R. W.

FASSBINDER AS A POPULAR AUTEUR: THE MAKING OF AN AUTHORIAL LEGEND

Author(s): JANE SHATTUC
Source: Journal of Film and Video , Spring 1993, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Spring 1993), pp. 40-57
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the University Film & Video
Association

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 R. W. FASSBINDER AS A POPULAR AUTEUR:
THE MAKING OF AN AUTHORIAL LEGEND
JANE SHATTUC

I discovered a way to approach auto as the changing history of film in West

biography less onanistically, less as Germany in the 1970s, this article exam
an end in itself, and possibly to find ines the importance of " Fassbinder" the
out what I could say about myself that historical being to understand "the Fass
would be more universally valid.? binder film."
R.W. Fassbinder, 1974
Precedent exists for this discursive analy
People like F. [Fassbinder] are not
suitable for a positive cultural and
sis of the director's "biographical leg
end." In his study of the films of Carl
media scene. Away with F.?TV
viewer letter in Der Spiegel, 1980
Dreyer, David Bordwell revived Boris
Tomashevsky's term in order to come to a
Fassbinder always had all the prereq historical understanding of the way "au
uisites to become a legend. The image thorship significantly shapes our percep
of this provocative existence moved tion of the work." Quoting Tomashevsky,
the imagination of human beings. And Bordwell contends: "The biography that
it served the demands of publicity for is useful to the literary historian ... is the
the artist perfectly: the artist himself biographical legend created by himself.
as a part of his art.?Fassbinder's TV Only such a legend is a literary fact" (9).
obituary, 1982
Such analysis goes beyond commonplace
A Fassbinder film can be understood with career studies and biographies to show
out knowledge of his biography, but such how the director created his/her persona
is a naive reading. The biographical read via public utterances, writings, and inter
ing is due to the way films of the European
actions with the film world. Bordwell ar
art cinema in the 1960s and 1970s were gues: "However subjective, however self
promoted in criticism and the popular centered, such a legend may appear, that
press as the personal statements of their legend has an objective function in a his
directors. These statements have had real torical situation." In many ways the bio
and historical "objective" status in the graphical legend establishes the preferred
reception of Fassbinder's films within his reading of the text: "Created by the film
own country. Although the Fassbinder maker and other forces (the press, ci
myth involved both his filmic form as well n?philes), the biographical legend can de
termine how we 'should' read the films
Jane Shattuc is an assistant professor of film at and career. We do not come innocent to
Emerson College. She has written articles on the films" (9). As much as the auteur
the cultural reception of Fassbinder, melo theory purported to examine the sociohis
drama, and modernist and postmodern film torical intersection of the director and
aesthetics. Her book, Television, Tabloids, and
Tears: R. W. Fassbinder and Popular Culture, his/her style, it functioned more often to
is forthcoming from the University of Minne mystify the director's role by canonizing
sota Press.
him/her through association with other
Copyright ? 1993 by J. Shattuc "great" artists or by labeling him/her a

40 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 45.1

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 3

Rainer Werner Fassbin

"genius" and Fassbinder himself. I defied

who have further
tion. subdivided the cultural press along class
and political alignments.
Although I am in agreement with the gen
eral direction of the Tomeshevsky/Bord In West Germany a clear distinction exists
well project, I take my analysis of Fass between the bourgeois and popular news
binder's biographical legend one step papers and in the classes of their respec
further and argue that the "Fassbinder tive readerships. Although Germans of
legend" is not exclusively the product of various classes have access to and read
the director's self-conscious manipula bourgeois newspapers and magazines, one
tions of his public image. Rather, it is the can categorize them based on which
result of a number of competing and often class constitutes the majority of their
contradictory discourses that evolved out audiences. The major "bourgeois" or
of state-regulated capitalism and culture in "cultural" organs are Der Spiegel, Die
West Germany. We need to look at all the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die
various participants with a vested interest Frankfurter Rundschau, Die Zeit, Die
in the phenomenon known as the "Fass S?ddeutsche Zeitung, teleschau, and Die
binder film." Suttgarter Zeitung. I have also included as
part of the cultural press the more profes
Three major competing forces constructed sional television journals and newsletters,
the "Fassbinder legend": the television Ferns eh-information and Kirche und
industry, the press (subdivided into the Rundfunk. The popular press ranges from
German film/media journals, bourgeois the conservative Springer tabloids, Die
"cultural" press, and mass-circulated Welt and Das Bild (the most widely read
boulevard organs of the Springer Press), dailies), to the popular television maga

JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 45.1 41

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 zines, such as H?r zu, Funk-Uhr, and tion, and political allegiance were debated
H?ren+Sehen, which tend to have a lib publicly, along with his suitability as an
eral-to-conservative populous bias (Sand artist and the "originality" of his films?
ford 25-68). the hallmarks of bourgeois creativity.

I base this study on published statements

from 1968 (when Fassbinder's name first The Theater Fassbinder
appeared in the press) to 1982 (the year of
his death) from the three major discours The discourse of Autor revolved first
es?public television, the press, and Fass around Fassbinder's work within the
binder?as they competed to construct avant-garde/leftist theater of the late
"their" Fassbinder. This account is gar 1960s. Paradoxically, critics chose to
nered from 52 West German journals, nominate Rainer Werner Fassbinder as an
newspapers, and magazines in an effort to individual^utor, although he began work
discern what Michel Foucault called a ing in a collective, challenging the bour
"regularity (an order, correlations, posi geois tradition. There was growing dissat
tions and functions, transformations)" isfaction in Germany at the time with the
that we can term "the Fassbinder legend" dominance in theater (and literature) of
(38). Although this analysis does not at the "author" as a singular authority. The
tempt a systematic mapping of Fassbind ater troupes in Berlin, Munich, and Stutt
er's biography, it will present the most gart were also challenging the power of
common "regularities" of what was writ theater administrators to define the canon
ten about the director. of "producible" drama.

Whereas the American and British aca Attracted by the immediacy of the theater
demic reception of Fassbinder's work was and its potential for direct action, leftist
primarily Sirkean, the German reception playwrights and novelists rewrote such
was more often autobiographical. More traditional theater classics as Peter
than other directors, Fassbinder at Weiss's The Investigation, Martin Wals
tempted to create a popular public persona er's Child's Play, and Peter Zadek's Mea
in order to appeal to the public base of sure for Measure. They altered the con
state-supported Autorenfilm. German ac tent and form of traditionally sacrosanct
counts of the director and of the "notori works in part to play havoc with the
ous" sexual politics in his films (arid his respect accorded the original authors' in
life) filled the pages of the "cultural" and tentions and, in many cases, to fit new
mass "boulevard" presses. Fassbinder's priorities: radical politics and student ac
status as West Germany's leading director tivism. The staging was constructed
added a new dimension Jo film reception: around sit-ins, the interruption of acts
The director's biography was the text. with banners, and leafleting.

The method of my analysis of Fassbind Plays were taken to the streets and bars
er's image is derived from Richard Dyer's frequented by the lower classes in an
analysis of Jane Fonda in Stars (72-98). attempt to create a "popular" theater, and
Unlike the Hollywood division of labor young German theater collectives sprang
between star, scriptwriter, and director, up in basements (Kellertheater) and on the
however, these distinctions collapsed in street (Strassentheater), refuting the pri
the case of Fassbinder the art cinema macy of the author's position in the inter
director. At issue was not only Fassbind pretation or production of his/her work
er's ability to represent German culture, (Handke 6-12). Modeled on the long tradi
but the myth of aesthetic individualism. tion of socialist theater stemming from
Fassbinder's homosexuality, class, educa such Weimar experiments as the Volks

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b?hne ("people's theater"), these groups ater), but he argued that the play failed
deemphasized hierarchical control and historically when Fassbinder attempted to
middle-class notions of aesthetic individu update the work by adding such 1960s
alism and generally challenged German iconography as music by the Rolling
theater for its bourgeois underpinnings. In Stones (S?ddeutsche Zeitung 9 Oct. 1967:
this milieu, Fassbinder first appeared as a 11).
member of a theater collective in 1967.
When Fassbinder finally did achieve pub
lic recognition as an Autor and as director
Action Theater, 1967-68 of the play Katzeimacher, the press's re
ception was conditioned by his association
The Munich-based Action Theater collec with the film world. In the review in
tive, which began in October 1967, repre S?ddeutsche Zeitung, entitled "Beyond
sented a leftist attempt to turn German the Culture Industry: A Premiere and a
theatrical tradition upon itself. Commu Straub Production in the Action Theater,"
nally controlled by approximately seven Fassbinder played a secondary role to
members,1 the group adapted such canon filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub and his stag
ical works as Antigone, L?once and Lena, ing of an adaptation of a short Bruckner
and Iphigenia and investigated the intrin work. The "premiere" referred to Fass
sic values of such classics by brazeningly binder's production, but the headline sug
substituting contemporary German politi gested that Straub's name recognition as a
filmmaker outranked that of the theater
cal issues for the original themes.
director, Fassbinder. Although the article
Even though the Action Theater chal mentioned Fassbinder, the style of the
lenged the hierarchy of authors and artis Action Theater troupe introduced the
tic personnel within the troupe, the piece:
Munich cultural press continually individ
ualized the sources of the troupe's perfor The Action Theater goes by a differ
mances. Fassbinder first emerged publicly ent drummer?it is culturally hostile,
in October 1967 with the group's produc it is hostile toward the public, it is
tion of Georg B?chner's L?once and leftist, doing damage to the sacro
Lena, even though the play was produced sanct and forms of presentation. . . .
collectively by four directors. In fact, the They have directors who are capable
S?ddeutsche Zeitung review recom of serving the house best by creating
mended the play based on its reputation as the house's own style. But, above all,
a "classic" and the fame of its 1830s they have authors (Autoren) in the
author without noting that the troupe had ensemble who write exactingly the
texts the Action Theater can and
so radically altered the play that only the
title remained (9 Oct. 1967: 11). wants to bring about (S?ddeutsche
Zeitung 9 April 1968: 24).
The first major public recognition of Fass An important concept in the Fassbinder
binder as a solo director and artist came
legend takes hold here. The reviewer per
with the production of Ferdinand Bruck ceived Fassbinder's success as part of the
ner's play The Criminals in December Action Theater collective's political and
1967. Although the only newspaper re aesthetic stance whereby an artist writes
view was positive and lengthy, Fassbinder and directs within the strictures of what
was seen as an adaptor and not an inter "the Action Theater can and wants to
preter of the 1920s leftist work about the bring about."
criminal class and the courts. The re
viewer was an obvious fan of Munich's The idea of the individual artist subsuming
leftist theaters (including the Action The his/her self to the collective's identity is

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 repeated in the experience and reception Instead of attributing the production to
of the collective's most notorious work, any one individual's genius (Brecht, Peer
Axel Caesar Haarmann, in June 1968. Raben, or Fassbinder)?the traditional
(The title refers to both the Roman em treatment of German theatrical analysis?
peror and right-wing publisher Axel Cae the critic viewed the performance as an
sar Springer.) The play was a highly outgrowth of the troupe's collective or
charged example of Demonstrationsthe countercultural personality. This review
ater, theater based on the forms of the serves as one of the few recognitions of
1960s protest movement. Even though the group as a collective author and is thus
Fassbinder had gained some renown for a political or cultural victory for its attack
his previous directorial work and for a on the primacy of the individual author in
S?ddeutsche Zeitung report of his arrest German bourgeois theater. But what is
at the demonstrations in Paris in May more significant was the emergence of a
1968, he receded into the background as new public discourse in which the troupe's
the collective produced its response in private existence was conflated with its
Axel Caesar Haarmann to the attempted aesthetic mode.
assassination of Rudi Dustschke, a leftist
student organizer. As I have written elsewhere (Shattuc
1993), the reference to the Living The
The leaflet for the performance of Axel
ater's Artaudian style enabled the S?d
Caesar Haarmann proclaimed an attack
deutsche Zeitung reviewer to make sense
on West Germany's version of William
of the Action Theater troupe's alternative
Hearst, Axel Springer: "This has to do
theatrical as well as living styles; he re
with Springer! (and the rotten democracy moved the distinctions between theater
which allows him power)." It explained
and life. Even the theater's poverty and
(referring to Brecht) that the aim of the
filth were an extension of the "aesthetic"
play was to disclose "what power is, and
how it is endured as a perverted emotion
experience. The "ensemble's house poli
tics" resulted in "the heating up of the
with some people."2 The statement was
more a reference to Brecht's antiauthori theater as a political arena of action."
tarianism than to his style or Marxist
More important, Brustellin's review dis
philosophy. Indeed, the troupe never pro
solved much of the difference between the
duced Brecht's plays.
troupe's public and private spheres. Axel
In fact, the troupe's first national review, Caesar Haarmann became the equal of
in Theater heute, emphasized the diver any of the "spontaneous" or nonacted
gence from Brecht's style. The review antiestablishment or Vietnam demonstra
made no reference to Fassbinder, who tions going on in the streets. Indeed, the
appeared at the end of the play to an troupe had overstepped the comfort of
nounce that the authorities were shutting aesthetic distance, and its theater was
down the performance and to hose down closed down by Munich authorities in
the audience while demanding that the hall June 1968. The closing had its intended
be cleared. The critic for Theater heute, result: The antiauthoritarian collective
Alf Brustellin, who was obviously drawn lost its structure and disbanded.
to this bit of stage agit-prop, argued for
an inspiration different from Brecht's:
"Alienation [Verfremdung] is truly the Antiteater, 1968-74
only thing that the Action people share
with Brecht. . . . The impulses the Action The troupe was reorganized under Fass
Theater uses to influence people . . . come binder's direction in July 1968. The anti
directly out of reality (the Living Theater), teater evolved into a more classically or
and the pop and hippie culture" (44). ganized theater as Fassbinder came to the

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 forefront as the central "creative person authors in its choice of what to review and
ality." The "Fassbinder troupe" debuted its evaluations.
with Peter Weiss's Mockinpott at the
Still, why did the established critics of
Academy of Visual Arts. The program
Frankfurter Rundschau, Frankfurter
explained the group's polemical style as
Allgemeine Zeitung, and S?ddeutsche
harkening back to the Dada manifestos of
the 1920s: "antiteater = ensemble of the Zeitung fail to distinguish Fassbinder's
individual expressive method from the
Action Theater, antiteater = socialist the
original authors' intent? They had made
ater, antiteater = information" (Karsunke such a distinction in articles on the rela
6). Fassbinder argued publicly that his
tionship between the authors' intent and
growing role (along with that of Peer Ra
the collective's staging. The silence about
ben) did not reflect a political change in
Fassbinder and his aesthetic position sud
the troupe but rather a matter of expedi
denly disappeared when the director fi
ence?the need for a head of an organiza
tion. nally received national exposure. This
change attests to the institutional differ
ence in the reception of the "high
Nonetheless, a subtle change occurred in
culture" realm of theater and the "popu
the critical reception of the troupe's pro lar" world of film and television.
ductions: The role of the collective's po
litical/aesthetic philosophy diminished in
importance and Fassbinder became the Fassbinder as Film-Television Maker
motivation behind the group's creative
One cannot overemphasize the change in
drive. There was hardly any attempt to
the critical reception of Fassbinder's art
distinguish Fassbinder as an individual
when he made the leap from the tradi
from what had traditionally been reported
tional, but limited, arena of theater to the
as the group's aesthetic and politics. Re mass media of film and television. Admit
views offered no biographies, interviews,
tedly, his work in both theater and film
or comparisons with his previous works to
distinguish him from the collective: Fass
was relegated to the margins of popular
binder was the antiteater. In the words of reception insofar as he challenged their
forms and institutional structures, but the
one Munich reviewer, it was "Fassbinder
costs of producing and selling a small
who had learned Goethe's Iphigenie in
nonmainstream film called for a larger
school," and it was his style that revealed
audience and a larger sphere of exhibition
"the hypocrisy of authority" (S?ddeut
(no longer tied to a theater but now to a
sche Zeitung 31 Oct./l Nov. 1968: 10).
name). Even the institutions of the Ger
The antiteater enabled Fassbinder to sta man art cinema (festivals, art film houses,
federal prizes, and the journals) increased
bilize his career-long pattern of combining
a film's accessibility to a national audi
idiosyncratic adaptations of the classics
ence. More important, in moving to film,
(Jarry's Orgie Ubu, Goethe's Iphigenia on Fassbinder was not limited to the more
Tauris, Sophocles' Ajax, and Gay's Beg rarefied art cinema circuits but was also
gar's Opera) with his own plays (Ameri shown on television. These distinctions
can Soldier, Pre-paradise Sorry Now, An
between forms (theater and film) and
archy in Bavaria, and Blood on the Cat's
methods of diffusion (performance, art
Collar). Admittedly, his penchant for pro
cinema exhibition, and broadcast) can be
ducing the classics fit into an acceptable
seen as the complicated, but central, key
German tradition of "updating" such
to the peculiarly sensational reception of
works for contemporary audiences, but
Fassbinder's oeuvre in West Germany.
the degree to which they were altered was
rarely addressed. The press relied on the One needs to examine also the institu
established acceptability of the canonical tional influences of the art cinema on the

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reception of Fassbinder's first films. Fass binder's move into a general national,
binder had already made two shorts when albeit "cultured," reception. The impor
he released his first feature, Love Is tance of these reviews also lies in the
Colder than Death (Liebe ist k?lter als der degree to which they personalized Fass
Tod, 1967, 88 mins.), at the Berlin Film binder, who heretofore had been judged
Festival in June 1969.3 The film did not by broader aesthetic and political norms.
win any immediate critical acclaim, but
the premiere at the Berlinale resulted in The German press began its fascination
interviews that did single him out as the with the Fassbinder legend in December
individual authorial source. 1969 with a full-page study in Der Spiegel
entitled "Fun Demands Consciousness?
In addition, as a major state-funded show Spiegel Reporter Fritz Rumbler on the
case, the Berlinale accorded Fassbinder a Antiteater Chief Rainer Werner Fass
number of important articles in national binder." Fassbinder had quickly become
newspapers?the Berlin Tagesspiegel, the sole artist; the collective had receded
Film (the German film fan magazine), and into the background. The Spiegel article
Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Ger established three central themes in rela
many's most prestigious daily. Compara tion to Fassbinder's individual importance
ble to an interview in the New York Times, in the antiteater collective?his youthful
the latter's notice signaled the filmmaker's age (23), the quickness of his work style,
potential to reach a middle-class audience. and the amazing productivity of his short
After this breakthrough, several compara career: "In two short years he has made 4
ble interviews followed in which Fass films, written 5 theater plays, worked on
binder's extensive work in theater was 10 pieces, and produced 17 plays; and, in
mentioned as at best a sidelight. They addition, acted in the theater, run the
culminated in a long interview in Filmkri theater commune, and smoked 60 ciga
tik, West Germany's most prestigious film rettes per day." His work's merit lay in
journal, and in the publication in Film of his originality. It quoted Fassbinder, "Ev
the script of Love Is Colder than Death erything is beautiful for us that rises as an
(1969: 34-55). alternative to the accepted" (82).

The second event that catapulted Fass Although the antiteater collective was de
binder into the limelight was a one-day, scribed as "Germany's most enthralling
13-hour retrospective in Bremen devoted private theater troupe," Fassbinder was
to his work. "Showdown" included two the only member to be painted as an
films (Katzelmacher and Love Is Colder individual: "like a phoenix from Munich's
than Death), two theater pieces, and a underground ... the boy wonder of the
cabaret review (Iden 13-14). Here, Fass season." In fact, the article failed to
binder was revealed to have the oeuvre mention any of the collective's other
that marks aesthetic individualism, a clas members by name, preferring to delve into
sical determinant of auteur/Autor status. Fassbinder's biography. The major char
The immediate catalyst for this attention acteristics were (1) his unique aesthetic
was the premiere of his second publicly disposition (his German middle-class
released film, Katzelmacher, at the 1969 background but lack of formal education),
Mannheim Film Festival?an event that is (2) Action Theater's connections with
always met with wide publicity (Baer 254). German terrorism, and (3) his formation of
the antiteater, for which "he wrote his
The German critical reception of the Fass plays himself with the help of the collec
binder "Showdown" at the State Bremen tive." The collective's experiment with
Theater still was limited to Der Spiegel nonbourgeois creative processes now rep
and Theater heute, but they signaled Fass resented only "trouble" (Kummer) and at

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best a sexual outlet for Fassbinder's "pro crew) enabled him to produce feature films
miscuity." As a result, the reporter ar on low budgets. He was therefore able to
gued, "It seems that the astounding per make use of the maze of State Film Pro
sonality of this early matured 20-year-old motion grants, Federal Republic Prize
holds this group together in crisis" (Der monies, distribution advances, and direct
Spiegel Dec. 1969: 82). private financing. By the late 1970s, Fass
binder was able to invest more than
Ironically, the public death of the collec 700,000 DM from Film Production Law
tive anti-hierarchical aesthetic was chron monies into his most personal film, In the
icled in November 1970. West German Year of 13 Moons (Baer 120).
television's "The End of a Commune," a
semi-documentary account of "the diffi As art cinema films, the majority were
culties of communal work in our society," premiered at either the Berlin Film Festi
chronicled the antiteater's events. The val or Mannheim Week?the two most
docudrama (broadcast nationwide during influential German festivals of the 1970s.
primetime) revealed that the antiteater During this period Fassbinder also pre
was publicly recognized as an important miered his films at other European festi
and unique experiment in an alternative vals?Vienna (1969), Venice (1970), and
vision of authorship. Not surprisingly, the Cannes (1972, 1974)?and placed his films
program chose to present a very negative in big-city art houses: Cinemonde (Mu
view of this nontraditional concept of cre nich) and Kurbel (Berlin). The lion's share
ativity and pointed to Fassbinder as its of his films were distributed and often
"true" source. Significantly, the collec co-financed by Filmverlag der Autoren?
tive responded (without Fassbinder) in a one of the major distributors of the
letter arguing that the film had "destroyed "name" directors of the New German
their quiet attempt at collective work form Cinema.
and had embraced a middle-class genius
cult" (Der Spiegel Nov. 1970: 143). By 1972, Fassbinder was a recognized
institution within the important, albeit nar
row, bourgeois art cinema. Ulrich Gregor
The Art Cinema Fassbinder, 1970-76 of Berlin's cinematheque, Arsenal, con
tracted with Fassbinder to screen a series
The Fassbinder of the art cinema is the devoted only to these private art house
one with whom we are most familiar. His films (Variety 10 May 1972: 43). Simulta
films circulated in the film festivals, art neously, these films were being discussed
houses, and student film clubs of West and promoted by West Germany's film
Germany. It is through the festivals that journals (Filmkritik, Film, and Film und
Fassbinder was first noticed in America by Fernsehen). It was the German mass
Variety. His privately financed films ful circulated presses, however, that created
filled all the institutional characteristics of the popular legend of Fassbinder's autho
classic postwar national art cinema. From rial marks within his personal films. As
1969 to 1977, Fassbinder produced 10 to Fassbinder evolved as the "star" of his
12 such films, including some of his most films, these presses established a series of
autobiographical and well-known fea contradictory discussions about Fassbind
tures: Beware the Holy Whore (1970), Ali: er's position as both Autor and autobio
Fear Eats the Soul (1973), and Fox and graphical figure.
His Friends (1975). The filmmaker's pro
duction methods (one-take shooting, a Fassbinder's filmic work lacked recogniz
tight and seasoned acting troupe whose able stars. He used his antiteater acting
members worked for percentage points in troupe?actors from the fringes of Mu
the film, and nonprofessional technical nich's avant-garde leftist theater circles.

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 3

Rainer Werner Fassbin

Their self
creative and th
roles
favor of self.
individualizin
artistic source. Only af
successes of the
Elizabeth Burns argues that the mid-1
"life as
such as Hanna Schyg
theater" phenomenon is one of the central
ognizable concepts
stars. And
of stardom in that the actor "in e
recognition through
tervenes . . . between the authenticity of
they were still
his own associat
life, of his own self and its past as
the nameknown of to himself (andFassbind
as known or as
example, sumed
was often
at least in part to the audience) and d
binder's Hannah
the authenticated life of the character he is Schy
German press also
playing" (146-47). One can attribute much re
sure toward
of Fassbinder's star singular
phenomenon to his
article entitled "The B
public reception as the relationship be
"The strategy?to
tween his films and his personal life be ma
and a figure as
came increasingly ambiguous.2 the b
necessity in our societ
fixed more on a single
Although there is no one Fassbinder "leg
groups and collective
end" or "image," a range of images is
Given the
associatedgeneral
with him. That range is limited re
binder as
by whatthe organ
the press, his institutional sup
films?a status peculia
porters, and Fassbinder himself said about
director?he
the director. Asextended
a result, this polysemy
called the "Fassbinder legend" level.
tobiographical changed
line over time. Somethe
between stars, such as John Auto
agent andWayne,the
are able to create astar,
stable image. w
stantly toIn the case
a of Fassbinder,
real however, the wor
world comparison
tension between the privilege of his status kn
What is as an Autor and the scrutiny of his life as a to
particular th
which is star created contradictions
not usually that slowly re
is the fragmented with increased nationalsepara
uncertain expo

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sure through the popular medium of tele in order to gain some kind of 'preparation'
vision. to become an actor" (Twen June 1970:
115).

Fassbinder as Star Autor Another common approach to Fassbind

er's "ordinariness" was to focus on his
In an attempt to isolate Fassbinder as an ability to work hard. Countering the con
individual from his membership in a col ventional concept of the artist's privileged
lective, the West German press described position in not having to work for a living,
him as a psychologically differentiated in Fassbinder was seen as having "earned"
dividual with a specific biography; how his position through near "common" la
ever, the press sought to describe how bor. For example, he was compared to an
Fassbinder was both "ordinary" and "ex assembly line worker: "[Fassbinder] . . .
traordinary"?the classical contradiction produces film and theater plays like the
associated with stardom in which a spec baker on the corner produces morning
tator needs both to identify with and be in rolls" (Neue Westfalche Zeitung 27 June
awe of the star (Dyer 49). 1970: 9). Die Stuttgarter Zeitung con
curred, noting that Fassbinder was "the
Fassbinder's "ordinary" character boiled hardest working young filmmaker" and
down to his physical appearance, conser that his works were representative of dis
vative middle-class origins, and propen posable mass culture, "films to throw
sity for hard work. Unlike most authors or away" (27 Oct. 1972: 12). Even the con
artists, Fassbinder fell victim to the star servative Die Welt declared, "Once you
image as the press consistently com meet him, you'll decide that he is an
mented on his "ugly" appearance, which entirely ordinary guy" (23 July 1975: 3).
belied his status: "He appears as if he These press descriptions set in place the
continually has the mumps. A stocky fig Fassbinder who was "identifiable" to the
ure. Sleepy eyes. Shabby hair. Stubbly broad public.
beard. A little testy. A little shy. A full
moon face and stomach. That is?on first Significantly, this ordinary side of Fass
appearance?the controversial genius out binder also allowed the more hostile dai
of Munich" (H?r zu April 1970: 24). Die lies to question why he was so quickly
Zeifs assessment was that "he does not anointed West Germany's leading young
have a refined artistic appearance. He filmmaker. In 1975, Die Welt began an
looks more like a Mexican hacienda owner article by turning the art cinema's evalua
with a massive body, pocked face, and a tive process of Fassbinder against itself:
mustache" (31 July 1970: 9). "He made just one film and with it ex
ploded onto the cultural scene like a rock
Not only did the director's appearance star?leather jacket and boots. He was
belie his star qualities, his background not taken seriously at that time" (23 July
contradicted his radical politics. He came 1975: 3).
from the heart of conservative Bavarian
respectability. According to Twen, he On another level, one could argue that
grew up "in a bourgeois milieu?father comparisons of Fassbinder with the
doctor, mother-translator" (June 1970: "common man" or his filmic work with
115). Many articles pointed to the fact that rough physical labor were necessary ele
he did not even have the classic German ments for the director's acceptance by a
''Bildung" (cultivation) that defined a wider German audience. On this level, he
German Autor. Representative of this re was characterized as solidly German and
action is this statement: "He left high therefore deserving of state monies and
school without a diploma for acting school recognition as a German artist. By 1976,

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Fassbinder began playing into this persona know. But it is true, for example, that
in statements such as "As a German I can I must work on all that I experience.
only make German films" or claims that It must be experienced in order to
he wanted to be "a German Hollywood have the feeling (23 Aug. 1974: 12).
director" (Die Welt 27 May 1976: 3). More
accurately, these statements balanced This correlation with past and present
Fassbinder's individualistic or "artistic" emotional experiences established the in
side. As much as he was seen as having an dividual psychological basis for the con
affinity with the common German, the tinuum between his films and his life.
"extraordinary Fassbinder" and the "ho Here, his films were interpreted as a form
mosexual Fassbinder" were, neverthe of emotional release.
less, the more popular objects of West
German interest. By 1976 there was a direct correlation in
his films between these psychological
Like any star, Fassbinder was often de sources and his autobiography. Most of
scribed in superlatives. Given his "com the West German press noted the number
mon" background and appearance, his of directly autobiographical works in this
psychology took on the "extraordinary" mid-1970s period, including Beware the
quality. His propensity for hard work be Holy Whore, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, and
came "superhuman," bordering on "fren Fox and His Friends. The ever-antagonis
zied," in press descriptions. For instance, tic Die Welt reviewed Fox and His
H?r zu wrote: "This young man is not to Friends, in which the director, in the title
be measured by any normal or middle role, is a homosexual:
class rulestick. He creates like a horse.
Writes a play in three or four days. Sleeps His works come out of quotations,
hardly at all. Smokes without interrup found objects, and stories that he has
tion" (April 1970: 24). heard. And what is autobiographical
in them is most likely something he
A similar tendency to present him as ex will not say. The laconic remark over
cessive can be found years later in the his intention to write a novel must be
Frankfurter Rundschau: "Fassbinder is placed in context with his produc
the most multifaceted and productive tions, his difficulties in his private life,
among our young artists: actor, play and the frequent and open failures of
wright, film-television-theater director. In his theater productions. The truth
less than a few years he has made more comes sooner with the understate
than 20 (TV) films, not counting the radio ment: "I also have so much psycho
plays and theater productions" (12 March somatic suffering that is really dis
1974: 2). turbing" (27 March 1976: 5).

One cannot deny that Fassbinder was a The "possessed" or "disturbed" Fass
productive filmmaker. But as his film ca binder surfaced as the most frequent pub
reer and public recognition developed, his lic way of discussing his creativity. He
productivity became more directly related publicly stated that he worked so hard that
to his psychological makeup. Typical was there was no time between projects. Even
a much reproduced interview in the Stutt the liberal cultural weekly Die Zeit de
garter Zeitung. When asked about his scribed him as an "exhibitionist" and the
pauseless work schedule, he replied: audience member as "a voyeur without
free will." The article concluded, "Fass
It has to do with psychological rea binder is not considerate; he heals us with
sons, which come from somewhere in psychosomatic torment, homosexual fan
the past. What they are, I also do not tasies, sadomasochistic excesses, and a

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 lack of social responsibility" (15 Oct. orthodoxy, whether it was his excessive
1976: 33). In the eyes of much of the press, dramatic style, his notorious personal life,
Fassbinder's extraordinary psychological or the outrageousness of his productions.
makeup singled him out as an exceptional The more important question thus be
individual, an Autor who exceeded a star's comes: How did Fassbinder's television
position because he was not only an actor sponsors contain both the explosive po
and character but also the sole creative tential of the Autor7 s unorthodox style and
agency in his films. biography? The answer lies in analyzing
the division between the works Fass
binder made as an independent German
The Television Fassbinder, 1970-76 art cinema filmmaker and those he did for
television.
Although Fassbinder continued to make
films under the production company titles Fassbinder's excessive style was chan
antiteater, antiteater X-Film, and later neled into his work for television in what
Tango Films, the majority of his films has traditionally been described as a
were done for West German television. "melodramatizing" or popularizing of two
Seventeen of his 27 films from 1970 to 1977 television genres: the classic adaptation
were produced as either Fernsehspiele and the socially critical made-for-TV play.
(television plays), Fernsehfilme (television Working from literary sources in the be
films), or co-productions. As made-for-TV ginning of the decade, Fassbinder adapted
movies, these films were marketed for and canonical works. His political and icono
shown to a broad primetime German au clastic "Living Theater" style was scaled
dience who had limited knowledge of the down and promoted as a method of broad
conventions of the art cinema but a vested ening the appeal of high-art works. The
interest in these public television produc veneer of the popular codes of melodrama
tions as taxpayers. The question is, How was added. Thus, Fassbinder's melodra
could Fassbinder go from being a member matic adaptations can be seen as the Hol
of an anarchist leftist theater troupe, lywoodization of German high culture.
whose explosive productions were closely
associated with the disruptive student Fassbinder's early works were promoted
movement, to being the darling of state for the broad West German television
television? Obviously, the answer is not viewership primarily via the name and
simple. reputation of the original authors. Al
though the initial films he produced were
On the one hand, by 1970, Fassbinder fit "original" to Fassbinder?Why Did Mr.
television's needs. He was a recognized R. Run Amok? (Warum l?uft Herr R.
Autor coming out of West Germany's all Amok?, 1970) and Rio das Mortes
important (albeit leftist) theater commu (1971)?he soon settled into producing a
nity. He and his group had produced many series of adaptations: Carlos Goldoni's
of the canonized works of the German The Coffee Shop (Das Kaffeehaus, 1970),
theater. Moreover, given the tight nature Marielluise Fleisser's Pioneers of Inglo
of the former collective's work method, stadt (Pioniere in Inglostadt, 1970), and
Fassbinder could rapidly produce inex Franz Xaver Kr?tz's Wildwechsel (1972).
pensive films. Therefore, he fit comfort What is most significant is the scant pub
ably into the constraints of the low-budget licity these televised primetime works en
production methods of the made-for-TV gendered. While the national popular
movie. press was alive with discussion of Fass
binder's less seen art house films, such as
On the other hand, Fassbinder's recogni the prize-winning Katzelmacher (1969),
tion as an Autor was built around a lack of and his continued work with antiteater,

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 his TV adaptations were simply an binder the Autor as confessionist. In one
nounced in the television listings as, for of his few statements on his TV work
example, "Rainer Werner Fassbinder's during this period, the director underlined
adaptation of Carlos Goldoni's Das Kaf the self-conscious division between his
feehaus." In other words, the authorship work in television and in theater and film:
of these adaptations, altered as they were "Solely in television is it different. There
from the original, was not included in the one interacts with a multi-level public.
public appraisal of Fassbinder's "creative And I find at the moment that it is better to
genius." tell other people's stories" (Aachener
Nachrichten 19 May 1971: 5).
These films did, however, provide evi
dence for the mounting discourse about
Fassbinder's diversity, productivity, and Eight Hours Are Not a Day
uniqueness. The title of an article in West
Germany's most read magazine, H?r zu, In 1972-73, Fassbinder came to the atten
openly displays this equation?"The Rev tion of a broad West German television
olutionary with a Heart": "He makes audience with the Westdeutscher Rund
film, television, theater. He calls himself a funk's production of his workers' series:
'revolutionary.' He does not love just Eight Hours Are Not a Day (Acht Stunden
one?Rainer Werner Fassbinder is a sind kein Tag). Richard Collins and Vin
unique person" (April 1970: 24). cent Porter's study of workers' films
chronicles the political furor created by
Simultaneously, a whole other "Fass anticapitalist films and, most particularly,
binder"?the confessional Fassbinder? Fassbinder's popular contribution (50-60).
existed in the independent German film What they do not chronicle was how the
world. The filmmaker's work for the more series was a marked departure from Fass
select art house circuit was markedly dif binder's reputation for literary adaptations
ferent. Fassbinder's art films were original for television. Because of its unprece
and idiosyncratic in their stylistic articula dented scope (five episodes totaling 7
tions, including "his appropriation of the hours and 40 minutes), the series became
melodrama and his codes (expressive the center of public attention. More im
lighting, theatrical tableaux, garish decor portant, it was an unprecedented marriage
with narrow interiors, mirror reflections, of a popular German middle-class genre
heavily enunciated music at crucial junc (the family series) and a larger leftist ex
tures)" (Rentschler 84). But what some periment in workers' rights associated
academics do not describe was how these with the educational ideals of the Third
authorial codes were conditioned by and Channel.
functioned differently within the two sep
arate media of film and television. In his Although Fassbinder was chosen to direct
privately funded films, Fassbinder used this political series in part because of his
his melodramatic style to question the reputation as a leftist, the decision was
larger issue of the reliablity of the auteur/ based primarily on his ability to popularize
Autor as an expressive individual. bourgeois genres?the family series?a
choice that the producing television sta
Fassbinder's amazing career in two very tion emphasized. Peter M?rthesheimer,
different institutions?the mass medium of Fassbinder's TV producer, wrote a long
West German television and the high and intellectual explanation of the objec
culture world of the art cinema?was built tive of the series, in which he attempted to
around a delicate balancing act between legitimize it for the German intelligentsia
Fassbinder the producer of popularized based not on Fassbinder's fame as an
"classics" and social issues and Fass Autor but on the importance of using the

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 Conventions of middle-class fiction for political consciousness of the German
working-class inspiration: working class TV audience, through the
audience's identification with the charac
The forms of expression that formerly ters and the actions of an 'occupied' fam
belonged to the bourgeois and petit ily series" (52). In fact, one of the most
bourgeois milieu are in Eight Hours common strains in the critical discourse
introduced for the first time into the on the series was the abrupt switch the
proletarian milieu_The apparently style and content represented for Fass
unlimited scope for the action and binder, who heretofore had worked only
behavior which bourgeois culture al on classical adaptations for German tele
lows its heroes in the novel, the the vision or on his own privately produced
ater and even in the family series, films (Suttgarter Zeitung 27 Oct. 1972:
addicted to eclecticism and the cult of 23). Moreover, Fassbinder was challenged
the private, offer an effective lever to as inappropriate for such a working-class
make problematic the established, narrative because of his "autobiographical
regimented and constrained working background" as a child of the middle
class milieu (qtd. in Collins and Porter class. In response, he agreed:
149).
"Yes, I don't really know what it is
What is significant here is how M?rthe really like. I just have my idea of it.
sheimer uses "bourgeois culture" genres And I have worker friends and ... I
to legitimize the form and content of the give them the text so that they can
series. The director's previous work for read it and discuss it with me. Then I
public television had been promoted as alter the text until they finally say?
adaptations of established literary works yeah, it's like that near enough" (qtd.
of the educated middle class. In this case, in Collins and Porter 52).
when Fassbinder produced an original and
political TV film, his creative role and All that separated Fassbinder's response
political reputation were deemed less sig from that of a German Autor was the
nificant. The central issue became the degree to which the content and form of
right to exhibit the culture of the working the series did not conform to his "cultiva
class via the same forms used for that of tion" or his other works. At best, his
the bourgeoisie. reputation as a filmmaker with leftist sym
pathies corresponded to the series' overall
This discussion about the appropriation of sense, thus accounting for the conserva
a bourgeois form to convey a working tive backlash.4 Yet Fassbinder's role as an
class theme continued in the press. In the established Autor receded into the back
article "Is the Proletarian Wave Com ground in the academic/professional jour
ing?" Fassbinder argued: "One can use nal Kirche und Rundfunk. In a long article,
any genre to put across a message, Fassbinder's role was mentioned in one
whether you want to introduce a new line, where he was referred to as "the
sensitivity or political content. Family se popularizer of another class's experience"
ries are what Germans like watching. That (20 Nov. 1974: 6).
way you create a potential audience for
the first half hour. You're over the hill Although Eight Hours Are Not a Day was
then if people haven't turned off" (qtd. in widely seen (41-45 percent of the German
Collins and Porter 52). audience) and well received (60 percent of
that audience rated it "good" to "very
As Collins and Porter point out, the pro good"), the series was politically contro
ducers clearly planned to use "a familiar versial and attacked for its aesthetics as a
compromised genre as a vehicle for raising "stylistic mishmash" (Die Zeit 23 Dec.

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 1972: 22). The main thunder, however, graphical. He responded: "All my films
came from the established institutions of have something very personal to do with
the right and left, which attacked the se my life" (M?rthesheimer 152-53). The re
ries for being politically naive about how lationship between Fassbinder's television
the workplace functions. The major criti work and his personal life grew closer, but
cism lodged against Fassbinder was that the political nature of his TV films was
he had "a notion of political activity which continually denied in favor of the theme of
does not go beyond the realms of private emotional exploitation.
experience into the traditional areas of
political struggle and debate" (Collins and By 1975, the distance television had been
Porter 109). The general consensus was able to maintain between the Autor Fass
that Fassbinder was out of his domain.
binder and the biographical filmmaker be
gan to break down as he and the success of
The debate over Eight Hours had more to his confessional features became a con
do with the application of middle-class stant issue in all West German dailies. In
conventions of goal-oriented protagonists addition, he had won every major West
to a working-class milieu?a potentially German prize and state subsidy. Still,
explosive concept for the bourgeois indi West German television (especially West
viduals who ran the governing board of deutscher Rundfunk) wanted to produce
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). The his work. By the late 1970s, Fassbinder
governing board did not cancel the series, could dictate his choice of materials as a
but it did impose strict guidelines on Fass recognized feature film Autor. He was no
binder: He could produce future episodes longer constrained by the need to produce
only if he took into account the criticism the works of other authors.
against the first five. Fassbinder withdrew
from the series, seeing the new restric
tions as "too daunting." Since WDR saw Separating out the actual politics of Fass
binder's life from the quasi-political theme
the series as "authored" by Fassbinder,
they discontinued it, arguing that it would of sexual exploitation became necessary
have a credibility problem without him for state television's spokespeople. By the
(Collins and Porter 110).
mid-1970s, they had become increasingly
nervous about supporting anything that
By 1973, notoriety associated with direct
smacked of politics, given the change in
ing the working-class series and the corre
political climate brought on by the rise of
sponding public interest in his class origins
terrorism and the resulting Tendenz
made Fassbinder a well-known figure in wende, or the reactionary change in polit
the world of German mass media. He went ical climate. As a result, from 1976 to
1980, West German television produced
on to produce three shorter Fernsehspiele
within the social critical genre: Like a Bird only two Fassbinder productions, both
adaptations, after six years of producing at
on a Wire (Wie ein Vogel auf dem Draht
least two of his films a year. Both produc
[19741), Fear of Fear (Angst vor der Angst
[19751), and / Only Want You to Love Me
tions (Oscar Maria Graff's Bolwieser
[1976-77] and Women of New York [1977],
(Ich will doch nur, dass Ihr mich liebt
[1975-76]). Yet the correlation between adapted from Clare Booth's The Women)
Fassbinder's life and his work for televi did not have much much publicity or crit
ical notice.
sion continued to grow with the produc
tion of these "original" works. For a 1976
article in an official television publication, Furthermore, Westdeutscher Rundfunk
the filmmaker was asked whether the canceled two major television projects
themes of matricide and denied love in / with Fassbinder during this period. In
Only Want You to Love Me were autobio 1977, it canceled Fassbinder's adaptation

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of Gustav Freytag's Credit and Debit (Soil When Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz
und Haben), a "canonical" German 19th premiered on West German television in
century novel about a Jewish merchant. 1980, the populace had knowledge of the
Two years earlier his aborted theatrical television Fassbinder through his melo
production on the postwar Frankfurt dramatic adaptations of other authors'
building speculation, The Garbage, the works. They also had access to news
City, and Death (Der M?ll, die Stadt und accounts of his life, stemming from his
der Tod [1975]), had been branded "anti autobiographical films. But these worlds
Semitic" by the mass West German press, had remained relatively separate in that
although it was supported by the cultural Fassbinder's television works did not em
press.5 The television station thought this anate directly from him. They were not his
history would make it too difficult for the films or Autorenfilme. The art cinema and
planned 1977 TV adaptation of another television spheres had been separated by
text about Jews by Fassbinder. the institutional split in the production
of independent film in 1970s West Ger
In 1978, the station pulled out of produc
many. When Fassbinder produced West
ing The Third Generation (Die Dritte Gen
German television's biggest production to
eration) because of its theme of terrorism
and Fassbinder's connection to the date, however, an adaptation of Alfred
D?blin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, and de
Baader Meinhof terrorist group. Fass
clared, "I am Biberkopf" (the protago
binder published a rebuttal to WDR's
nist), those separate worlds collided. The
withdrawal in the widely read liberal daily
result was the biggest West German media
Frankfurter Rundschau: "Reality . . . was
controversy since the airing of the Amer
the province of television, which is unfor
ican series Holocaust. The airing of Berlin
tunately a public institution and as such
Alexanderplatz represented the meeting of
committed to a balanced approach to re
high-culture and popular culture ideolo
ality?or is it a balancing act, an undis
gies: Fassbinder's life as the source for
criminating pluralistic approach, in which melodrama.
anything and everything has legal rights,
especially the legal system?" (T?teberg
and Lessing 128). In the end, by embroiling the content of
his films so closely with his personal and
For all Fassbinder's growing fame in the historical existence, Fassbinder exploited,
tabloids by 1978, German public television questioned, and fell victim to the mechan
was able to ride out these crises either by ics of the bourgeois construction of aes
not producing or pulling out of Fassbind thetic individualism. Indeed, to be a leg
er's more "personal" or "political" end, a director must be in the impossible
works or by deflecting Fassbinder's biog position of being ultimately "knowable"
raphy away from the productions. Televi as a popular star and yet ultimately "un
sion maintained his high-culture status as knowable," or removed, as an author
the producer of the work of other Autoren, anointed by the bourgeoisie. Perhaps it is
yet he was a figure of popular culture as the taboo nature of his exploration of the
his sensational biography was melodrama context of aesthetic authority that led
tized in the popular press. Fassbinder was Fassbinder to christen his work "incest
able to be "ordinary" as a representative film."
German Autor and "extraordinary" as a
star/personality. But what does it mean to
be both exemplary as an artist and repre
sentative as a German? This was the con Notes
tradiction that made Fassbinder such a
potentially disruptive figure in West Ger 1 Although the membership of the Action
man society. Theater collective changed often, the seven

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major participants were Fassbinder, Peer Raben,
Ursula Straetz-Soehnlein, Hanna Schygulla, Works Cited
Irm Hermann, Ingrid Caven, and Kurt Raab.
Other than Straetz-Soehnlein, all these mem
bers became part of Fassbinder's film troupe as Baer, Harry. Schlafen kann ich, wenn ich
actors and sometimes creative assistants. Raab tot bin. Cologne: Kiepenheuer &
often acted as the set designer and assistant Witsch, 1982.
director (24 films) and Peer Raben composed Bordwell, David. The Films of Carl
the music for no fewer than 25 of Fassbinder's
films.
Dreyer. Berkeley: U of California P,
1981.
2 This political declaration (of sorts) marks
another leitmotif in Fassbinder's career: the Brustellin, Alf. "Action Theater in Mu
long antagonism leftist cultural leaders and nich." Theater heute (June 1968): 44.
Fassbinder, in particular, had with the powerful Burns, Elizabeth. Theatricality. London:
newspaper owner who exerted a strong political Longman, 1972.
influence through his popular mass newspapers, Collins, Richard, and Vincent Porter.
Die Welt and Bild.
WDR and the Arbeiterfilm: Fassbinder,
3 Fassbinder's two "student" films, Der
Ziewer and Others. London: BFI,1981.
Stadtstreicher (1965) and Das kleine Chaos
(1966), were shot on 16mm black-and-white Dawson, Jan. "A Labyrinth of Subsidies:
stock and lasted 10 and 12 minutes, respec The Origins of the New German Cine
tively. They are now available in West Ger ma." Sight and Sound 50.2 (Winter
many but not in the United States. A book 1980-81): 14-20.
containing the scripts of Fassbinder's first four
"Dokumente zu Sendungen des WDR."
films (Katzelmacher being the fourth) has been
published (Fassbinder 1987).
Cologne: CDU des Rheinlandes, 1975.
4 In a position paper put out by the conser Donner, Wolf. "Der Boss und sein Team"
vative watchdog group for the Christian Demo (The Boss and His Team). Die Zeit 31
cratic party (CDU) in 1975, the party surveyed July 1970: 9-10.
all the "radical" WDR productions. In discuss Dyer, Richard. Stars. London: BFI, 1979.
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class-conflict" series), the report isolated Fass
1. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1987.
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5 This Fassbinder play has caused continued
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controversy because of its analysis of the role
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article bearing the subhead "How Rainer Jansen, Peter W., and Wolfram Sch?tte,
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anti-Semitism." The newspaper argued that
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was not about hatred of the Jews but about
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(Cf. "Wem schrei ich um Hilfe?" Der Spiegel Fernsehspiele (Jan.-June 1976): 152
41 (1976): 236). 53.

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Rentschier, Eric. New German Cinema in Fassbinder and Pop Culture in the Six
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Redgrave, 1984. forthcoming.
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JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 45.1 57

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