Enfant Terrible

Why not make a bio-pic about Fassbinder...in the style of Fassbinder himself!?! Brave? Daft? Bold? Delusional? All of them...in abundance!

Look...prior knowledge of the beatified Fassbinder [and his litany of work] will certainly help. Needless to say, Fassbinder occupies - most assuredly - now and forevermore - the love-him-or-loathe-him territory. This film will do nothing but push the general consensus towards the loathing!

It doesn't take a genius to deduct, from this relentlessly scathing portrait, that the director - Oskar Roehler - loathed the man...or, is this some kind of revenge upon the best dead German director of all time [in some people's opinion] by the best living German director of the moment [in some people's opinion]!?! Oooh what a conundrum! But...the question has to be asked: Was Herr Roehler the best director for the job?

Yes! Not a whiff of sycophancy here. Some 'names' have been changed to appease the sycophants...it doesn't take a genius to figure out who they are! The Fassbinder Foundation stills wields an almighty power...in the German film industry...thanks to the formidable Juliane Lorenz [don't mention Ingrid Caven].

Oliver Masucci plays Fassbinder as an absolute grotesque...he really is too old for the part [being 52 at the time of filming, Fassbinder died, aged 37]...but, that doesn't matter, he looks alarmingly like him...that's what excessive drugs and alcohol can do to you! And...he does deliver a performance more volatile than rocket fuel.

Enfant Terrible is a difficult film to watch...not because of how stylised it is...but, because of the cruelty. Fassbinder drove two of his lovers [of whom we know] to suicide. This man - all the time clad in his emperor's clothes - was celebrated, is still [bizarrely] celebrated...well, in light of all the cinematic scandals of recent...his celebration may be over as a result of this film. 

The emperor may - at last - be stripped of his new clothes. A most remarkable film...in more ways than one!

Trailer...