Ali Fear Eats the soul is a 1974 New German cinema film directed by Rainer Fassbinder. This movie tells the story of Emmi played by Brigette Mira, a 65-year-old widow and the unconventional love she finds with Ali an Arab migrant worker played by El Hedi ben Salem. The movie was filmed in only 15 days but was done beautifully. Fassbinder did a wonderful job of making you feel the characters emotions and the heaviness of their relationship due to lack of acceptance by everyone else in the movie. This movie was unlike Fassbinder’s previous films being softer and not as sexualized. He claims to only have made the film as a filler in between better pictures. The film won the International Federation of Film Critics award for best in-competition movie and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.
There is racism throughout the film, ageism, references to Hitler and the way Germans felt towards migrant workers at the time. All though there is racism through out this movie you still feel the tenderness of the two main characters and their love and uncertainty for one another. This movie is very good and starts quite slow but leaves you feeling full of emotion for these characters.
Ali Fear eats the soul is about Emmi a lonely widower who works as a cleaning lady two shifts and barely sees her kids. She goes out of her comfort zone and decides to walk into a bar after work because of the heavy rain outside. Everyone in the bar stares at her and feels sorry for the old women so the they tell Ali twenty years younger to approach Emmi and dance with her. The two decide to leave together. Emmi is so pleased to have someone to talk to she confesses to Ali that people look down on her because of her job and Ali replies about his job “German Master Arab Dog”. Emmi asks Ali to stay the night because of the heavy rain. Ali can’t sleep and ends up in Emmi’s bedroom to talk, he rubs her arm and the two sleeps together. They decide to get married and are extremely happy, the rest of the world does not feel the same way.
There is a powerful scene after they are married and go to a restaurant to celebrate. Emmi is excited and say’s she’s heard Hitler used to eat there. The first real feel of racism by the waiter in this scene. The movie goes on, with everyone not accepting the relationship except Ali’s friends at the bar. The two-start doubting the relationship and the differences between the couple. Emmi is old and doubts herself but is also very happy to show Ali’s young strong body off to her friends. Ali asks Emmi to make couscous, it reminds him of home and Emmi says she doesn’t know how. Their doubts eventually lead Ali to stray and sleep with a young bar owner who can make his dish that reminds him of home. The two split but eventually find their way back to each other only too late Ali dies.
This review is done by Roger Ebert. He describes this movie as powerful but very simple. He talks about the relationship between the two characters and the struggles with race and age. This movie the characters are looked down upon by everyone including family members. He speaks of migrants in Germany and the fact that Germans didn’t like foreigners, but they also didn’t like to do any dirty work. He speaks of the director Fassinbinder being an outcast himself, his father dying young and his mother using the movie theatre as a babysitter. He was also a gay man and dated the main character of this movie who ended up hanging himself in jail.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-ali-fear-eats-the-soul-1974
The next review by David Morrison is six reasons to watch Fear Eats the Soul. He points out that this movie was a rush job done in only 16 days. He talks about the performance style and the simple dialogue and how this is a generally moving story. The intolerance towards migrants and the complaints that they can’t speak the language. Arabs described in terms like “You know how they are bombs and all that” and the relevance to modern day Britain.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/six-reasons-watch-fear-eats-soul
Bridget Mainer talks in this video about working with the director and how he never treated her bad. They filmed the entire film in 16 days. She talks about the racism in the film and how this quiet woman cries in public due to the way her and her husband are treated in the film.
Hey Melisa,
Your movie pick sounds really interesting and unique, especially for the time it was made. I liked how you gave an overview of the plot of the movie, and talked about some of the details that made the movie memorable for you- this is definitely something I’m going to work on doing in my future blog posts. The fact that the movie was made in only 15 days is very impressive! I also wrote about how fast Journey to Italy, by Roberto Rossellini was made, but it was nowhere near being made in 15 days. From your post, I gathered that Rainer Fassbinder had a different approach to making movies than a lot of the other directors during that time- he had a unconventional relationship with no real “happy ending”.
Hi Melisa, I’m surprised that this movie was able to be filmed in only 15 days and was still able to win awards. Next time I will involve the awards a film won. When you talk about how the director made the audience feel based off of how he used the characters within the film is very important. You want to be able to feel how the characters do, you want to be able to be apart of the movie. It is always interesting when a director makes films that aren’t similar to their previously produced ones. The time era of this movie reminds me of Life Is Beautiful directed by Roberto Benigni. How the Germans and Hitler were towards Jewish people, in addition to the love the two main characters, a father and son, have for each other.