Here's something that I can't help but mention right off the bat: there's a bird in the home that Xaver (kind of like a next-gen Peter Lorre in frequent Fassbinder actor Kurt Raab) shares with his wife Hanni (Elisabeth Trissenaar). Why do they have this bird? They never seem to take care of it, and it might appear to be simply another of the objects that this director loves to use (along with the late Michael Ballhaus, may he rest in peace) to crowd the frame and to make things tight and constrictive, as if these people can't get out of the life they've made for themselves. But the bird's chirping is loud and abrasive - at first, watching this in my living room during a spring time when the birds can't shut up, I thought it was coming from outside - and it serves an underlying, likely metaphoric purpose that can't be unintentional (Fassbinder was something of a perfectionist, by some accounts, despite his work being so quick and prolific).
Is this bird one of these two unhappy people, the stationmaster or the wife? It could be neither, and its chirping is there to remind them that neither has a moment's peace with the other. Even from the start, Hanni makes things uneasy for a newly wed Xaver who just wants to get down and do his husbandly duties in the sack (she says she doesn't want sex, at least just yet, as she doesn't want kids right away - spoiler, she'll never have his, even if he wanted them, which it never seems to cross his mind as a way to save the marriage). Eventually, he'll try to control her more, though at the same time it's a weak kind of control, and his submission to her is more about wanting to fulfill her desires and make her happy.
The only question is, aside from anything to do with sex (which she may get elsewhere), can he do it on a fundamental, empathetic level? Can these two *relate* to one another in any significant way? It'd be easy to say this is Fassbinder, after many films (and some more to come before his untimely death five years later), making a story that is not fully on the woman's side. She IS in the wrong here, cheating on her husband with two local men, kind and pragmatic Merkl and Schafftaler (the later being an extraordinarily swarthy Udo Kier, complete with mustache and profession being a hairdresser). But what about his reactions? Does he realize he's being made a dupe and a fool of, being made a cuckold but also as a laughing stock for others in the town (no, really, there's a scene where he closes the door on a bunch of townies who seem to know that his wife's sleeping on the side with others, and break out into gut-busting, even cruel laughter)?
And yet I'm also not sure if Fassbinder is on his side either - or, perhaps, Fassbinder feels empathy and a total sadness for both sides, that perhaps if there was such a thing in early 20th century Germany as marriage counseling they could try to work things out, but there isn't and this marriage can't really be saved. There's melodrama and super-heightened moments of despair, from both sides, and both actors certainly bring their all into these heightened displays of dramaturgy. Another yet: while Fassbinder can see this marriage is unworkable, the story is also one of love, of some kind, and the master Bolweiser *does* love his wife and wants to care for her. He even tries to not be the super-jealous, suspicious type, and if he is, and it does happen, he can't help it.
At the same time this woman has her own agency, so there's not as much room to feel some of the immediate sympathy, despite all other issues, that one saw in other female protagonists (though sometimes in other circumstances) like Martha and Fear of Fear. Hanni knows exactly what she's doing, so one looks on her differently than one does Bolweiser - and on both sides there's some gray areas to be found in the very HIGH dramatic touches, where characters declare loudly and then show their passions even louder (again, perhaps, like the bird in the cage acting out even as it's not going anywhere). And meanwhile, occasionally, we see the other townspeople or those who work under this Stationmaster - one effective shot shows Bolweiser in a room having a brief conversation with his wife about money or something else, and there are two figures reflected on the glass window of the door looking in. Who cares if there's other work to be done, look at this highly charged, trainwreck of a relationship going on in front of us!
Though there is some degree of ambiguity one may find with some of the characterizations, the story itself doesn't have that luxury as it throttles ahead to its dramatic destination. It's a film made with a striking visual confidence and spirit, but I wonder if what Fassbinder cut out to make it a 109 minute feature film would have (or could have) added more to this marriage and events that could flesh things out not so much character wise but with the story. On the whole, considering it was edited down by its filmmaker, it doesn't feel compromised, I'd only be curious what it could make fuller so that we have more than just the impressions of this mostly downhill relationship and her ties with the other men in her life.
Is this bird one of these two unhappy people, the stationmaster or the wife? It could be neither, and its chirping is there to remind them that neither has a moment's peace with the other. Even from the start, Hanni makes things uneasy for a newly wed Xaver who just wants to get down and do his husbandly duties in the sack (she says she doesn't want sex, at least just yet, as she doesn't want kids right away - spoiler, she'll never have his, even if he wanted them, which it never seems to cross his mind as a way to save the marriage). Eventually, he'll try to control her more, though at the same time it's a weak kind of control, and his submission to her is more about wanting to fulfill her desires and make her happy.
The only question is, aside from anything to do with sex (which she may get elsewhere), can he do it on a fundamental, empathetic level? Can these two *relate* to one another in any significant way? It'd be easy to say this is Fassbinder, after many films (and some more to come before his untimely death five years later), making a story that is not fully on the woman's side. She IS in the wrong here, cheating on her husband with two local men, kind and pragmatic Merkl and Schafftaler (the later being an extraordinarily swarthy Udo Kier, complete with mustache and profession being a hairdresser). But what about his reactions? Does he realize he's being made a dupe and a fool of, being made a cuckold but also as a laughing stock for others in the town (no, really, there's a scene where he closes the door on a bunch of townies who seem to know that his wife's sleeping on the side with others, and break out into gut-busting, even cruel laughter)?
And yet I'm also not sure if Fassbinder is on his side either - or, perhaps, Fassbinder feels empathy and a total sadness for both sides, that perhaps if there was such a thing in early 20th century Germany as marriage counseling they could try to work things out, but there isn't and this marriage can't really be saved. There's melodrama and super-heightened moments of despair, from both sides, and both actors certainly bring their all into these heightened displays of dramaturgy. Another yet: while Fassbinder can see this marriage is unworkable, the story is also one of love, of some kind, and the master Bolweiser *does* love his wife and wants to care for her. He even tries to not be the super-jealous, suspicious type, and if he is, and it does happen, he can't help it.
At the same time this woman has her own agency, so there's not as much room to feel some of the immediate sympathy, despite all other issues, that one saw in other female protagonists (though sometimes in other circumstances) like Martha and Fear of Fear. Hanni knows exactly what she's doing, so one looks on her differently than one does Bolweiser - and on both sides there's some gray areas to be found in the very HIGH dramatic touches, where characters declare loudly and then show their passions even louder (again, perhaps, like the bird in the cage acting out even as it's not going anywhere). And meanwhile, occasionally, we see the other townspeople or those who work under this Stationmaster - one effective shot shows Bolweiser in a room having a brief conversation with his wife about money or something else, and there are two figures reflected on the glass window of the door looking in. Who cares if there's other work to be done, look at this highly charged, trainwreck of a relationship going on in front of us!
Though there is some degree of ambiguity one may find with some of the characterizations, the story itself doesn't have that luxury as it throttles ahead to its dramatic destination. It's a film made with a striking visual confidence and spirit, but I wonder if what Fassbinder cut out to make it a 109 minute feature film would have (or could have) added more to this marriage and events that could flesh things out not so much character wise but with the story. On the whole, considering it was edited down by its filmmaker, it doesn't feel compromised, I'd only be curious what it could make fuller so that we have more than just the impressions of this mostly downhill relationship and her ties with the other men in her life.