Life, Love & Celluloid

Unfocused and rambling, this is a missed opportunity from long time Rainer Werner Fassbinder editor Juliane Lorenz. Although advertised to be about the filmmaker, Fassbinder is actually only discussed in a fraction of the narrative, which goes off on other tangents to varying degrees of success. Disappointingly, no clips from his films are shown as Lorenz opts instead for excerpts from American productions of his plays (which don't fully translate for the camera) and footage of Hanna Schygulla performing a Fassbinder inspired one-woman show. Elsewhere, long tracking shots of New York City, LA and desert scenes are shown set to moody music with little sense of purpose. Random bits of narrative - some of Lorenz reading, some of Fassbinder himself - are overlaid without any indication as to their source. Too much focus is also given over to a 1997 MOMA retrospective of Fassbinder's work which incorporates comments from various punters and former collaborators which range from the moderately insightful to the rather banal.

There are some moments of interest if looked at more as an overview of the power and importance of film art in people's lives (in contrast to the Hollywood perception of it) but anyone seeking a fuller appreciation of Fassbinder is strongly recommended to instead seek out 'I Don't Just Want You To Love Me', Hans Günther Pflaum's superlative overview of the man and his career.