Katzelmacher

Fassbinder is already utilizing that idiosyncratic, iconoclastic style of his in this very early entry in his filmography, and dealing with themes he would revisit later: Someone is 'different', he's alienated, "people are talking", everyone is preoccupied with sex, and money plays an overblown role in people's relationships. Otherwise Fassbinder had not fully blossomed yet and this still looks like a draft for the wiser, better made films that are to come.

I think you could connect the dots from this to films of Jim Jarmusch or Kevin Smith (or at least Clerks). These German slackers are just as lazy and spend their days talking shit. The difference is that their words can also be quite mean, they are more obsessed by sex and they don’t spare their neighbors, friends or the Greek emigrant (played by Fassbinder himself). It’s a simple film, but it kept my attention and I'm eager to dive deeper into the director's filmography.

All I remember are the legs of the women.

horrifying insight into straight relationships

O Machão estreava há exatos 50 anos no Festival de Mannheim na Alemanha Ocidental. Espetacular conto de como andava a xenofobia não só na Alemanha, mas por toda a Europa por conta da massiva migração grega do pós-golpe militar de 67 na Grécia e continua atualíssimo do como gente que não tem o que fazer e nem tem arte na vida só sabe espalhar fake news e ficar de picuinha por bobagem. BlurayRip no MakingOff.

"Well Fassbinder would disagree with you about Kurt Raab, he put on his list..." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/05/episode-58-first-fassbinder-episode.html

Takes far too long for anything to happen, the acting is pretty terrible, but there's a decent story in here too, though it does feel like a loosely sketched one. Some interesting editing and inter-cutting between scenes here, especially in the start, but it takes about half the film to hook onto a real narrative, by which point my interest is already fading so I didn't get that much out of it.

I like everything Fassbinder is trying to do here, and it's clear he got into a groove very early on, but this feels more like a draft of greater things to come than a movie of his I can outright love.

"was man macht ist immer eine schwierigkeit"

Based on his own play, Fassbinder's second film is a powerful, sensitive study of ignorance and prejudice.