Angst Essen Seele Auf

German cinema's "L'Enfant Terrible" filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder was never shy from criticizing the racism in his country. In this homage to Douglas Sirk's "All That Heaven Allows" he takes no prisoners when a good-hearted and lonely old woman falls in love with a Moroccan guest worker, she's viciously criticized by the society that endangers her happiness. Fassbinder clearly shows the dilemma of the woman to choose between loneliness and the wrath of the society. While Brigitte Mira gives a heartbreaking performance as the lonely cleaning lady Emmi, Fassbinder stylization gets in the way, specially in the last act. An influential film never-the-less, specially on Todd Haynes and François Ozon amongst others. The German title is grammatically incorrect since it's an Arab proverb spoken by Ali, the leading man which would be in English "Fear Eat Soul" instead of "Fear Eats the Soul." YRCinema's coverage of films on DVD.