Fear of Fear

An unheralded gem, one of Fassbinder's most calculated and nuanced films, Fear of Fear requires repeated watching to fully appreciate. Another seemingly straightforward, not very verbal melodrama, it's actually profoundly deep without at all being coy or secretive. Feminism, existentialism and individual alienation in a conformist society are a few of its many facets, though it certainly defies reduction.

Theres not much to say actually, besides maybe - I too, was born this way.

A film about a woman in profound conflict with herself. She has no independence, her life is without employment or dreams or passion. She has no privacy, her family and neighbors have prying and controlling eyes. She has no love, her husband is far away in spirit, and her affairs are unfulfilling. Fassbinder's camerawork is intimate, heavy on closeups, and Carstensen's performance is ghastly and sad. I like that, along with cognac and valium, music appears to be one of her only antidotes.

Piercing and desperate. Carstensen gives one of the most convincing performance I've come across [repeated watches over the years hasn't disproved this] and the camerawork is intensely attentive. A script of immeasurable depth & subtlety ties it all down. One of Fassbinder's best.

Well-worn premise (hysterical suburban hausfrau turns to drugs and alcohol) saved by Carstensen's performance and Fassbinder's unsettling direction; claustrophobic and closed in a way that does not follow directly from the stage. Solid mid-period Fassbinder. Watch for Kurt Raab in a small but strange role.

Viewed March 20, 2022. Solid, if not particularly distinguished entry in the Fassbinder melodrama canon. Margit Carstensen was one of Fassbinder's most intriguing stars, and its interesting to compare the way her innate vulnerability is used here versus in Martha - both films are claustrophobic and intense, but where the main character of Martha is subject to abuse, the protagonist of Fear of Fear is more blithe and self-destructive.

Manages to put the viewer in the mind of the slightly off-kilter lead character, mainly with the repetitive use of watery POV shots and fairly parodic dramatic music. Each little plotline in her life is appropriately understated and ergo compelling on a more human level, but it all adds up to a final product that doesn't seem to coherently pull it all together.

Rich and perhaps -subtly unsubtle- psychodrama. Carstensen is great, as always.

Doesn't compare very well to Martha, which it superficially resembles. It's good, but it's a little too static and a little too neatly wrapped up at the end, and the "heat haze" effect is a lazy and pretty silly way to represent mental instability.

Maybe I've been spoiled by similar movies that handle this sort of well-worn subject with less cheesy horror effects and unintentionally hilarious Mr. Bauer-like characters but...

One of the most devastating portrayals of alienation I've ever seen. Carstensen is haunting.