The lottery could be a metaphor for commercial or escapist movies. Most people know the odds of winning are impossible. But this doesn’t stop those who play from spending their money on tickets because they have hope. I’m not talking about the people who enjoy watching Hollywood movies as entertainment, but those who buy into the dream of rising to the ranks of the rich and famous and beautiful, successful careers, falling madly in love. The people who buy into a life beyond their own that would make them happy. The people’s hope for better.
Fox and His Friends (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) takes the standard rags to riches premise and somehow shows having it all while draining it of any semblance of joy or happiness. On target for Fassbinder’s disillusionment trajectory. And don’t think it’s a morality story to make you think about what your goals are and reflect on if they are really worth pursuing. That would be didactic. Fassbinder’s art is to take what we invest hope in and show how much it sucks. And God bless him for it.
The one aspect of Fox and His Friends which thus far separates it from any of Fassbinder’s other films is character. Because it has an antagonist we hate. An antagonist with no redeeming qualities whatsoever and who is exceedingly despicable, aggravating, obnoxiously loathsome. And this antagonist as the object of desire represents the attainment of both utter sexual indulgence and acceptance by someone of a higher social order as means of entry into that better life. It all comes down to earthly pleasures. Lust, vanity, ego, materialism. This is what everybody wants? Elsewhere in Fassbinder’s films we sympathize with flawed characters. Except not this time. Not with this villain.
The protagonist is FOX (played by Fassbinder). Never before in one of Fassbinder’s films has there been a character as laidback, confident, resourceful, and cool for being completely down on their luck. Fox is a carny by trade. But moreover he’s a hustler. With the distinction here being that he’s not the kind of hustler who takes advantage of anyone so much as he lets himself be taken advantage of by others to get by. And this last nuance gets to the emotional core of Fassbinder’s cinema. Fox is the good guy.
The plot of Fox and His Friends is structured in the form of a narrative that for us to watch is slow torture. Fox’s friends tell him he’ll draw the short end of the stick. And a plot device which proves most effective is that say you find yourself involved with a woman who really gets your rocks off. And you can’t get enough. Yet you find that she’s rotten and only using you. There’s no genuine affection. Just animal craving. And as she dismantles your dignity gradually and deliberately you begin to lose your sense of self. Why don’t you get out before it’s too late? That’s what’s most compelling about Fox and His Friends.
When Fox says “And besides I don’t have much time left anyway,” that’s when this whole anti-fairytale becomes existential. It’s saying in life you can have it all. But once you get it what else is left after all it will have taken out of you, taken from you, except to wander off and die somewhere od’ing on pills face down in some underground station?
Other random observations of some stuff I fancy in the film are for one the bickering. That shift from good sex in a relationship can make you overlook and accept anything to gradual diminishing returns and the ugly overlap into neverending petty arguments escalating stress between two people codependent too stupid to admit they hate each other. EUGEN (Harry Bär) with his lying selfish belittling arrogance because he knows he has the upper hand is revolting but is so well designed as to build into a terrifying plausibility particularly by way of all his little condescending ways of correcting Franz. The scene where the couple order in the French restaurant is the hardest to watch. And the “If you’re looking for the sugar tongs they’re in the sugar bowl,” line at the family dinner which sends Franz into a rage tossing the sugar cubes on the floor both have so much emotional stimulation into audience anger using such ordinary material is the height of Fassbinder’s talents.
And the breakup scene night exterior the way its high contrast color cinematography is so bold it looks like a million dollar 80s music video is too cool in its boldness. That red wall in the background at first. And the way Karl-Heinz Böhm is just silently there as chaperone intermediary in case Franz flips out and gets violent is such an effective component.
Finally I guess there’s the way KLAUS (Karl Scheydt) gets out on parole and instead of being this respite in Franz’s suffering he subtly is shown to have arranged some illegal smuggling partnership with UNCLE MAX. Kicking Franz literally when he’s down is also kicking us while we’re down. No honor among friends. Fox and His Friends is cruel. And among all Fassbinder’s other films that’s saying a lot. Although it also might be his most simple, straightforward, most accomplished narrative. And when Franz is lying there and Klaus and Uncle Max leave him for dead, the chilling finality mortality void of it all just when it seems too much Fassbinder gives us that whimsical carnival sideshow music and somehow that little twist is as if to say hey it’s life but it’s not a big deal. Commiserating becomes a celebration. Wait a minute I’m happy through all this? How is that possible? I don’t recall any catharsis? Don’t sweat the technique.
The one aspect of Fox and His Friends which thus far separates it from any of Fassbinder’s other films is character. Because it has an antagonist we hate. An antagonist with no redeeming qualities whatsoever and who is exceedingly despicable, aggravating, obnoxiously loathsome. And this antagonist as the object of desire represents the attainment of both utter sexual indulgence and acceptance by someone of a higher social order as means of entry into that better life. It all comes down to earthly pleasures. Lust, vanity, ego, materialism. This is what everybody wants? Elsewhere in Fassbinder’s films we sympathize with flawed characters. Except not this time. Not with this villain.
The protagonist is FOX (played by Fassbinder). Never before in one of Fassbinder’s films has there been a character as laidback, confident, resourceful, and cool for being completely down on their luck. Fox is a carny by trade. But moreover he’s a hustler. With the distinction here being that he’s not the kind of hustler who takes advantage of anyone so much as he lets himself be taken advantage of by others to get by. And this last nuance gets to the emotional core of Fassbinder’s cinema. Fox is the good guy.
The plot of Fox and His Friends is structured in the form of a narrative that for us to watch is slow torture. Fox’s friends tell him he’ll draw the short end of the stick. And a plot device which proves most effective is that say you find yourself involved with a woman who really gets your rocks off. And you can’t get enough. Yet you find that she’s rotten and only using you. There’s no genuine affection. Just animal craving. And as she dismantles your dignity gradually and deliberately you begin to lose your sense of self. Why don’t you get out before it’s too late? That’s what’s most compelling about Fox and His Friends.
When Fox says “And besides I don’t have much time left anyway,” that’s when this whole anti-fairytale becomes existential. It’s saying in life you can have it all. But once you get it what else is left after all it will have taken out of you, taken from you, except to wander off and die somewhere od’ing on pills face down in some underground station?
Other random observations of some stuff I fancy in the film are for one the bickering. That shift from good sex in a relationship can make you overlook and accept anything to gradual diminishing returns and the ugly overlap into neverending petty arguments escalating stress between two people codependent too stupid to admit they hate each other. EUGEN (Harry Bär) with his lying selfish belittling arrogance because he knows he has the upper hand is revolting but is so well designed as to build into a terrifying plausibility particularly by way of all his little condescending ways of correcting Franz. The scene where the couple order in the French restaurant is the hardest to watch. And the “If you’re looking for the sugar tongs they’re in the sugar bowl,” line at the family dinner which sends Franz into a rage tossing the sugar cubes on the floor both have so much emotional stimulation into audience anger using such ordinary material is the height of Fassbinder’s talents.
And the breakup scene night exterior the way its high contrast color cinematography is so bold it looks like a million dollar 80s music video is too cool in its boldness. That red wall in the background at first. And the way Karl-Heinz Böhm is just silently there as chaperone intermediary in case Franz flips out and gets violent is such an effective component.
Finally I guess there’s the way KLAUS (Karl Scheydt) gets out on parole and instead of being this respite in Franz’s suffering he subtly is shown to have arranged some illegal smuggling partnership with UNCLE MAX. Kicking Franz literally when he’s down is also kicking us while we’re down. No honor among friends. Fox and His Friends is cruel. And among all Fassbinder’s other films that’s saying a lot. Although it also might be his most simple, straightforward, most accomplished narrative. And when Franz is lying there and Klaus and Uncle Max leave him for dead, the chilling finality mortality void of it all just when it seems too much Fassbinder gives us that whimsical carnival sideshow music and somehow that little twist is as if to say hey it’s life but it’s not a big deal. Commiserating becomes a celebration. Wait a minute I’m happy through all this? How is that possible? I don’t recall any catharsis? Don’t sweat the technique.
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