Fassbinder, Rainer Werner (1946-1982), a German motion-picture director, author, and actor, became known for his politically left-wing movies. Influenced by the French motion-picture director Jean-Luc Godard, Fassbinder believed that movies should serve a social purpose. He used his art to criticize the political scene that had existed in West Germany after World War II (1939-1945).
Fassbinder made more than 40 movies before his death, at the age of 36, from a drug overdose. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) is a dark movie that deals with the subject of lesbian love. Effi Briest (1974), an adaptation of a novel of the 1890’s by Theodor Fontane, deals with the tragic consequences of an unhappy marriage. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) is the story of a woman’s frustrated married life set against the background of postwar West Germany. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), a television miniseries adapted from a 1929 novel by German author Alfred Doblin, follows a former convict trying to adjust to the difficult world of Berlin in the 1920’s. Querelle (1982) is an adaptation of a novel by the French writer Jean Genet. Its central character is a sailor caught up in a world of murder, dope smuggling, and sex. Veronika Voss (1982) is based on the personal and professional decline of a real-life German motion-picture actress.
Fassbinder was born on May 31, 1946, in Bad Worishofen, Bavaria. He left school at 16 and had several jobs before becoming a fringe-theater actor in Munich and forming an actors’ commune in 1967. In 1968, Fassbinder founded his own company, the Anti-Theatre, which developed from the commune. From 1965 to 1970, Fassbinder directed films under the name of Franz Walsch. He directed under his own name beginning in 1971. Fassbinder acted in most of his films and also wrote most of the screenplays. He died on June 10, 1982.
