Enfant Terrible

By: Amos Lassen

"ENFANT TERRIBLE"
A Tribute to Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Amos Lassen
"Enfant Terrible" is Oskar Roehler's tribute to legendary German auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder. ; in fact, this is about the best film imaginable on the subject. It has the look and feel of a Fassbinder film, making it a powerful film. Using dramatic license and staged backgrounds, the story is familiar to those who have followed Fassbinder's career.
Early on, Fassbinder is disregarded by critics and financiers, yet his career takes off and he ends up winning the Golden Bear of Berlin. Fassbinder drank, snorted coke, with his cast, paid off prostitutes, and never looked back, even when cast members commit suicide on his birthday. Fassbinder didn't care about a safe and secure workplace; he wanted to go to extremes, and succeeded.
We see him meet up with important people- Jack Palance, Marlene Dietrich and Andy Warhol, Freddie Mercury and Franco Nero. We explore Fassbinder's relationship with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who later was responsible for some of Scorsese's best work. Actor Oliver Masucci's performance captures the spirit of the great, if flawed man but those squeamish about sex and should stay away since the film is a provocation.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of the most prolific filmmakers of German cinema's New Wave. "Enfant Terrible" manages to convey the quantity of an oeuvre that included 24 feature films in 13 years. It seems that Fassbinder was unpleasant and we are presented with a vain oaf whose gift for self-destruction.Many members of his stock company are subjected to his physical and mental abuse. Worse fate awaits those with whom he becomes romantically involved.
"Enfant Terrible" opens on a barren stage and remains there for the duration of the film. Scene changes, when they occur, are expressed through the use of theatrical props and painted backdrops. Fassbinder aficionados will love the stylistic references to his films.
The film is very hard to watch, impossible probably for audiences who know little of Fassbinder and his films. It is stylized, following the look of a Fassbinder film and a faultless re-creation of its time and place, one in which a man like Fassbinder could turn out film after film while being unbelievably sadistic and abusive to friends, lovers and colleagues.