Ali, Fear eats the Soul: CRITERION (1 Viewer)

[Nathan V]

That's right.

Synopsis:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, already the director of almost twenty films by the age of twenty-nine, paid homage to his cinematic hero, Douglas Sirk, with this updated version of Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows. Lonely widow Emmi Kurowsky (Brigitte Mira) meets Arab worker Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love––to their own surprise––and to the shock of family, colleagues, and drinking buddies. In Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen seele auf), Fassbinder expertly uses the emotional power of the melodrama to underscore the racial tensions threatening German culture.

Features:

*New high-definition digital transfer
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Video introduction by director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven; Velvet Goldmine; Safe)
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Interviews with actress Brigitte Mira and editor Thea Eymèsz
*
Short film Fear is the Soul (2002)
*
Signs of Vigorous Life: New German Cinema, a 1976 BBC television program
*
Excerpt from The American Soldier starring Margarethe von Trotta
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Original theatrical trailer
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New and improved English subtitle translation
*
Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

 

[Jim Rankin]

I have never watched a Fassbinder film before, but I will pick up this one sight unseen. I have seen Sirk's All That Heaven Allows, and will be watching
Far From Heaven tonight, all I have heard about Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, is positive praise.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Finally!

I hope this is only the beginning of Criterion's commitment to bringing us Fassbinder on DVD! Wellspring has done some good work lately on their Fassbinder titles ("The Bitter Tears", "Effi Briest", "The Merchant of Four Seasons", "Fox and His Friends", etc), and Fantoma's releases are certainly top-notch (particularly "Whity"), but I'm thrilled that Fassbinder will finally be receiving the Criterion treatment. I'd love to see a Criterion boxset for "Berlin Alexanderplatz", or at the very least "The Marriage of Maria Braun" (or all three from that cycle of films)... but I wouldn't want to come off as greedy!

But I guess I am!

 

[WillardK]

Wellspring is doing a better than good job with their Fassbinder series imo... just a notch below a Criterion transfer with the latest batch (they're improving with each set of releases) and as good as Criterion supplements in the special editions. I've bought them all so far and am REALLY looking forward to Beware of a Holy Whore (due next month with Mother Kuster Goes to Heaven and Satan's Brew).

Fantoma are soon releasing their second Fassbinder set with In a Year of 13 Moons(another one I'm greatly anticipating), Why Does Herr R Run Amok? and Martha .

 

[Brook K]

Ditto Willard, I've bought every Fassbinder disc that's out and I will continue to do so.

 

[Lew Crippen]

You better hope to get hot at the table Brook, considering the number of films he made.

My advice would be to avoid trying to make a hard 8.