Germany's Demon Moviemaker - The New York Times
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the demon filmmaker of the New German Cinema, used and abused powerful substances - love, sex, power, drugs - with abandon. It was drugs that did him in: he died June 10, 1982, at 37. Now a tribute to this remarkable director, a retrospective of 14 films has made the rounds from the Cannes film festival to three Paris theaters. The program is a mere sampling, for Fassbinder made more than 40 movies at the rate of about three a year. He was also a prolific director on stage and "Berlin Alexanderplatz" was a marathon television event. The most extraordinary thing about his movies is that even the bad ones are gripping: they have compelling stories, tragic characters and relevance today. As a filmmaker with a focus on grotesques - ruthless power-merchants, thriving ex-Nazis, and homosexual losers - Fassbinder managed to outrage and offend every sort of audience from right to left in his short life. As an actor Fassbinder appeared in his movies almost as much as H
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the demon filmmaker of the New German Cinema, used and abused powerful substances - love, sex, power, drugs - with abandon. It was drugs that did him in: he died June 10, 1982, at 37. Now a tribute to this remarkable director, a retrospective of 14 films has made the rounds from the Cannes film festival to three Paris theaters. The program is a mere sampling, for Fassbinder made more than 40 movies at the rate of about three a year. He was also a prolific director on stage and "Berlin Alexanderplatz" was a marathon television event. The most extraordinary thing about
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