Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Criterion Collection)

While not a direct remake of Douglas Sirk's 'All That Heaven Allows', Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul' updates the premise of society's reaction to the taboo love between an older woman involved with a younger man by increasing the conflict with the addition of a racial component to the mix. Fassbinder was well suited to tell a story of a love judged by society as at the time of production he was involved in a relationship with lead actor El Hedi ben Salem.

As the film opens, Emmi (Brigitte Mira), a 60-something German cleaning woman, enters a bar where Arabic music is playing in order to get out of the rain. Ali (Salem) is a 30-something Moroccan immigrant who has been in the country for a couple of years and works as a mechanic. He is told to ask Emi to dance as a bit of a joke from his friends, but the two appear to enjoy each other. Earlier, the audience was shown Ali blowing off one of the ladies at the bar who wanted to have sex with him. Later, it is revealed that Emmi is a widow and her children are off with their own families. Regardless of how many people are around them, it's obvious they are both lonely and they quickly form a bond.

After Ali walks Emmi home, she invites him up for coffee to wait out the rain, earning the sneers and jeers of gossipy neighbors. Giving the viewer a sense of race relations in Germany at the time, Ali states how tougher things have become for Arabs since the 1972 Munich Olympics, without stating it is because the Palestinian terrorist known as Black September were responsible for killing eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer. Just that he is brown-skinned is enough excuse for some people to treat him as less than a human being. When she learns he shares a small apartment with five other men, she offers him a room of his own to stay the night. Their talking together in her room cuts to him waking up shirtless in her bed and her exhibiting shock and disbelief, revealing what has happened between the two.

They begin an unlikely love affair, but Ali seems sincere in his feelings. Emmi is overjoyed at her happiness but suffers the racism of her co-workers, her family, and even a local storeowner. In one shot, Fassbinder shows her isolation. After her co-workers have left her on the stairs, the camera shows her seated on the stairs behind the staircase railing, making her look like a prisoner behind bars. He makes similar choices throughout, showing the characters isolated through the camera framing.

When Emmi has a chance to reconnect with people, she does so at Ali's expense, and only pays attention to her feelings. She tells him to help one of the rude neighbors move things in the basement. She allows her co-workers to gawk and paw at him like he's a pet. And the one time we see him ask for something, for her to make couscous, she not only refuses because she doesn’t like it, she tells him to eat German foods. With their relationship obviously changed, it leaves the viewer wondering what the state of things will be between the two characters when the story concludes.

Fassbinder has created a very realistic story centered upon a compelling relationship that evolves in a very believable way. The viewer knows people like Emmi and Ali, might even have been in a similar situation at one time, and it makes the film more accessible. Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem give such captivating performances the film almost feels like a documentary because the characters are so authentic. 'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul' is a classic from the New German Cinema Era.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul' (#198 in The Criterion Collection) comes on a 50GB Region A Blu-ray disc in a clear keepcase. The discs boot up directly to the menu screen without any promotional advertisements. Included is a 10-page booklet containing "One Love, Two Oppressions," an essay by author Chris Fujiwara.