Ali: Fear eats the soul, Why Filmmaking will never die

    Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is probably one of the weirdest films I've ever watched, and it was very cool to see just how much influence Fassbinder had on modern filmmaking and the new writers of today. One of the clearest parallels in influence that I saw was that of Fassbinder and Kaufman, both of them use all of the elements of film to create awkward yet enlightening films that touch on many subject matters. However, I don't want to simply explore the parallels between the films. Instead, I want to talk about Fassbinder's methods and approaches to this story. 

     In the movie, an almost darkly comedic take on racial tensions and love become the main center pieces of the story, and through this, Fassbinder is able to play around with most of the element of the film, creating whimsical yet disturbing scenes that play with the emotions and reality of the spectator.     

    Fassbinder effectively uses faces to convey a lot of the emotions that feel impossible to re-create to such medium. However, with the use of facial expression and minimalist camera movement; Fassbinder creates a pocket, almost like the uncanny valley phenomenon, that forces its viewers to pay attention to the movie and its message. 

    From the outside, the film seems like a pretty serious Melodrama, but once the viewer is in the action, it is made apparent that Fassbinder is simply using the genre as a framework, and then, he uses his creative drive to completely rearrange what the genre means, effectively creating a sub-genre in the medium. 

My point is, this film is so influential, not only in its narrative style but also in its way of creating a sort of web between genres. These pockets are important now because they show us how this influence is passed down. Through this, filmmakers are able to create even more pockets of film, which allow filmmaking as a medium to never die. 

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 14, 2020 at 7:52 AM

    I think it was really interesting how Fassbinder utilized silence as a crucial part of dialogue and a necessary part of the message of the narrative. In this movie silence goes beyond just showing german society's lack of solidarity and acceptance with c immigrant people; silence also helps convey the isolation and loneliness the characters feel.

    Vale

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  2. AmyNovember 28, 2020 at 1:55 PM

    I find this to be such an interesting observation: "Fassbinder creates a pocket, almost like the uncanny valley phenomenon, that forces its viewers to pay attention to the movie and its message. " Fassbinder definitely desired to unsettle the spectator and he seemed to really have achieved this in ways that are both typical and atypical of films about race. This sense of watching something that just isnt quite right is one of the biggest ways that that happens.

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