Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and the Case of Melodramatic Films

Abstract

This paper aims to speculate and analyze the melodramatic dimensions of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. As a special topic in literary studies, this paper further aims to discuss melodrama as a genre in terms of extra-aesthetic intentions. Since the story in the cinematic melodrama usually transpires in the domestic sphere, this paper made family and romantic conflicts as the focus of analysis. The overtly heightened emotions portrayed through stylized and hyperbolic exchange of lines and acting were also given points of references. Feminist ideologies including Marilyn Lowery’s Traditional Plot Pattern for romance stories were also given points of discussion to provide more qualifying basis for the framing of the film as a melodramatic genre. As a periphery of the film analysis, the stock characters as representations of flatness, i.e. no character development, were discussed as how this filmmaker’s choice of characters ironically strengthened the storyline. Overall, the paper aims to depict national cinemas in the 20th century as being anchored on a strong melodramatic tradition