Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Encyclopedia
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (also known in English as Fear Eats the Soul) is a 1974 West German film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
and starring Brigitte Mira
and El Hedi ben Salem
. The film won two awards at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival
and is considered to be one of Fassbinder's most powerful works. Brigitte Mira received the German Film Award for her performance.
Since Ali's poor German grammar is translated literally in the film's English subtitles, the subtitles for Ali's dialogue are riddled with grammatical errors ("You no make cous-cous?").
Gastarbeiter
(guest worker) in his late thirties, and Emmi (Mira), a 60-year-old widowed cleaning woman. They meet when Emmi ducks inside a bar, driven by the rain and drawn by the exotic Arabic music. A woman in the bar (Katharina Herberg) suggests Ali ask Emmi to dance, and she accepts. A strange and unlikely friendship develops, then a romance and finally they decide to marry.
What follows is a bitter and noxious reaction over their relationship. Gossipy neighbors treat them with contempt, complaining their (already noticeably dilapidated) tenement building has now become filthy. Emmi is shunned by her coworkers, and Ali faces discrimination at every turn. Emmi tells her son-in-law Eugen and daughter Krista (Fassbinder himself and Irm Hermann
) that she is in love with Ali; Eugen thinks she is screwy.
The landlord's son arrives to point out that sub-letting is against Emmi's tenancy agreement, Ali must leave within a day, but she claims Ali and herself are planning to marry to alleviate this little difficulty. Later though, Ali thinks this is an excellent idea. When Emmi, whose first husband was a Polish worker she married against her Hitler-loving father's wishes, invites her three married children to meet her husband, they openly reject him. One of her sons smashes in her TV set in anger, her other son declares she must have lost her sanity, and her daughter and son-in-law leave "the pigsty" immediately.
Emmi and Ali take a long vacation together to escape the discrimination. After their return, they suddenly face the prospect of social acceptance. Out of longing for her old friends' respect, Emmi neglects Ali; when they comment on his muscles, she shows him off as if he were an object, as they remark how clean he is. She says he has mood swings, but it must be his "foreigner mentality", adopting the xenophobic attitudes of her friends in order to fit in. Emmi would not cook Ali couscous because she wanted him to eat German food, and generally become more German so they would fit in. He then turns to bartender Barbara (Barbara Valentin), who used to cook for him and begins an affair with her. Emmi grows desperate as their relationship deteriorates and visits him at work, where he pretends he doesn't know her as his workmates make fun of her age. Just when it seems as if the relationship is beyond repair, Emmi goes back to the bar to meet with Ali. They dance again and agree that the only thing that’s important is that they are together, and that they must be nice to each other. In this moment, Ali collapses in Emmi's arms from a burst stomach ulcer. Emmi visits Ali in hospital, where the doctor tells her the illness is common among migrants because of the stress they face in every day life due to prejudice; the doctor adds that Ali will have surgery to remove the ulcer, but will probably be back in 6 months with another ulcer. Emmi declares that she will do everything in her power to reduce that stress.
and Effi Briest
.
Ali is played by El Hedi ben Salem
, who was Fassbinder's partner
at the time. Ben Salem committed suicide in jail several years later. Barbara is played by Austria
n actress Barbara Valentin
, who was in the 1980s a partner of Freddie Mercury
, lead singer of the band Queen
. Fassbinder himself has a cameo appearance as Emmi's son in law.
, in particular Imitation of Life
and All That Heaven Allows
. The most overt homage is the scene in which Emmi's son kicks in the television (an important symbol in All That Heaven Allows) after finding out that his mother has married an Arab. Director Todd Haynes
made his own homage to both All That Heaven Allows and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul in 2002 with Far From Heaven
, which echoes Sirk's films, but is tempered with several themes taken from Fassbinder. Haynes discussed these connections explicitly in a video introduction to the Criterion Collection's DVD edition of Ali. In Xiaolu Guo
's novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007) the heroine first meets her lover in a cinema at a showing of Fear Eats the Soul.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
and starring Brigitte Mira
Brigitte Mira
Brigitte Mira was a German actress. She worked in both theater and film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder....
and El Hedi ben Salem
El Hedi ben Salem
El Hedi ben Salem , was a Moroccan actor best known for his work with German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.-Biography:...
. The film won two awards at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival
1974 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*René Clair *Jean-Loup Dabadie *Kenne Fant *Félix Labisse *Irwin Shaw *Michel Soutter *Monica Vitti *Alexander Walker *Rostislav Yurenev -Feature film competition:...
and is considered to be one of Fassbinder's most powerful works. Brigitte Mira received the German Film Award for her performance.
Title
The original German title Angst essen Seele auf is deliberately grammatically incorrect, translating as "Fear eat up soul" or more literally "Angst consume soul". The correct German form would be "Angst isst die Seele auf" - which (without the definite article "die") became the title of a related 2002 short film also starring Mira. The grammatical incorrectness of the title is however entirely accurate, as it is a direct reference to one of the Ali character's lines where he speaks in what can be referred to as "broken German", which is consistent throughout the film. The line of dialogue he utters is simply "Fear eats soul".Since Ali's poor German grammar is translated literally in the film's English subtitles, the subtitles for Ali's dialogue are riddled with grammatical errors ("You no make cous-cous?").
Plot
Ali (Salem), is a young MoroccanMorocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
Gastarbeiter
Gastarbeiter
Gastarbeiter is German for "guest worker." It refers to migrant workers who had moved to West Germany mainly in the 1960s and 70s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker programme...
(guest worker) in his late thirties, and Emmi (Mira), a 60-year-old widowed cleaning woman. They meet when Emmi ducks inside a bar, driven by the rain and drawn by the exotic Arabic music. A woman in the bar (Katharina Herberg) suggests Ali ask Emmi to dance, and she accepts. A strange and unlikely friendship develops, then a romance and finally they decide to marry.
What follows is a bitter and noxious reaction over their relationship. Gossipy neighbors treat them with contempt, complaining their (already noticeably dilapidated) tenement building has now become filthy. Emmi is shunned by her coworkers, and Ali faces discrimination at every turn. Emmi tells her son-in-law Eugen and daughter Krista (Fassbinder himself and Irm Hermann
Irm Hermann
-Biography:Hermann became a publishing clerk after finishing school and worked as a secretary for ADAC when she met Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1966, who convinced her to quit her job to work with him, despite her lack of formal training as an actor...
) that she is in love with Ali; Eugen thinks she is screwy.
The landlord's son arrives to point out that sub-letting is against Emmi's tenancy agreement, Ali must leave within a day, but she claims Ali and herself are planning to marry to alleviate this little difficulty. Later though, Ali thinks this is an excellent idea. When Emmi, whose first husband was a Polish worker she married against her Hitler-loving father's wishes, invites her three married children to meet her husband, they openly reject him. One of her sons smashes in her TV set in anger, her other son declares she must have lost her sanity, and her daughter and son-in-law leave "the pigsty" immediately.
Emmi and Ali take a long vacation together to escape the discrimination. After their return, they suddenly face the prospect of social acceptance. Out of longing for her old friends' respect, Emmi neglects Ali; when they comment on his muscles, she shows him off as if he were an object, as they remark how clean he is. She says he has mood swings, but it must be his "foreigner mentality", adopting the xenophobic attitudes of her friends in order to fit in. Emmi would not cook Ali couscous because she wanted him to eat German food, and generally become more German so they would fit in. He then turns to bartender Barbara (Barbara Valentin), who used to cook for him and begins an affair with her. Emmi grows desperate as their relationship deteriorates and visits him at work, where he pretends he doesn't know her as his workmates make fun of her age. Just when it seems as if the relationship is beyond repair, Emmi goes back to the bar to meet with Ali. They dance again and agree that the only thing that’s important is that they are together, and that they must be nice to each other. In this moment, Ali collapses in Emmi's arms from a burst stomach ulcer. Emmi visits Ali in hospital, where the doctor tells her the illness is common among migrants because of the stress they face in every day life due to prejudice; the doctor adds that Ali will have surgery to remove the ulcer, but will probably be back in 6 months with another ulcer. Emmi declares that she will do everything in her power to reduce that stress.
Cast
- Brigitte MiraBrigitte MiraBrigitte Mira was a German actress. She worked in both theater and film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder....
- Emmi Kurowski - El Hedi ben SalemEl Hedi ben SalemEl Hedi ben Salem , was a Moroccan actor best known for his work with German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.-Biography:...
- Ali - Barbara ValentinBarbara ValentinBarbara Valentin was an Austrian actress. She worked in film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder.-Biography:...
- Barbara - Irm HermannIrm Hermann-Biography:Hermann became a publishing clerk after finishing school and worked as a secretary for ADAC when she met Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1966, who convinced her to quit her job to work with him, despite her lack of formal training as an actor...
- Krista - Karl Scheydt - Albert Kurowski
- Marquard BohmMarquard BohmMarquard Bohm was a German actor. He appeared in more than 100 films and television shows between 1965 and 2000...
- Gruber - Walter SedlmayrWalter SedlmayrWalter Sedlmayr was a Bavarian stage, television, and movie actor.-Career:After his 1945 wartime Abitur, Sedlmayr served as a Flakhelfer towards the end of World War II...
- Angermayer - Doris Mattes - Mrs. Angermeyer (as Doris Mathes)
- Lilo Pempeit - Mrs. Münchmeyer
- Gusti Kreissl - Paula
- Margit Symo - Hedwig
- Elisabeth Bertram - Frieda
- Helga Ballhaus - Yolanda
- Elma Karlowa - Mrs. Kargus
- Anita Bucher - Mrs. Ellis
- Katharina Herberg - Woman in Bar
Production
The film was shot in just under two weeks, and was planned as an exercise in film-making for Fassbinder, to fill in the time in his schedule between the work on two other films, MarthaMartha (1974 film)
Martha is a 1974 drama film made for German television which was directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It features Margit Carstensen in the title role with Karlheinz Böhm as her abusive husband. It is one of the earliest of Fassbinder's films to be influenced by the American work of Douglas Sirk...
and Effi Briest
Effi Briest
Effi Briest is widely considered to be Theodor Fontane’s masterpiece and one of the most famous German realist novels of all time. Thomas Mann once said that if one had to reduce one’s library to six novels, Effi Briest would have to be one of them...
.
Ali is played by El Hedi ben Salem
El Hedi ben Salem
El Hedi ben Salem , was a Moroccan actor best known for his work with German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.-Biography:...
, who was Fassbinder's partner
Significant other
Significant other is colloquially used as a gender-blind term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, or sexual orientation, as it is vague enough to avoid offense by using a term that an individual...
at the time. Ben Salem committed suicide in jail several years later. Barbara is played by Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n actress Barbara Valentin
Barbara Valentin
Barbara Valentin was an Austrian actress. She worked in film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder.-Biography:...
, who was in the 1980s a partner of Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
, lead singer of the band Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
. Fassbinder himself has a cameo appearance as Emmi's son in law.
Film references
Ali is in part an homage to the films of Douglas SirkDouglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.-Life and work:...
, in particular Imitation of Life
Imitation of Life (1959 film)
Imitation of Life is a 1959 American film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by Ross Hunter and released by Universal Pictures, starring Lana Turner and John Gavin and features Sandra Dee, Dan O'Herlihy, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda and Juanita Moore as Annie Johnson. Gospel music star Mahalia Jackson...
and All That Heaven Allows
All That Heaven Allows
All That Heaven Allows is a romance feature film starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson in a tale about a well-to-do widow and a younger landscape designer falling in love. The screenplay was written by Peg Fenwick based upon a story by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee...
. The most overt homage is the scene in which Emmi's son kicks in the television (an important symbol in All That Heaven Allows) after finding out that his mother has married an Arab. Director Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...
made his own homage to both All That Heaven Allows and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul in 2002 with Far From Heaven
Far from Heaven
Far from Heaven is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, and Patricia Clarkson....
, which echoes Sirk's films, but is tempered with several themes taken from Fassbinder. Haynes discussed these connections explicitly in a video introduction to the Criterion Collection's DVD edition of Ali. In Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu Guo born 1973) is a Chinese novelist and filmmaker, who uses film and literary language to explore themes of alienation, memory, personal journeys, daily tragedies and develops her own vision of China's past and its future in a global environment....
's novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007) the heroine first meets her lover in a cinema at a showing of Fear Eats the Soul.