Ali: Fear Eats The Soul - Essay Example

Ali: Fear Eats The Soul Movies, as compared to other art forms, provide a greater potential for capturing and illustrating the minute details of action, conflict, and emotions because of their ability to cater to a wider variety of sensory details. Some movie makers exploit this ability of movies to full the full extent to criticize the evils in society. This becomes most evident in the movies of German director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The movie ‘Ali: Fear Eats The Soul’ (1974) stands out as the most memorable landmark in Fassbinder’s 13 year-long screen career span, during which he has produced 34 films. Apart from galvanizing the entire German film world to a new creative dimension by evolving a novel celluloid language, the movie has facilitated Fassbinder’s elevation to the realms of an international celebrity. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is often considered as the remake of Douglas Sirk’s film, ‘All That Heaven Allows’ (1955). Though it take inspiration the celebrated director, Fassbinder’s work remains in its entirety as a genuine piece of art with its intense melodramatic strain capable of succinctly reflecting the social realities and to make a strong impact on the human mind. The euphoric reception to the film on an international level can be attributed mainly to its dexterous use of cinematographic ingenuities in projecting the harrowing human situation against the backdrop of racial prejudices. Furthermore, the film has its engaging tone in projecting the social ostracism that is stamped on the lives of nonentities like Ali (El Hedi Ben Salem) and Emmi (Brigtta Mira). The bizarre old age amorous escapade of these characters is a pointer to illustrate the central motif: social ostracism. The meticulous blend of aesthetic and technical prowess make the social critics so sharp that the viewers are able to actually feel deep in them the evils of flawed social evil ostracism that works many ways to disengaging these pair as though a divine mission is trusted up on them. The story is woven around the life of a middle-aged cleaning woman, Emmi, who falls in love with a forty-year old immigrant Arab laborer. Their affair ends up in marriage triggering great seismic eruptions of hardcore prejudices which involves racial, social, economic, and language differences. This situation is further precipitated to melodramatic proportions due to the age difference between them that is unsavory to the society. Yet, their resolve makes this pair discover their inner reserve of love that can break all shackles, despite being thus thwarted by unholy forces. The visuals are remarkably coalesced to project the above mentioned motif in such a way that will enable the viewer to focus on the social isolation and how the characters can cope with it and what are its aftereffects on them. Fassbinder shows his mastery in this film in using the cinematic devices available with him, to dart a barrage o questions at the flawed social system. It goes without saying that the individual is always stranded on a slippery ground where forces unknown to him are at work to trip him in to the blind alleys of deprivation to be consumed by the murkiness inside. Right from the opening itself the movie is virtually intriguing with the flash of words that blink on the screen, ‘happiness is not always fun’. This acts as a prophetic note given to the dogged life of the central characters. At the out set, the camera zooms on a street drenched by torrents of rain. The technical perfection is so absolute and the use of camera so deft that on artificial rain is presented to an audience in a life like image. Soon an unkempt lady, advanced in age, comes under the safety of a way side bar. Alternating sequences of the both rain and the lady scampering for a shelter suddenly sweep the viewers to the innards of a new world being unfolded before their eyes. Fassbinder has had a long standing romance with stage, producing several plays, and the experience has benefited him greatly. It blends this quite effectively to the texture of the film making, it apparently objectified and looks like being influenced by Bretchean dramatic devices. The dramatic opening serves as an opportune moment for these otherwise strange people Ali and Emmi to be introduced to each other. It acts as a foundation for their private relation that stems from this encounter. It is as if the intensity of the moment and the feeling of isolation each of them had, was the catalyst that strengthened the bind between the two. When she is invited to the floor of the bar for a waltz, Emmi has her heart throbbing with surprise and disbelief and the camera captures her feelings vividly as they reflect to her seamy face. The diminishing glow of youth on her face began to fade further in the twilight of her life and her weary eyes began dilating as though the pent up emotions a breach to seep out. As the music sweeps through the cramped hall of the bar, they cut perfect figures of love that draws them closer into each other’s fold. The frames of these indoor scenes are shot in varying tight and flat sequences while still a particular stress is applied on capturing the demeanor of the jabbering crowd. Their appetite for intoxicants is seemingly less in intensity as their eyes are gorging on the rare and inopportune union of Emmi and Ali of different age group. While most of the crowd are nonplused witnessing what is happening before their eyes, the viewer is given visual cues of murkier forces at work within their souls as evidenced on the faces that bear dismay and distraught. Perturbed as they are, the traditional wisdom and social conventions are sculpted on their countenances. The mise en scene in the bar remarkably speaks volumes on how hide bound the society is. People who throng there look like a human fence to engulf and contain the transgressors, which evokes in the audience a sense of awe at the ways of society which retains the ability to castigate and isolate people to hamper their progress. The visuals of the onlookers, with their sardonically arched brows, are used as a contrast against the quintessential union of the Ali and Emmi. This questioning spirit in the approach of society is further enhanced by the meticulous use of verdant potentialities of cinematography and the tonal difference in the application of color in the settings. Nowhere else do we find it as palpably pronounced as through the profuse use of red colored table clothes at the bar. These, purportedly, transpire not only both vigor and intensity of the lovers; but the garish red color will also keep them stand out from the rest. Subsequently, their confluence will be setting alarm bells on for the people who gathered there, to muster all their ammunition to stand against them. The filmic means used are path-breaking in their capability to underscore the poignant condition of Emmi and Ali. Their initial encounter at the bar itself is reason enough for many eyebrows to raise, and question the righteousness of the couple’s action Focusing sharply on the lovers, the scene simultaneously accentuate the mood of the isolated groups glancing at them. The audience becomes aware of their sharing a common ground or common bond of understanding that begins to form around them, ostracizing Emmi and Ali. Fassbinder delivers and indelible scene again when Emmi sits haunched on the stair-well, obviously crestfallen. Her withdrawn demeanor is suggestive of her being thwarted by forces around her. Moreover, frames are emphatically qualified by the rigid scenic boundaries used for the indoor shooting. The narrowly framed spaces provide a sense that Emmi and Ali are being smothered and begin to be wallowed in the shrinking space. The scenes in the bar, Emmi’s apartment, and also in the several indoor scenes crammed with people eloquently speak of the stranded condition of the lovers. The tight 1:33:1 ratio in shooting has made constriction possible, but it is again being smothered by the mise en scene of furniture and household equipments. Even the outdoor scenes have been tinged with these features. One such scene places Emmi and Ali seated at a table with a sea of yellow chairs and tables around them. This alludes to the diminishing personal space while the profuseness of yellow color gives a special effect to the scene. The use of bright colors like red and yellow with such an obsessive frequency apparently underscores Fassbinder’s directorial prowess. We see Emmi sporting a yellow outfit soon after she is welcomed back in the society. Fassbinder is keen on turning every material in to a potential tool to speak on the character in a symbolic manner and it is very much evident in Emmi’s hair dressing. Unlike in the initial scenes where we see an unkempt lady, later on Emmi has her hair meticulously arranged after her meeting with Ali creating a new dimension that ends up in their wedlock. So she appears a little younger than what she is earlier. Fassbinder uses various strategies to project the disorder of the society and how it harbours prejudices that have deep psychological roots. Exploring the mind of characters through incidents, offers avails a great deal of avenues for better understanding of social and individual mind. One such situation is visible in the scene where Emmi’s son smashes a TV, in a violent rage because the youngman cannot get along well with his mother throwing all conventions to the wind. This tussle for conquering her individual space is always met with virulent criticism and the neighbors virtually have turned their back on her. Through this Fassbinder suggests that any attempt by individual to transcend the hermetical boundaries of traditional and conventional prejudices will land that person to a world of seclusion, to suffer the pain from being ostracized. Fassbinder also makes comments on the hypocritical ways of the society and its biased approach to individual affairs. It cannot accept individual to exercise free will and stray into uncharted territories. The society wants individuals to do only what it allows the individuals to do; meander to the land which the society decides an individual should tread through. So the boundaries must be strong enough to contain any such move. Hence Fassbinder captures this social psychology by placing Emmi and Ali in a harrowing social context where union spells separation. Their love, however, is a bit of a fairytale in content, obviously meant to throw challenges at the social prejudices that discriminate man from man. Following the blazed trail of many eminent personalities of film field Fassbinder too uses characters as vehicle to transport his ideas and visions. These characters have a mission to execute that too of no innocuous kind; hence the movie explores all possibilities of private relationships and its perils to show its audience how an arbitrary society becomes the determining factor and acts in a manner detrimental to human life. It works in two ways: in the first place with a definite aim at perturbing society, he draws characters belonging to diverse cultural, social, economic, and language backgrounds to the central stage. It works well with the jeering crowd who stand in dismay to see Ali embrace Emmi. In the second place their relationship is obviously contrived because of their inopportune age difference that causes many people to raise their brows in question. Thus Fassbinder has used these two elements as a key to expose the mind of a society, rife with the evils of prejudices against the underprivileged. Works Cited Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, Dir. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974). New Yorker Films. Read More