Historicizing the Subject: A Body of Work?

Author(s): Thomas Elsaesser

Source: New German Critique, No. 63, Special Issue on Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Autumn,
1994), pp. 10-33
Published by: New German Critique
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HistoricizingTheSubject:
A Body Of Work?*
Thomas Elsaesser
all thatmatters
is thebodyofworkthatyouleave
In thefinalanalysis,
It's theentirety
oftheoeuvrethatmust
behindwhenyou'vedisappeared.
itwasmade... otherwise
it's
specialaboutthetimeinwhich
saysomething
worthless.1
Too late, too soon

Writingabout R. W. Fassbindermore than a decade afterhis

deathis bothtoo late and too soon. Too late to have muchto add to
too soon to presumeto have a perthe alreadyvoluminousliterature,
on
As the 1992 celebrations
the
Fassbinder.
phenomenon
spective
of his deathamplyprovedin Germany
aroundthe tenthanniversary
and bafitself,Fassbinder'sfilmsstillsplitthe criticalestablishment
fle audiences.Duringhis lifetime,
thedirector
had passionatedetractors,but also a numberof loyal followerswho watchedhis progress
fromsub-Hollywood
to middle-classmelodramasto interB-pictures
nationalsuper-productions
witha steadfastbeliefin his genius.His
fellow-filmmakers
respectedhim morethantheyadmiredhim, and
fromWenders,
or Herzog
whilehe was alive,statements
Schloendorff,
or grudging
rarelywentbeyondconventional
acknowledgment
praise.
JeanMarie Straub,soon aftertheircollaboration
on The Bridegroom,
*

inmyFassbinder's GerThefollowing
is a shortened
versionofthelastchapter
Amsterdam
UP,forthcoming).
Identity
many:History
Subject(Amsterdam:
"I LettheAudienceFeel andThink:an Interview
withRWF,"
1. Norbert
Sparrow,
Cineaste8.2 (Fall 1977):21.

11

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Love is ColderThanDeath(1969)
with
oftheKinematik
Berlin
Reprinted thekindpermission

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12

theSubject
Historicizing

the Comedienneand thePimp (1968), added Fassbinderto his own

and no-oneseemedto detesthim
list of international
pornographers,
more heartilythanthe gay filmmaker
Rosa von Praunheim.Politianarchismas crypto-fascally,the leftdenouncedhis self-advertised
Maoistdemagogue.
cist,whiletherightsaw inhiman irresponsible
In the absenceof a "place" forFassbinderin the historyof his
nativecinema,an absencecontrasting
so strongly
withhis overwhelmas
one
thinks
back
on
Germanfilmmaking presence
pre-unification
it
is
to
resort
to
that
time-honored
but
auteurism,
ing,
tempting
treacherous
classification
of theunclassifiable
underthesignof unity.
And trueenough,as an auteur,Fassbindereasily imposesa stamp
and an identity.
As a factof cinema,however,he has something
of
the Dracula figureabout him,undead and unburied,hauntingand
thosewho came after,
heirs
vampirizing
havingleftneitherlegitimate
nor outrightusurpers,insteadpassing on his bite in unsuspected
ways. So muchso thatGermancriticsare alreadytalkingabout"the
Fassbindermyth,"oddlyenough,as something
whichhas to be disand destroyed.2
mantled,demystified,
Indeed,one cannothelp feeling
thathe has become a figuremoremonstrous,
morephantasmagoric
thanwhenhe was alive and whenpublicoutcryor freshscandalsfollowedhimeverywhere.
For duringhis lifetime,
it was his restlessproas
a
as
and
of the New
filmmaker, impresario figure-head
ductivity
GermanCinema,whichbrought
his astonishing
talentto theattention
ofan international
public.
With the demise of the New GermanCinema (coinciding,as
some have argued,withFassbinder'sdeathin 1982),3the shadowon
the Germanculturalscene,however,is notcast by his films,butby
his life.Moreprecisely,
his life-style,
as recalled,recorded,
and fantasized by his friendsand lovers,caughtthelimelight
and came in for
Fassbinder'sfatehas beento attract
mostlydevastating
scrutiny.
biogKurt
Peter
Raab,
Chatel,HarryBaer, GerhardZwerenz,
raphers
RonaldHayman,RobertKatz,PeterBehrens- who have chronicled
revelations
whichhis
(notwithoutrelish)theincreasingly
astonishing
abouttheircarryings-on
in his
entouragemade publicpiece-by-piece
company:it seemedto confirmthe mostmacabreview the general
2. See, forinstance,
AndreasKilb,"Die H61lle?
Die Unsterblichkeit,"
Die Zeit 12
June1992.
3. For a counterargument
see myNew GermanCinema:A History(New Brunswick:Rutgers
UP, 1989)310-11.

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ThomasElsaesser

13

and subculture.After
public could have had of the gay community
and
these accountsof perversity,
psycho-terror, dependency(which
had neverseen a filmof
madehimthebogeyforpeoplewhoprobably
in
theposthumous
it
was
almost
a
relief
when
with
1987,
his),
premiereof Garbage,The Cityand Death, controversy
focusedon his
work,ratherthanon his person.Picketedin Frankfurt
by theJewish
and hotlydiscussedin thepressas evidenceof a wave of
community
the protests
anti-Semitism
amongthe post-wargeneration,
left-wing
thatFassbindermight
aroundthe play servedat least as a reminder
have been concernedwithpoliticaland moralissues.Yet in 1988, in
who stagedhis
partdue to KurtRaab, one of his closestcollaborators
thename
own slow dyingof AIDS as a kindof televisualhorror-show,
mosttabooof Fassbinderwas once againassociatedwiththedarkest,
mostdistressing,
butalso mostprophetic
ridden,
aspectsofthe1980s.
Fassbinder'slifeor his films,his lifeand his films:can one separatethem,indeedshouldone separatethem?Do theynotmakeup the
vessels thatare responsibleforthe veryfascination
communicating
and exasperationstill emanatingfromthe word"Fassbinder?"Here,
who practicedan unparalleled
symbiosisbetween
surely,is a director
and
dying.Ronald
living and filming,lovingand hating,working
domesticimagewhenhe compares
Haymanhas hiton an engagingly
Fassbinderfeedinghis artwithhis lifeand his lifewithhis art,calling him a "cook withtwo stockpotson the go" who "robs one to
enrichtheother."4
Thereis anothersense in whichFassbinderhad different
pots on
the fire:he workedin severalmedia simultaneously
(theater,film,
television,and, it seems,even radio),as well as in different
genres
black comedies,historicalspectaculars,
(gangsterfilms,melodramas,
itself
filmedplays,queercinema).This diversity
literary
adaptations,
markedhimofffromotherEuropeanauteursand broughthimcloser
to theHollywoodfigurehe alwayswantedto be, thatis, to the"comit also confirmed
thathe neverquite
mercial"director.
Paradoxically,
abandonedhisoriginsinthesub-cultural
avant-garde.
Closerto home,Fassbinder'sworktouchedon a numberof broad
culturaland politicaldebates:aroundclass (as in his earlyfilmsdealand petit-bourgeois
shopkeepers
ing withthe Munichsub-proletariat
& Nicolson,
4. RonaldHayman,FassbinderFilm Maker(London:Weidenfeld
1984) 16.

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14

theSubject
Historicizing

or theworkers'filmsset in theRuhrindustrial
region,made forteleAre
Not
a
Hours
about
vision,e.g., Eight
Day);
(theGreek
ethnicity
of
the
race
and
around
color
Katzelmacher);
origins
eponymous
(especially but not exclusivelyin Ali: Fear Eats theSoul); aboutradical
in MotherKiisters Trip to
politics (communistsand ultra-leftists
in The ThirdGeneration);and, above all,
Heaven, urbanterrorists
aroundgender(the gay scenes in Fox and His Friends [Faustrecht
der Freiheit]and Querelle,thelesbianrelationin TheBitterTearsof
Petra von Kant,pubescentsex in Wildwechsel,
thepost-menopausal
in
of
the
heroine
Ali:
Fear
Eats
the
sexuality
Soul). Enoughsociolin
fill
an
to
entire
curriculum
of
Modem
GermanStudies.
ogy, short,
From VisiontoMission
And yet, surelyFassbinderis the forgotten
filmmaker
of the
1980s: one looksin vain forevidenceof his influence,
whether
stylistic or thematic.A comparisonwithone of his fellow-directors
may
help to focusthispoint:as Fassbinder'snotoriety
declined,so Wim
Wenders'scriticalreputation
rose. Wendersbecame the director
par
excellenceof postmodernism,
and celebratendlesslyproblematizing
withthe UnitedStates,deftlytyingand
ing Europe's relationship
aroundtheshuttle-cock
motion
untyinga precariousauthorialidentity
between Paris, Texas and Paris-Tokyo(Notebookof Cities and
Clothes),betweenBerlin(WingsofDesire) and AyresRock,Australia
(To the End of the World).Againstthisgeopoliticalmap and timetravellers'mindscape(Faraway,so close, indeed),Fassbinder'sworld
looks extremely
in Paris,visparochial.He mayhavehad apartments
ited brothelsin NorthAfrica,and gone to the leather-bars
of New
and unambiguously
West GerYork,but his home was obstinately
Bremen,Coburgin his films.In the end,
many:Munich,Frankfurt,
however,onlyMunichseemedto matter;even theBerlinof Despair
andBerlinAlexanderplatz
was ultimately
"madeinBavaria(Atelier)."
Two criticalvantagepoints,then,offerthemselveson whyFassbinder'sworkhas enteredintoa periodof eclipseor has suffered
prematureburialin pious retrospectives.
On theone hand,his lifefinally
devouredhis work,whenpreviously
it had been theotherway round;
the life-style
and the anarcho-communitarian
ideal his artwantedto
non-heterosexual
bondsignify(extendedfamilies,electiveaffinities,
of AIDS. On
ing beyondthe couple) did not survivethecatastrophe

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ThomasElsaesser

15

the otherhand, his topographical

and emotionalhome, West Gerexist.
The
ceased
to
many,
changingbalanceof forcesin Europehas
not
out
of itspoliticalquarantine,
buthas also
broughtGermany only
an
end
to
the
often
honest
morose,yet
enoughself-laceratingly
put
whichwas one of Fassbinder'scontribution
to his counintrospection
as a cretry'scinemaand- at thetime- a reasonforhis reputation
fromKatzelmacherand Gods of the
ative force.More concretely,
Moons and The ThirdGeneration,
Plague to In a Year of Thirteen
a quitephysical,notto say tactilesenFassbinderalso gave spectators
sation of realism: visuallysumptuous,emotionallyclaustrophobic,
mundaneimagesof WestGermany,
and oftenenoughmagnificently
whichafforda kindof- dareI say- pornographic
gaze on thisparticular,
generally
underexposed
bodypolitic.
of the Germansoul is a
Whetherhe set out to makeskin-flicks
his emotionallifeinto
mootpoint.More certainis thatby commuting
the means of production
and vice versa,he extractedfrombothhis
life and his filmmaking
a perspective
and a project.It made himone
Fredric
of the last "modernists"
Jameson'ssense) and lefthis
(in
his
films.
But unlikethemodernist
who
on
all
unmistakable
signature
the
and excludesthebiographical
manner
cultivatesimpersonality
(in
of Bresson,Rivette,or even Godard),Fassbinder'sprojectemerged
froma constantcrossingof the boundarybetweenthe personaland
It mighthave provokedreflection
on him as somethe professional.
or of a
one trying
to give his lifethetruthof art(Oscar Wilde-style)
lifelived for"art"(to appropriate
Mallarme'sfamousdictumthat"all
lifeis destinedto end in a movie").Instead,it (mis-?)ledcommentators into ferreting
out assiduouslythe parallels between life and
downtheanecdotalantecedents
of thisor thatincident
work,tracking
in his films.A fascinatingly
lurid,butin theend futileendeavourin
whatmightbe sigthatit does notbringone closerto understanding
nificantaboutthisoeuvreof over fortyfilmsproducedin littlemore
than a decade - a decade,moreover,
duringwhichGermanymay
historic
chance.
well havemissedanother
Fassbinder'seclipseas a
The reasonshereadvancedforexplaining
not
He
filmmaker
are thus
whollyconvincing. was neitherquite the
Bavarianminiaturist
swept aside by Germany'snew strategicselfovertaken
theheroicmodernist
noraltogether
by postmodimportance,
to
theresistance
ernpastiche.Theremustbe otherwaysof approaching

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16

theSubject
Historicizing

Fassbinder,itselfthe reverseside, I believe,of cuttingthe Gordian

knotand makingof himan auteur,explaininghimselfor givinghimself away. Once past the handfulof themes,such as "emotional
power games," the auteur-critic
exploitation"or "sado-masochistic
can eithermake Fassbinder'shomosexuality
the key to his filmsor
chartthe rise and fall of an overreacher,
singleout the near-masteror
embarrassments
and,fortherest,exercisejudgpieces big-budget
mentsof tasteand decorum.Bothwouldbe, as Douglas Crimpput it,
to move in thewrongdirection,"5
and along theselines,
"continuing
it is not easy to eitherlike Fassbinderor see in himan artistworth
the attention.
his filmsseem so
Lugubrious,oppressive,humorless,
steepedin misanthropic
cynicismand petit-bourgeois
sentimentality
thatthe odd momentsof authenticity
are merelysymptomatic
of a
directorwho mistakeshis own "fucked-up"
as
a
metarelationships
This, surely,overlooksthe sheerenergy
phorof post-warGermany.
and vitalitythata humanbeinghas to musterto make fortyfilms,
and it bringsone back to theparadoxat theheartof his work:given
the chaos of his personallifeand thephysicaldemandsof filmmaking,drugs,and alcoholmayaccountforthemanicnatureof his productivity,but they do not explain a body of work of such
and
perseverance.
Re-viewinghis films,acrosstheirgenericdiversity
eventheirstylistic
one cannotbutbe struckby thepersisunevenness,
tenceof an overallconception,
whichis to say,theratherextraordiof
the
oeuvre.
This is outwardlyapparent,for
narypurposiveness
in
instance, the fact thathe seemed to make his filmsalways in
series,eitherby usingthe same actorsor slightlyvaryingthe same
But the innerdrive,so to speak, mustbe located elsestory-line.
where:a fractious
energybattering
againstthiscoherence,even as it
to assertit.
struggles
For a romantic-modernist
contradiction
is
reading,theexistential
nothardto find.The recurring
the
familiar
and
motifs,
configurations
in his filmsspell out an obsession,a traumahe refusedto
metaphors
5. DouglasCrimp,"Fassbinder,
Franz,Fox,Elvira,Erwin,ArminandAll theOthof theauteur
ers," October21 (Summer1982): 68. Crimpgives a usefuldescription
dilemmawhenhewrites:"A filmmaker
whois gayevidently
hasonlytwochoices:either
he makesfilmswhicharenotabouthomosexuality,
inwhichcase a disguisedhomosexualresult- orhemakesfilmsabouthomosexuality,
inwhichcase he
itywillbe theinevitable
hisversionofhomosexuality.
itseems,cannotmerely
necessarily
presents
Homosexuality,
be there.No matter
whatthefilm'sofficial
thesubjectis 'comingout'"(69).
pretext,

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ThomasElsaesser

17

shake offand was thusdestinedto repeat,tornbetweentwo of his

filmtitles:"I OnlyWantYou to Love Me" and "Love is Colderthan
Death." In this case, the energyof Fassbinder'sfilmwork may be
himselfwith
locatedin an ambiguousinnercompulsion(to surround
intofriction
with,but
people he could control)thatcomesconstantly
also rechargesitselfacross,an outerconstraint
(the parlousstateof
meantservingtwo
postwarGermancinema,where"independence"
Fassbinder's
"mini-studio"
the
masters).
systemkept
impassein balance: a small galaxy of actresses,rangingfromHanna Schygulla,
IngridCaven, and MargitCarstensento BarbaraSukowa,Elisabeth
team
Trissenar,and Rosel Zech, was complemented
by a permanent
consistingof theubiquitousPeer Rabenand a numberof actorsdoubling as technicians,
includingKurtRaab, HarryBaer, and Volker
the
While
women
weremadeby him intostars(if only in
Spengler.
his films),themenweremostlyboundto himby emotional,
financial,
or sexual dependencieshe was reputedto have exploited,eitherby
theirloyalty(playingthemoffagainsteach other)or by
manipulating
bribingthemwitha calculatedmixtureof bullyingand magnanimity.
Such biographicalspeculationsand fabulations
would once again be
improperif thedoublebindsimpliedwerenotalso signsof a vision
powerfulenoughto shapeboththehumanand thestorymaterialand
to givethefilmsat oncea broadsweepandtheirnarrowfocus.
It is likelythatFassbinderwas awareof whatcompelledhim;at
a certainpointin his career,his visionmetamorphosed
into a misand even, at times,
sion, one he took upon himselfquite dutifully
to be thechronicler
of WestGermany.
It was no mean
mechanically:
even if therancidcomplacency
doubledby self-hatred
achievement,
he so oftencastigatesin his Germansmaywell have been too partial
and selectivea moraloutlook.Yet beforehe arrived,therewas nothclose to thesocial panorama
ing in theGermancinemaevenremotely
he chose to deploy.One onlyneedsto remindoneselfof thedifferent
classes and social groupsFassbinder'sfilmsencompass:aristocracy
and landedgentry(FontaneEffiBriest),hautebourgeoisie(Martha,
The BitterTearsofPetra vonKant),moneyedprofessionals
(Chinese
circles(Lili MarRoulette)and nouveauxriches(Lola), show-business
leen, VeronikaVoss),pettybourgeoisie(Bolwieser,Merchantof Four
Seasons), workingclass (MutterKiister),lumpenproletariat
(Love is
Colder Than Death), Gastarbeiter[guestworkers](Katzelmacher),
blacks and Arabs(Ali: Fear Eats theSoul). Equallyencompassing
is

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18

theSubject
Historicizing

therangeofprofessions:
intelindustrialists,
shift-workers,
journalists,
fashion
selflectuals, doctors,
designers,writers,office-workers,
trade
charwomen.
employedentrepreneurs, unionists,
shop-assistants,
One can also pointout how,takenas a whole,Fassbinder'sfilms
organizethemselvesarounda different
chronology- not that of
theiryearof production,
butof thetimein whichtheyare set: beginningwiththe (unfilmed)
projectof GustavFreytag'sSoll undHaben
fromthe 1870s,we findthePrussianaristocracy
of the1890s in FontaneEffiBriest,theearlyyearsof thecentury
in Bolwieser,proletarian life in the capital of the Reich aroundthe 1920s in Berlin
the rise of fascismin the early 1930s in Despair,
Alexanderplatz,
thentheWarin Lili Marleen,thepost-warperiodin TheMarriageof
Maria Braun,the 1950s of Adenauerin Lola and VeronikaVoss,the
1960s in Merchantof Four Seasons, Martha,and a very detailed
recordof the 1970s,fromEightHoursAreNot a Day to Germany
in
In a Yearof Thirteen
Such
Autumn,
Moons,and The ThirdGeneration.
a typically
ambibourgeois,
typically
nineteenth-century
"romanesque"
tionto document
a societyfromtopto bottom,
insideout,fromNorth
(Prussia)to South(Bavaria),is an ambition
especiallyparadoxicalin a
directorwho in otherrespectsis totallyremovedfromthe Forsythe
of therealistnovelandwhohas so oftenbeencelebrated
Saga tradition
as the avant-garde
filmmaker
who rediscovered
popularHollywood
melodrama
fortheEuropeanartcinema.
TheMedia RealityofHistory
Was Fassbinder,then,a romantic,
a realist,or a modernist?
And
what of the suggestionthathe was alreadya postmodernist?
This
to sustain.For a start,severalFassclaim,too,wouldnotbe difficult
binderfilmsbelongto whatone mightcall the stockof Ur-stories
commonto the New GermanCinema: motifsfromMaria Braun
turn up in Alexander Kluge's Die Patriotin,Helma SandersBrahms' Germany,
Pale Mother,and JanineMeerapfel'sMalou; The
Merchantof Four Seasons returnsin Herzog's Stroszek;the world
of Katzelmachercan be foundin scenes out of Hans Jiirgen
Syberberg's Ludwig,Requiemfor a VirginKing. Such borrowingsand
reworkings,on the otherhand, are typicalof Fassbinderhimself
who is not only a consummate
literary
adaptorin the "whiteirony"
mode, but a giftedpasticheur.

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ThomasElsaesser

19

Havingbeen so oftencomparedto Balzac, it is worthreminding

oneselfhow Fassbinderdiffers
fromthescowlinggiantof nineteenthin
realism
at
least
one
respect:his films,despitethe many
century
fictionaluniverse,but
internalechoes,do not createan autonomous,
is
to
visual
and
aural
which
media-worlds,
say,
spaces fullof quotations and referencesfromnewspapers,press photography,
popular
music,and,above all, fromotherfilms.To takejust one example,not
quite at random.The MarriageofMaria Braun deconstructs/rewrites
severaldifferent
genres,and even severalspecificfilms:the newsreel; the post-warTriimmerfilme
[rubblefilms],such as Zwischen
GesternundMorgen,fromwhichit takescertainvisualcompositions;
filmslikeDas MddchenRosemarie;the
the Adenauer-era
corruption
melodrama
of
the
Hollywood
upwardlymobilebusinesswoman,e.g.,
MildredPierce; film noir (Maria Braun is a kind of invertedThe
PostmanAlwaysRingsTwice,in whichthefemme
fatale does notkill
the returning
husbandbut the loverinstead);a kind of homage,as
well, to Douglas Sirk'sA Timeto Love and a Timeto Die.6 Lola is
almost equally layered,equally larded with cinematiccross-referRoaul Walsh,Michael
ences to, amongothers,Josefvon Sternberg,
devout
and
Thiele.
the
Fassbinder,
Curtiz,
cinephile,would
Wolfgang
view of narrative,
as well as a
indeedseem to have had a postmodern
view of thevanishinghistorical
referent.
Thus,any analpostmodern
ogy betweenhis filmsand the workof GustavFreytagor Theodor
Fontaneultimatelybreaksdown, in thathis ambitionto cover all
social strataand classes is no longerfoundedon thebeliefin thedoc(or, forthatmatter,film).Instead,
umentarycharacterof literature
Fassbinder'sGermanyis one wherewritingits social historymeans
of itssocial imaginary,
thehistory
themechdemonstrating
recording
withinrecognition,
and locatingidentificaanismsof "miscognition"
A nationalhistory,
conceivedas the echotion at workin identity.
chamberof its soundsand images,has a special place in Germany,
of Nazism, the nodal point of Germany's
given the determination
a "societyof the spectacle"in
to implement
ambivalentmodernity,
orderto black out the societyof forcedindustrial
expansion,slave
labor,andthedeathcamps.
Fassbinder'scycle of films about the 1930s and 1940s, for
6. See also MarshaKinder,"IdeologicalParodyin theNew GermanCinema,"
ReviewofFilmand Video12.1-2(1990): 73-104.
Quarterly

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20

theSubject
Historicizing

thoseaspectsof Nazismwhichunderline
instance,tendsto foreground
features
of itspublicand private
the specular,paranoidor narcissistic
betweenpoliticalpowerand showbusinessis
spheres.The connection
one of the mostprominent
in Lili Marleen,Lola, and
perspectives
VeronikaVoss.I've triedelsewhereto arguethatin theNazi regime's
use of radioas a new technology
and as a machineof social control,
Fassbinderfound,on theone hand,a pertinent
wayof locatingboththe
of
film
situation
the
commercial
and state-sponsored
present
industry
Germancultureand, on the other,a metaphorforthe mediumthat
wouldintimedisplaceradioandcinema,namelytelevision.7
Yet Fassbinderwas in fact going againstthe currentof, for
in depictingrecenthistory,
such as
instance,his Italianpredecessors
Visconti and Bertolucci,or his Germancontemporaries,
such as
Syberberg,Reitz, and Kluge, all of whom had, in one formor
focusedtheirfilmsaboutfascismon theoperatic,self-mirroranother,
media-obsessed
ing,
aspects of totalitarian
regimes.Lili Marleen
wantedto push furthest
thedeconstruction
of cinemaitselfas a concentratedpowerpotential(and therefore
not unlikefascism)and to
show fascismas the firstmodern,self-consciously
politicalorganizationof mass-entertainment.
intoone narrative
World
By synthesizing
War II and the blossomingentertainment
of radio and the
industry
Fassbinderdramatized
the transformation
of thispower
phonograph,
into
"over
the
The
film
works
out how hard
potential
top" spectacle.
and
commuted
into
soft
military
logisticalpower gets
spectacle
of propower,by way of threerelatedthemes:thatof mobilization,
and of "presence"(or aura), figuredas the effacement
of
ductivity,
theboundarybetweenwitnessand consumer
in theage of tele-technical reproduction.
In Lili MarleenFassbinderconcentrates
on something
as ephemeral and banal as a popularsong,albeitone that,like the cinema,
commandsits own imaginary
and mythological
space withinhistory.
The mannerin whichNazismbecomesspecificas well as historical
in Lili Marleen,almostentirelyfromthissingle(postmodern?
neoas a regimeactivein theculturalarenaof sign
marxist?)perspective,
and commodityproduction,
has been heavilycriticized.8But what
7. ThomasElsaesser,"Fassbinder,
Fascismand theFilm Industry,"
October21
(Summer1982): 115-40.
8. But see David Bathrick's
in thisissueofNewGermanCritique63 (Fall
article,
ofhistory
andpopularculture
inLiliMarleen.
1994),whicharguesfora different
inscription

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ThomasElsaesser

21

Fassbinder'sfocusmakesvisibleis nottrivialand certainly

not apologetic.The war economyand its showbusinessoperationsappearas
a kind of universalizedblack marketwherethose who have "cor- in thiscase theNazi regime
nered"thecurrency
of representation
- imposetheirown rateof exchange,liable to the sudden,terrifying,and surrealreversalswhichthefilmchronicles.Seen as developing the mass media in orderto organizethroughtheman elaborate
and communication,
Nazismbecomesa parsystemof transportation
of capitalismin the sphereof repreticularlyflamboyant
figuration
sentationindicativeof the audio-visualmedia's powerto reorganize
a society'sfamilial,material,and eroticrelationsin the directionof
ritualof consuming
sounds(and images)- a
spectacleor thenightly
the
on
move.9
society
withhisIf, as Hollywoodhas alwaysknown,cinemaintersects
insofar
as
a
has
itself
a
givenpast
toryonly
acquired pseudo-mythical dimension, then fascism emerges in Fassbinder's films,
and critically,
as a questionof subjectivity
withinthe
consistently
image and discourseof power,of desire,of fetishobjectsand comIs it thenthelaw of desireand thustherule of ceaseless
modities.10
displacementas the "semiotic"principleholdingFassbinder'shisIt would be one of the strongest
torico-fictional
universetogether?
in
favor
of
as a postmodern
Fassbinder
director,but it
arguments
I
a
be
fascism
would, think,
misunderstanding.
Firstly,
by presenting
as the subject'srelationto libidinallyfraught
and therefore
pleasurable representations,
ratherthan as the subject's exposureto the
repressivepowerof a specificpoliticalsystem,Fassbinderquestions
historicalsubjectivity
fromthevantagepointof an ethicsof responsithan
Rather
he
relativism,
bility.
concedingthepointof postmodern
seemsto suggestthata mediareality,
suchas it manifested
itselfdurforbothsubjectivity
and idening fascism,is in factthepre-condition
This
can
a
be
clarified
at
number
of
tity.
by brieflylooking
parallels
also concernedwiththepoliticsof the subject,
withotherdirectors,
andby focusingoncemoreon Fassbinder'ssexualpolitics.
in twofilmsof Hartmut
9. This is well captured
and
Reichsautobahn
Bitomsky,
See my"ModemeundModemisierung:
Der deutscheFilmder dreiBiger
VW-Komplex.
3.2 1994:23-40.
Jahre,"
montage/av
10. See my"Murder,
ed. Tony
MergerSuicide:thePoliticsofDespair,"Fassbinder,
Rayns(London:BFI, 1980)37-53.

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22

theSubject
Historicizing

TheSexual Politicsof Victimhood

As a filmmaker,
Fassbinderis generally
withthe 1970s,
identified
- aroundthetwinthemesof eros and death- compariprompting
sons withPier Paolo Pasoliniand NagishaOshima.All threedirectors come fromcountrieswhichespousedfascismas theirway of
a feudalsociety,and all threedirectorstook fascism
"modernizing"
as thehistoricalkeyto understanding
theformation
notonlyof their
butas foran exploration
of social margincountry'spostwarpresent,
ality,and,byextension,
personalidentity.11
AlthoughFassbindernevermade a filmas explicitlyabout sex,
death,and politicalpoweras Pasolini'sSalo or Oshima'sEmpireof
the Senses (thoughQuerellecomes close), he shareswiththemthe
convictionnotonlythathistory
can give us a hold and a perspective
on contemporary
but
that
the historicalreferent,
society,
thoughit
force,can nonethelessbe seized
may be vanishingas a determining
in the formof resentment,
anger,refusal,and desire,in short,at the
level of a psychicand possibly"perverse"investment
which may
overturn
theexistingorder:thepromiseof revolution
. . . existential,
sexual,in generala longway fromthepost-68sloganof thepersonal
as political,but also fromthepostmodern
politicalcynicismsof, say,
Pedro Almod6var.Nearerto Pasoliniand Fassbinderin spiritwould
be Derek Jarman,who in some of his films,most poignantlyin
EdwardII, deconstructs
class war and history(understood
by Jarman
as the remembering
and passingdown of only certainversionsof
as opposedto others)settingagainstthemthe
powerand masculinity
investment
ofsingle-sexlove,jealousy,and,finally,
death.
Withoutelaborating
the parallelsor the differences
betweenthe
threedirectors,
thereare a numberof momentsin this constellation
mostusefullyexaminedby lookingat how the
uniqueto Fassbinder,
combination
of sexuality
anddeathhas beenvariously
readin hiswork.
CentralforFassbindercriticism
has alwaysbeen thenotionof victimhood, as both an analyticalcategoryand a formof spectatorship.12
11. A full-scalecomparison
wouldtake fartoo long,and whileno-one,to my
hasgivena critical
accountofthethreedirectors'
in
knowledge,
work,theclosingremarks
YannLardeau,RainerWerner
Fassbinder(Paris:Cahiersdu Cinema,1990) 271-72,are
directed
at someoftheparallelsbetween
them.
12. Someexamples:ThomasElsaesser,
"A CinemaofViciousCircles,"Fassbinder,
ed. TonyRayns(London:BFI, 1976) 24-36;Judith
and SpectatorMayne,"Fassbinder
ship,"New GermanCritique12 (Fall 1977): 61-74;Bob Cant,"Fassbinder'sFox," and
AndrewBritton,
inJumpCut16 (November
"Foxed,"bothreprinted
1977):22-23.

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ThomasElsaesser

23

Especiallyin theearlyfilms,victimswereoftenseenas theliving,sufferingproofof capitalismand authoritarian

Mostlyfemale,
patriarchy.
and
silent
of
were
the
voiceless
accusers
the
they
system,and thus
becamethebad conscienceof a malesocietytheyeitherdid notunderstandor understood
too well. In the laterfilms,victimswere often
or cynicallyexploitedby othergays,as in Fox
homosexuals,
brutally
and his Friends and In a Year of ThirteenMoons, or lesbians, victims
of power games and infatuation,as in The Bitter Tears of Petra von

Kant. It is this conceptionwhichmostbotheredgay critics.Richard

in a
foundFassbinder's
viewof victimsproblematic
Dyer,forinstance,
the depictionof suffering
double respect.Firstly,
seems to becomea
kindof end in itself,foreven if it is not "gloating,"it endorsesthe
code of femalesuffering
dominant
as beautiful(in Effi
representational
Briestor Martha).Secondly,Fassbindernotonlyreduplicates
patriarchal imagevalues,he makessexualoppressionmerelya metaphor
of
class oppression,forexample,showinga gay character
such as Fox,
victimizedas a proletarian
withoutany indication
thatgays are also
as
With
his
as
and sexist
brutalized
oppressed gays.
prolespresented
in
and
like
Fox
and
(as
relentlessly stupidlyduped,
Wildwechsel) gays
Fassbinder'sview of sexual politicsdemonstrated
what WalterBenand Hans Fallada as "left-wing
jamin had diagnosedin ErichKiistner
a kindof self-pitying
defeatism
abouttheliberating
melancholy,"
potential or solidarity
thatcan come of beingan underdogor outsider,
and
in a disempowered
leftthespectator
and strugstatein whichresistance
gle seempointlessandfutile.13
thatthe
AlthoughDyer welcomedFassbinder'sacknowledgment
sourcesof suffering
and victimhood
are social and theresultof men
havingeconomic,physical,and emotionalpower over women (and
over gay lowerclass men),he findsFassbinder'sambiguousattitude
towardgenderand class bothdisturbingly
pessimisticand provocafarfromoperatingas
tive,in thatthe films'modesof spectatorship,
Brechtian"distanciation,"
either
sadistic
or self-hating
feelencourage
in
of
need
critical
deconstruction
or
discussion.
group
ings
A different
readingof the figureof the victimarises fromthe
in Fassbindermaynotnecessarilybe the
assumptionthatvictimhood
negativestate fromwhichthe protagonists
try(and fail) to escape,
13. RichardDyer,"ReadingFassbinder'sSexual Politics,"Rayns,Fassbinder
(1980) 54-64.

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24

HistoricizingtheSubject

but alreadya solution,a way of repositioning

the whole dialecticof
whichrefusesthecomplicity
of thepowerstrugoppressor/oppressed
over
or
class
sexual
Some
of
Fassbinder's
gles
identity.
protagonists
notoutsidethebarriersof sex and class,
seek salvationand integrity
but by livingexploitation
fromwithin.Only when stripping
themselves of theself's symbolicor fetish-supports
and
(mostharrowingly
graphically in In a Year of ThirteenMoons and Veronika Voss) do

Whatappearsto be defeatismor mere

theyarriveat self-acceptance.
in fact,foundsanothertruthof identityand thus
self-abandonment,
- differently
to a different
corresponds
genderedand in thepresent
unliveable
Death,unbearably
society
morality.
pointlessas it may
is
a
not
defeat
for
but
the
memorial
to a victoryas yet
seem,
them,
a
in
deferred.14
belief
the
of struggle,or the
transcendence
Against
of
a
from
"full knowledge,"Fassassumption
subject speaking
and deathadmitsonlyof immabinder'sharsherview of subjectivity
of the tragic hero's
nence, an immanencebereft,furthermore,
orrecognition.15
anagnorisis
The question,however,remainswhetherone can concludefrom
thisinterpretation
thatFassbinder'sfilmsembody,even if negatively,
the utopiaof non-phallicsexuality,
as I, forinstance,triedto argue
for The Marriage of Maria Braun and Berlin Alexanderplatz.16The

latterfilm'sepilogue,but also Querelleaffirm

Fassbinder'sworldas
- torment
one of intensebrutality,
and torment
violence,aggression,
inflictedso often fromthoroughlygendered,not to say sexist
motives.Querellein particular
makesit difficult
to read the explicit
of homosexualdesirein the perspectiveof a post-68
thematization
butalreadypostmodern
Foucault:"Another
is thetenthingto distrust
to
relate
the
of
to theproblemof 'Who
dency
question homosexuality
am I?' and 'Whatis thesecretof mydesire?'Perhapsit wouldbe better to ask oneself,'What relations,throughhomosexuality,
can be
andmodulated?'"17
established,
invented,
multiplied
Not surprisingly,
over this issue,
given the generalbafflement
Fassbinder'ssexual politicshave been theobjectof further
readings.
14. See Elsaesser,NewGermanCinema:A History
227-28.
15. As RobertBurgoyne
has arguedin "Narrative
andSexualExcess,"October21
(Summer1982):51-61.
16. ThomasElsaesser,
"FranzBiberkopf's
WideAngle12.1(1990): 37.
S/Exchanges,"
17. MichelFoucault,"Friendship
as a Wayof Life,"FoucaultLive,ed. Sylvere
Lotringer
(New York:Semiotexte,
1989)203-04.

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ThomasElsaesser

25

theepilogueof BerlinAlexanderplatz
Kaja Silvermanhas interpreted
as the "ruinationof masculinity"
arguingformasochisticecstasyas
thesubjectivity
thatformsthelimit-point
of theambiguousand lethal
desire which binds Franz Biberkopfto his tormentor-executioner
Reinhold.For Silverman,however,it would be a mistaketo see in
the epilogue merelya truthwhich the precedingfilm represses;
she locatesin thefantasy
thatanimatesthefilman entirely
difrather,
which
ferentscenario,
countersthe moreobvious"sadistic"reading
of the film's(and theepilogue's)violencewitha "masochistic"readidentifiing.In thismasochistic
reading,whatshe calls "heteropathic"
cation (identification
with the aggressor)and the spectacle of
(a termtakenfromLeo Bersani)determine
"psychicdetumescence"
the text's movementtowardsself-annihilation,
soughtin order to
the
self's
and
extinction
humilation,
anticipate
rejection,
by the love
thatcannotbutexpressitselfin violence:"I hopethatthisanalysisof
BerlinAlexanderplatz
has once againconjuredforththeimageof the
squirrelthrowingitselfdown the throatof the snake."18Relating
of homosexualdesireto Freud'sfantasy
Fassbinder'stheatricalization
scenarioof "a childis beingbeaten,"Silvermansees in BerlinAlexto get "inside"
by a filmmaker
anderplatzone of the rareattempts
male subjectivity,
drivenby the wish to love anotherman and to
acceptin theothermanall theviolenceand aggressionthatconstitute
in our culture.The mode of this acceptance,
idealized masculinity
thatit bringsto
however,can onlybe by livingout the destruction
the lovingsubject.In a particularly
bold move,Silvermanis able to
rescuethisreadingas "utopian."19
of
Strippedof thisutopiaand lockedintothephysicalimmanence
mortalbodies, masochismis also the key to Fassbinderin Steven
Shaviro'sinterpretation
of Querelle.20
In his reading,
no politically
prois
to
homosexual
desire,seen as
gressive,liberating
significance given
dimension
of wish-fulnecessarilyliminal(even if a deeplygratifying
fillingfantasyattachesitselfto theselfs destruction).
Althoughrejectmodelof masochism,
Shaviroconfirms
ing Silverman'spsychoanalytic
the self-shattering
while
on
the
aspect
insisting
essentiallyphallic
18. Kaja Silverman,
Male Subjectivity
at theMargins(New York:Routledge,1992)
296.
19. See Silverman
255-70.
20. StevenShaviro,The Cinematic
Body(Minneapolis:U of MinnesotaP, 1994)
159-98.

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26

HistoricizingtheSubject

imaginaryof Fassbinder'sexplicitlyhomosexualfilms.Both Silverman and Shaviroreferto Leo Bersani,who in a famousessay has

viewof homosextrenchantly
arguedagainsta "liberal"or non-phallic
and
in
cinema
whatmightbe
uality queer
gay sub-cultures,
providing
forpost-AIDSversionsof late Fasscalled a theoretical
framework
Even withoutattributing
to his films,it
binder.21
propheticforesight
is possibletherefore
to maintainthatFassbinderwas perfectly
capable of thinkingbeyondAIDS. His distrustof doxa and ideology
would have stoppedhimfromseeinghomosexuality
out of thecloset
as thenewreligionofsweetness
andlight.
in locatingFassbinder'ssexThese are important
considerations
ual politicswhichunderline
how difficult
theinterpretation
of homoin
remains
his
and
both
Silverman's
films,
sexuality
concept of
masochismand queer theorydo furnishconvincingargumentsfor
why AIDS has not made Fassbinder'sfilmsobsolete.At the same
time,thelate filmsshouldalso guardone againstreadingall of Fassbinderas "really"abouthomosexuality,
a pointmade by thedirector
himself,when asked whetherAli: Fear Eats the Soul and The Bitter

Tears of Petra von Kant werenotwhathis interviewer

calls camou-

flage films: "no, thatmay be true of Marcel Proust ...

but not with

me. [In Petra von Kantwe see] twowomen,andthatis whattheyare

supposedto be."22So perhapswhatis neededis a critiqueof thecriin Fassbinder'scinema:notonlyaroundthefalse
tiqueof victimhood
of sex and class or thedifference
betweena sadisticgaze
symmetry
and masochisticecstasy,but situatedalso in a historicalperspective.
The questionis whetherthe difficulty
withFassbinder'swork,and
the resistanceit provokes,does not have something
to do withthe
factthatany debateaboutvictimhood
has to includea consideration
of its significancein recent German history,itself complexly
in the Germancinema.Thereis in Fassbindera dimension
refracted
has notbeen of majorconcernto the largely
which,understandably,
debate about his sexual politics,but which seems
Anglo-American
essential.Throughout
Fassbinder'sfilmsaboutGermany,
an oblique,
ifpersistent
critiqueis mountedof whathas beenone of themosttypical featuresof the New Germancinema's"comingto terms"with
21. Leo Bersani,"Is theRectuma Grave?"October43 (1987).
22. Wolfgang
RainerWerner
Fassbinder
Filmemacher
Limmer,
(Hamburg:Spiegel
Verlag,1981)74.

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ThomasElsaesser

27

the fascistpast, usuallysummedup by the term"mourningwork"

and coveringsuchdiversemodesas "history
frombelow" (Alltagsgeschichte),as in Heimat; the critiqueof Nazism fromthe woman's
Pale Mother
(e.g., Germany,
pointof view as a critiqueof patriarchy
or Die bleierneZeit),thestagingof a baroqueteatrum
mundi(Syberthedocumenor,moreliterally,
berg'sHitler,A FilmfromGermany),
tationof two funerals,
resonant
withhistoricalechoes,as in Germany
in Autumn.23
buriedmemoInitiallyconceivedas a wayof recovering
ries and of reconcilingGermansto theirlost ego-idealsby acknowlwithintheirhistoricalselves
edgingthe divisionsand discontinuities
of "the other"),
(and thus makingspace for the acknowledgment
work of mourningalso carriedits risk, as the "Historikerstreit"
showed, when in Zweierlei UntergangAndreasHillgruberopenly
empathizedwiththeinjusticesand thedeathtoll suffered
by theGerman populationevacuatedor evictedfromEast Prussia,Sudetenland,
and Bohemia afterthe collapse of the Easternfront.The work of
in otherwords,riskedstoppingshortat the stage of selfmourning,
compassiononlyat thepriceof playingvicpityand acknowledging
timsoffagainsteach other.Often,no doubtunconsciously,
thoughin
two
of
kinds
theirs
and
victims,
ours,were
Hillgruber
quiteexplicitly,
in
to
correlate
an
what
is
incommensurate,
being compared
attempt
of six millionEuropeanJewswiththe knowing
i.e., the destruction
collusionof thousandsof Germansand thetwo millionGermanswho
perishedduringthewestwardtreksin thewintermonthsof 1944-45.
The New GermanCinema,it has beenargued,oftenpresented
a view
of historyin whichGermanyappearedas a nationof victims,either
or by allegorizingthe
by choosingwomenas thecentralprotagonists
as
a
female
vulnerable
and
in both cases
maltreated:
country
body,
for
room
other
victims.24
precluding
It is in thewayFassbinder
avoidsthetemptation
of suchfalsebookkeepingand fatalbalancingof accounts,in short,of such equivalence
of AlexanderMitscherlich's
23. The significance
readingof Freud'sconceptof
workfortheNew German
Cinemawas discussedinmy"Primary
Identification
mourning
andtheHistorical
ed. Phil
Narrative,
Subject:Fassbinder's
Germany,"
Ideology,
Apparatus,
Rosen(New York:ColumbiaUP, 1986)544-48.Sincethen,EricSantner
has examined
the
inhisStranded
Princeton
UP,1990).
Objects(Princeton:
conceptingreatdetail,forinstance,
24. EricRentschler
makesthistellingpointin "Remembering
notto Forget:Alexin Stone"New GermanCritique49 (Winter1990): 23-41. A
anderKluge's Brutality
womenrapedbyAmerican
andSovietsoldiers
recentfilmbyHelkeSanderaboutGerman
raisessimilarquestionsaboutthestatusofvictimhood.

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28

HistoricizingtheSubject

thathe differs
fromsomeof his fellowGermandirectors
and
thinking,
an
shared
either
not
Pasolini
or
Oshima.
pursues agendaperhaps
by
Fassbinder'sstrongfemalecharacters
(MariaBraun,Williein Lili Marnotleastbecause it
leen,Lola, VeronikaVoss) refusevictimthinking,
to
of
at theprice exonerating
themfroma
presumes createempathy
whichno solidarity
responsibility
amongvictimscan efface.But the
statusof victimalso locksthesubjectintobinaryreciprocity,
which,as
we have seen in thediscussionof his sexualpolitics,Fassbinder'scinema constantly
triesto breakopen,radicalize,or displace.As a conseit
be
in Fassbinder's
quence, may possibleto see theutopiandimension
filmsabout Germanynot primarily,
as Silvermanarguesfor Berlin
in theidealof masochistic
butin theinsistence
ecstasy,
Alexanderplatz,
- heretrueto thetradition
of theanarcho-libertarian
credoFassbinder
can only
always professed- thatthe couple as a love relationship
existwhenit recognizesits place in othercircuitsof exchange.Thus,
the second (historical)dimensionnot consideredin the debateabout
Fassbinder'snotionsof victimhood
is whatI have called the motifof
theblackmarkets
in Fassbinder,
a constitutive
partnotonlyof his sexual politics,but of his view of Germanhistory.
In otherwords,Fassbinder'sfilmsdrawpartof theirenergyfromtheirengagement
with
twodiscursivefields,thatof "mourning
work"and "tabularasa"thinkof Gering,bothof whichare anchoredin thespecificcircumstances
manhistory
anditsrepresentations.
This is not the place to enteronce moreintothe topic of symbolic exchangein Fassbinder,25
exceptto indicatethatits importance
to
been
whendiscussingthe kind of
underestimated
has, my mind,
of
and
utopianeconomy the subjectwhichmakes self-annihilation
self-sacrifice
suchcrucialvantage-points
in thefilms'moraluniverse.
For it is againstthe background
of an ideal of non-equivalence
and
symbolicexchangethatthe figureof the victimattainsits rightful

place. From Jorgosin Katzelmacherto Fox in Fox and His Friends,

fromAli in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul to Erwin of In a Year of Thirteen

Moons, theyall play out,like FranzBiberkopfin BerlinAlexanderthatof divestingthemplatz, thedramaof a verypeculiarradicalism,

selves of themeansof exchange power,money,phallicidentity
25. See ThomasElsaesser,"FranzBiberkopf'
38-41,andalso "New
S/Exchanges"
GermanCinema'sHistorical
andC. WickImaginary,"
FramingthePast,eds.B. Murray
ham(Carbondale,
Southern
IllinoisUP, 1992)280-307.

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ThomasElsaesser

29

in orderto attainan almostmystictransfiguration:

not by dyingas
theirdeaths,by daringthose
sacrificialanimals,but,in and through
thatsurviveto reflecton whatit meansto give and to take,whichis
to say,whatit meansto "love." Nowherehas Fassbinderstagedthe
possibilitiesand hazards of such open circuitsof exchangemore
linand patriarchal-oedipal
once theheterosexual-reproductive
starkly,
thanin his contribueage of thefamilyand thecoupleare bracketed,
in Autumn,
hisIn a Yearof Thirteen
tionto Germany
Moons,and The
ThirdGeneration.For more overtlyeconomic,moral,and political
acts of exchange,one has to go to his laterfilms(e.g., VeronikaVoss,
Querelle,and the plannedCocaine), whereFassbinderchose drugs
as thedominant
anddrug-trafficking
metaphor.26
is thepossibility
of seeingFassbinder'ssexWhatI am suggesting
in
a
wider
semanticfield.Together
of
male
ual politics
subjectivity
of Germanhistoryas a seriesof crises in a
withhis representation
society'sexchangevalues - withfascism,thepost-warperiod,and
- his sexualpoliticsform
as "blackmarkets"
the 1970s all emerging
a configuration
whichcouldbe calledthetragedyof "ir/reversibility."
of loss and nostalgiawiththatof forgetthe
Contrasting temporality
with
and
the
and
remembering,
ting
causalityof guiltand retribution
it also includesthereversibility
of sexual
thatof debtand restitution,
of Statevioviolence(thesado-masochistic
bind)and thereversibility
of The ThirdGeneration),all of
lence and terrorism
(the structure
of the body and
which,however,are boundedby the irreversibility
death.Fassbinder's(seemingly
depictionof fascismas a
postmodern)
media realityis thus less apologeticthan aimed at keepingalive
whichis to say,of bothpoliticsand morality.
issues of accountability,
the doubled time
The anachronismsof Fassbinderthe chronicler,
alluded
shiftsof his filmsaboutGermany
to,withtheirasymalready
of fascismto the 1970s (in Germanyin Autumn
metricrelationship
and In a Yearof Thirteen
Moons),or theiruse of drugsas themeta(in The ThirdGenerationand Veronphorof forgetting/remembering
of roles(of oppressor/oppressed)
and
ika Voss),makethereversibility
the
not
for
but
for
condition
revisionism,
gender(transsexuality) very
wrotein 1980:"Apartfromthefactthatno really
26. AboutCocaine,Fassbinder
comparablefilmyetexists,whichcomesup to myidea of Cocaine,thereis nonetheless
Amarcord
byFellini,Salo byPasolini,EmpireoftheSensesbyOshima,andmyown14th
FassbinderWerkQuotedinRainerWerner
part[theepilogue]ofBerlinAlexanderplatz."
Gehr(Berlin:Argon,1992)248.
schauKatalog,eds.MarionSchmidandHerbert

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30

theSubject
Historicizing

Distrustful
of explanations
of how
unexpectedshocksof recognition.
it could have come to Hitler,27
his filmsturnon how to (re-)present
the present,in orderforthe past to make sense. While this might
well supportthe case thatGermanunification
has made Fassbinder's
filmsnot less but more relevant,because another-

false -

squaring

of accountsseemsto be theorderof theday,it also drawsattention

to the othernecessaryreversalwhichbothconfirms
theprincipleof
unevenexchangeandpointsto itsultimate
limit.
Bad Guysand GayBodies
The logic of whatI am arguinghereimpliesthatif thepast is as
monstrousas thatforwhichFassbinder'sgenerationfeltobligedto
in thelightof whichit has to make
account,thentherepresentation,
sense, will necessarilybear featuresof thismonstrosity.
Usually in
thecinemathisbecomesa questionof verisimilitude,
wheretherepresentedis supposedto approximate
thedepicted.But whatmightpass
as costumedramaforsome nationalcinemasclearlywill not do in
thecase of Germanhistory.
Not to be a "realist"filmmaker
is thusas
mucha questionof integrity
as it is, paradoxically,
a matterof credione mightventurethat,at a certain
bility.Put perhapstoo cynically,
confronted
the factthatthroughpoint,Germanpostwarfilmmakers
out mostof its history
least
since
the
of
end
theWorldWarI) the
(at
Germancinemahad achievedinternational
famemainlythroughits
villains:Dr. Caligari,The Golem,Dr. Mabuse,Nosferatu,
Rotwang,
Jackthe Ripper,"M." WithWernerHerzog'sfilmsAguirre,FitzcarCobra Verde,
andwithHans Jiirgen
Hitraldo,Nosferatu,
Syberberg's
ler, A Film from Germany,the New GermanCinema reneweda
traditionwheredeep-seatedGothicself-representations
meet equally
Less
deep-seatedanti-German
preconceptions.
cynically,it is of
coursea matterof respectforthe"other"and of preciselyassuming
historicalresponsibility
whenGermanfilmsacknowledgetheneed to
shownot"realistic"but"credible"Germans,
whichmustincludecredible villains.Withoutconforming
to thestereotypes
of theKraut/Hun
in popularculture,
butwithout
denyingor disavowingtherealitythey
have on occasion triedto create
parodyeither,Germanfilmmakers
27. Fassbinder
was oftenexasperated
abouttheGermanLeft'smodelofexplaining
"WhenI meetpeoplewhotalkas ifitwas still1968I getveryaggressive."
Rainer
history:
Werner
Die Anarchie
derPhantasie,ed. MichaelT6teberg
Fischer
Fassbinder,
(Frankfurt:
Verlag,1986)75.

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ThomasElsaesser

31

"representative"
figureswhoserelationto Germanytakesa formthat
others
in termsthatmust include the
close
to thathistory,
brings
which
is
Nazism,Auschwitz,and the war,withincomprehensibility
it. Insofaras the discussionof Fassout presumingto "represent"
binder'ssexual politicsand the Germancinema'sworkof mourning
have both focusedon the construction
of the victim,the necessary
reversalof perspectiverequiresone to ask whatkindof investment
his filmshave in thefiguration
of thevillain.But while,especiallyin
theroles he gave to Gottfried
John(e.g., Saitz In a Yearof Thirteen
Moons and Reinholdin BerlinAlexanderplatz),
Fassbinderdid create
a numberof suitablyambiguousand troubling
villains,28he took the
far
of
than
more
his fellowfilmmakliterally
question representation
- were
ers,who - whenwe thinkof Herzog,Wenders,Syberberg
always willingto becomethe culturalambassadorsof a betterGerrefused.
many,a roleFassbinder
resolutely
there
was
his
driven
Instead,
persona:arrogantand sentimental,
lucidand inarticulate,
and
and masochistic,
brutal,hyper-sensipoetic
tive and coarselyvulgar.His appearance,in the meantime,carefully
fashionedto accommodate,
"theuglyGerman,"
butalso to transcend
whichhe could regulatedisgave him the mask,the shieldthrough
tance and proximity,
nakednessand disguise.Perhapsit is afterall
thatfew Germanswantedto recognizethemselvesin
not surprising
him:he was nota "good" Germannora dutifulson,preparedto apologize politelyto the world about his parentspossiblyhavingbeen
wrong.An unshaven,dishevelled,beer-belliedmonster,he seemed
On
visiblypleased to stickout in thesmoothWirtschafts-wonderland.
the otherhand,so calculatedwas this appearancethatit is safe to
assumethatit was morethanan affront,
morethanan obscenegestureto give himselfthe space to breathe.Whatis so visiblythereis
firstof all a body,vulnerableand mortal,unavailableforthe usual
and coherence.It therefore
of identity
inscriptions
pays to give attention to the way the director'sbody and voice enterso manyof his
in EffiBriestand BerlinAlexfilms:fromthevoice-overcommentary
anderplatz,to his acting parts in The AmericanSoldier, Whity,
Beware of a Holy Whore,Fox and his Friends,Germanyin Autumn,
The Marriage of Maria Braun, and Lili Marleen,not includinga
of
28. Gertrud
Kochhaswritten
aboutFassbinder's
villainsin"Torment
perceptively
NewGermanCritique
38 (Spring/Summer
theFlesh,ColdnessoftheSpirit,"
1986):28-38.

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32

theSubject
Historicizing

as moviespectatorin VeronikaVoss.That a more

cameo-appearance
comesto mindat thispoint- AlfredHitchcockclassical director
accidental,and yetit wouldbe serioulyunderestimay be altogether
if one saw thesepersonalappearmatingFassbinder's"body-politics"
ances merelyas play of cin6philecitationsand self-reference.
If
in
he
is
closer
to
Allen
he
the
use
makes
of
the
anything,
Woody
"persona" he has constructed
forhimself,in filmssuch as Fox and his
FriendsorBewareofa HolyWhore.
Even placinghimin theline of director-actor-showmen
(withall
thevariationsof ego-idealsand alter-egos
thisallows) does not,however,accountfortheroleshe allocateshimselfin such filmsas The
in
Marriageof Maria Braun,Lili Marleen,or BerlinAlexanderplatz,
whichhe plays a black marketeer,
an underground
a
resister, pimp
and go-between,each more unsavorythanthe other.Takingup a
moralspace and a "value" which,as I triedto indicate,is centralto
his universe,Fassbinder'sphysicalpresenceintimates
thatwhatis at
stakeis notonlya figureof economicreversaland sexualbarter,
but
a stand-infortheultimatemediator,
"saintand martyr,"
awaitingthe
Redeemer. The black marketeer,in other words, becomes a
one obligedto negotiate
"redeemer"in a worldof pureimmanence,
debtswherea moreoriginalguiltis at stake.Moreprosaically,
thefat
also
the
of
becomes
locus
resistance
to
so
much
that
has
to do
body
withcinema,withimageand self-image,
withthemirror
and theegoideal. Here, it lays itselfacross bothGermany'sdebt-and-guilt
histheoedipalfateof sonsbecoming(like) fathers
tory,refusing
(in GermanyinAutumn).
It is all themoreironic,then,thatas a movieicon,Fassbinder's
body is in its own way as powerfulas any the Germancinemahas
as memorable
as thatof Emil Jannings
and
bequeathedto thecentury,
MarleneDietrich,ConradVeidtand PeterLorre.In thisdouble,and
doublyparadoxicalsense,his bodyhas becomethe untranscendable
limitof exchange,as if Fassbinder
had "resolved"in his own way the
questionI startedwith("his lifeor his films,his lifeand his films?")
by creatinga bodyof workalso in theliteralsense,in that,accepting
its ungainlyshape and whatit seemedto connote,he reinvented
his
body in the image of his work,gave to it an essentialpartof the
anditenterhistory.
meaningofhiswork,andthusmadehimself
And yet,Fassbinderriskshavinglived and died in vain if this

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ThomasElsaesser

33

no longerdisavowingfasworkremainsmeremovielore. Germany,
cism,Auschwitz,or its role in thedisastersof thetwentieth
century,
is simplyaddingtheirrepresentations
to its nationalheritagein order
to move on. The turnto thebodyand its identifications
has nothapFranz
has
his
no
no Erwin
Reinhold,
pened:
Biberkopf recognized
has turnedElvira to make an AntonSaitz love him. In this sense,
on Germanunification,
Fassbindermighthave been able to comment
had anyonecaredto listen.
These remarksmay help to clarifywhyFassbinderhas been an
filmmaker
to commemorate
and whyhe remainsa diffiunfashionable
cult Germanto celebrate.The inscription
of "awkward"bodies into
intothedifferent
the social symbolic,or of non-equivalence
personal
and public economies,hardlyseems a promisingprojectat a time
when the ideal of perfect exchange rules unchallengedand
unchecked.Yet it is fairto say thatwhen we are readyto reflect
about the world this leaves us with,Fassbinder'sparablesof noninnocentvictims,unsavorysaviors,and scapegoatvillainsmay yet
come to hauntus again, maybe soonerthanwe think.The "new
has creEurope,"whoseunexpectedly
bloodybirthwe arewitnessing,
momentsof crisisso prizedby Fassated anotherof thosehistorical
commandeconomies of
binder,in which not only the formerly
Centraland EasternEurope,but also the West's own "developed"
societieshave become as much"black markets"as "commonmarkets" on which the very currenciesof exchange- whethereco- areseriously
in doubt.
nomic,ethical,ormetaphysical

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