Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. With Brigitte Mira as Emmi and El Hedi Ben Salem as Ali.
“Viel denken, viel weinen” (much thinking, much crying),
This was my first viewing of this film.
For some reason, the thought of watching a Fassbinder film was not appealing to me at first. I have some fuzzy memory of forming a negative opinion about Fassbinder based solely on the fact that a woman from my youth that I dreaded loved Fassbinder. I’m glad that I got over it.
Oh, it’s a long, long way from May to September. An older German woman and a handsome young Moroccan man find love in this intriguing melodrama. It’s Fassbinder’s shout out to Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows (another film worth rewatching). It is a surprising, courageous, and sweet romance that is strained almost to the breaking point by the racism and conventions of a narrow minded society. Thankfully, in the end, love triumphs.