persona and Mulholland Dr. They are both very complex and baffling but stay with both of them. We can talk afterwards…. 🙂 Also the two films contain two of my all time favourite erotic scene. I hope that’s enough of encouragement. Hehe!! Jules and Jim is also quite good. I saw it on big screen for the second time recently. I like it too but not that much. Still it is really worth watching.