Rainer Werner Fassbinder/West Germany/1975/123 minutes
Rainer Werner Fassbinder is a filmmaker who sparked many controversies with his movies. Fox and His Friends (currently screening as part of a Fassbinder season at the Edinburgh Filmhouse) was released in 1975 and here the director looks at the differences between working class and middle class life through the prism of a same sex relationship. The movie could easily be dismissed as a vanity project, as it is written, directed and starring Fassbinder himself. With that much control over the film it could simply veer into self indulgence and absorption, but Fassbinder is far too skilled a filmmaker to let that happen.
Fassbinder plays the character Fox. Other than being the hero of the story, he is a flawed protagonist and out of his depth after finding himself in money. Fox makes the leap from being a working class circus performer, to a middle class benefactor of a printing studio and this results in a new struggle in life. The movie begins at a circus on a bleak rainy day. People are trying to have fun, but the clouds and drizzle paint a bleak picture. This is reflected in the story, when carnival owner Klaus (Karl Sheydt), who is also Fox’s partner, is arrested for tax fraud. Fox then finds himself out of a job and out of love. By chance Fox wins DM 500,000 on the lottery and begins a romantic relationship with the middle class Eugen Thiess (Pater Chatel), who works for a failing printing business. The couple buy an apartment together, but Fox always feels insufficient next to his middle class lover. His dress sense, taste in music, table manners and attitude towards work are all brought up as inadequacies and this causes a conflict between the pair. This negatively effects the sensitive Fox and brings about his downfall.
Fox and His Friends ends in melodramatic fashion where the viewer is left pondering the value of money and how it can transform someone’s life. Fassbinder’s talent as a writer and performer really shines during Fox and His Friends. He embodies the character with passion, integrity and emotion. This in many ways is key to the movie. Fassbinder made himself vulnerable by taking on the lead role and this vulnerability endears the viewer to the character while we follow him on a downward spiral.
The Fassbinder season at the Filmhouse is drawing to a close with The Marriage of Maria Braun and Despair concluding the selection of movies.