Generally, the themes of his films, almost every one of them is about the complete psychological and physical destruction of the human being. But then he gets into the socioeconomic extrapolations of what those small needs turn into larger a sociological aspects, which was also illustrated in Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven. She doesn’t understand what happened and how her husband’s treated in the press when he dies. And then all of these political machinations that are utilizing this innocent woman. I know it’s really beautifully constructed.
Have you seen, because my favorite film of his, and it’s my favorite film about a movie within a movie….
Oh yeah. I love that. Beware Of A Holy W***e. That’s something that’s influenced my most recent films strongly. Oh, I’ve changed my film and there was a strong, very specific influence from that film. I agree. That is my favorite film about filmmaking.
Yeah. Cause there are so many and not all of them are that wonderful.
Beware Of A Holy W***e is very interesting but it’s less specific about film. That’s more about an individual that’s affected by something. This is very interesting way of dealing with the film. And Margit Carstensen, she’s not in that film, but she’s in my second film and I asked her about working with Fassbinder and she was great to work with. Of course she played Petra Von Kant in The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. But I asked her about if they really did live together in a community and she said yes, they did. And I asked her about Chinese Roulette, which she’s the lead in. And I asked her about that game and did they really play that game, and they did!
But the thing I read about Beware Of A Holy W***e is that I think except for Hanna Schygulla, all the other actors are playing different people on a previous production. I think the previous production was the film called Whity and so Beware Of A Holy W***e, you can’t tell from looking at it, but it’s about the making of Whity, but different people were playing different characters than they were. And it’s just, it’s fascinating. He’s just interesting.
