Angst Essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) poster & wallpaper
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Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann, Peter Gauhe ... see more see more... , Rainer Werner Fassbinder , Hark Bohm , Liselotte Eder , Elma Karlowa , Gusti Kreissl , Peter Moland , Lilo Pempeit , Karl Scheydt , Marquard Bohm , Rudolf Waldemar Brem , Hannes Gromball , Walter Sedlmayr , Margit Symo

Rainer Werner Fassbinder not only directed Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen Seele auf), but also scripted the film, designed the sets, and produced. Brigitte Mira heads the cast as a lonely German... read more read more... cleaning woman, who enters into an affair with equally lonely--and much, much younger--Moroccan mechanic El Hedi Ben Salem. They marry, despite the shocked, bigoted reactions of those around them. This thinly disguised remake of Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (cult favorite Sirk was one of Fassbinder's personal heroes) won the international critic's prize at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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21 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 34 min.

Directed by: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Release Date: March 5, 1974

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DVD Release Date: June 10, 2003

Stats: 387 reviews

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Eugen Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem El Hedi ben Salem and Barbara Valentin 'Angst essen Seele auf' Barbara Valentin and El Hedi ben Salem Ali Fassbinder and Irm Hermann El Hedi ben Salem and Barbara Valentin Emmi 'Angst essen Seele auf' Angst Essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) Angst Essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
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Flixster Reviews (387)

  • brooklynspo
    December 1, 2007
    brooklynspo
    Very touching movie. Emmi is one of the great screen heroines.
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    March 27, 2012
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    One of cinema's most unconventional love stories is also one of the most touching and authentic I've ever seen. A simple and sweet little triumph from Fassbinder, with Brigitte Mira giving a completely unforgettable performance.
  • fb1664868775
    October 18, 2011
    fb1664868775
    For sure in my all time top 5. The first time I watched this I was glued to the screen. It totally took me by surprise. The scene where Fassbinder cameos as the son-in-law objecting to the relationship is perfect.
  • axadntpron
    June 3, 2011
    axadntpron
    Although I can clearly see what Fassbinder was going for, I believe it could have been executed much better. As it is meant to expose the unjust racial discrimination and the social stigma that came along with miscegenation in the early 1970's, Fassbinder could have benefitted fr... read moreom developing their relationship a bit more. In order to show that Ali and Emmi have a partnership based on love and respect as opposed to an immoral amorous affair, Fassbinder should have taken the time and care to show their relationship blossom.
    However, I do applaud the film for being gutsy in a lot of ways. It reminded me of Kramer's "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" if it were void of understanding characters such as Spencer Tracy's. It is a powerful statement that Fassbinder was trying to make, unfortunately the lack of character development renders it ineffective in a lot of ways.
  • rubystevens
    June 4, 2010
    rubystevens
    more than 30 years old but it could've happened yesterday. one of the most simple and affecting love stories i've ever seen
  • flixsterman
    January 31, 2010
    flixsterman
    A very unconventional love story that director Rainer Fassbinder made "to fill the time" between his larger budget productions.

    Angst Essen Seele auf is an intimate portrait of the relationship between a sixty-something German widow and her forty-something Moroccan love... read morer. Fassbinder effectively (and brilliantly) conveys their isolation and the whirlpool of racism and bigotry that surrounds them.

    This is a very odd film that is surprisingly touching and eloquent.
  • kenstachnik
    August 16, 2008
    kenstachnik
    Great film. Wonderful colors and a touching but unconventional love story...
  • drago25
    November 24, 2007
    drago25
    This is one of the films I'm studying for my post-war German film class. Though I had heard this was a brilliant film I didn't know quite what to expect - suffice to say I was very pleased. This is a beautiful film which, at the surface, is a wonderful love story between two unli... read morekely people. Deeper down, its a film about taboos and racism and how social milieu can break down the morals of the most well intentioned people and corrupt even the most wonderful relationship - it is one of the best love stories I have ever seen on film, but there are many deeper themes at work that enhance the film. This is the first Fassbinder film I have seen and I am definitely impressed - he seems to have a style that is instantly recognizable. For example, the majority of the shots in the film were framed in some way, either by a doorway, window, table, or any number of other objects - this was truly unique and it fascinates me. Like his New German Cinema colleague, Werner Herzog, it appears that Fassbinder always likes to turn his films into almost moving paintings at times - the opening scene, in particular, exhibited this to a great extent. The performances by the actors playing the lead characters, Ali and Emmi, were very great and very honest. If you ever get the chance to see this film, do it - it's a work of art.
  • fb1142797643
    November 12, 2011
    fb1142797643
    I'm not a big Fassbinder fan, but I did like "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul." Nice that it wasn't as relentlessly squalid and degenerate as many of his other films, and Brigitte Mira's performance is absolutely wonderful. However, I enjoyed the first half more than the second. Once Fas... read moresbinder hooked these two interesting characters together, it seemed like he couldn't decide whether to give them a happy ending or a sad one. So instead he wobbled along both paths simultaneously, then just bailed out and gave the film no ending at all. This movie simply shuts down, without any sort of satisfying resolution.

    It also has a notably poor, misleading title -- it sounds like some sort of no-budget zombie flick! And I don't know why the "Ali" prefix was added for the English market. Very awkward, and just makes me think of, say, "Manos: The Hands of Fate."
  • gator681
    June 23, 2005
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]German director R. W. Fassbinder took a long, hard look at racism in Germany in his 1974 film "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul". At its heart, it is an immensely heartbreaking love story between a very unlikely couple - Emmi, a middle-aged widow who works as a clea... read morener and Ali, an immigrant from Morocco, 20 years her junior. Most of her fellow countrypeople react with shock and dismay in the least.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]The movie is set specifically in Munich which made me think about two things:[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]1) Munich was also the setting of the 1972 Olympic terrorist attacks - two years before this movie was filmed.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]2) Emmi takes Ali to a restaurant she said Hitler used to frequent. Hitler is invoked on a few occasions in the film. This got me thinking that the racism in Germany was possibly going on a long time before World War II and also afterwards. And some of the treatment of immigrants in this movie reminded me of some of the recent debate concerning immigrant workers in my part of the world.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]But "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" is also about loneliness. Fassbinder treats his lonely characters with utmost respect. I had never seen a movie that captured the loneliness of a person when he immigrates to another country and is cut off from his home, culture, friends and family, quite so well. Some of Emmi's loneliness stems from her lack of contact with her grown children.[/font]

View All Angst Essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
May 25, 2011
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

This 1974 film stands as one of Fassbinder's sturdiest achievements, posed between the low-budget funkiness of his early features and the mannerism of his late period. Full Review

Variety Staff
June 26, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Technically flawless, deceptively simple and avoiding excesses, it is about problems that are timely and timeless in implications. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 9, 2005
Vincent Canby, New York Times

It is, rather, another quite courageous attempt by Mr. Fassbinder to develop a film style free of the kind of realistic conventions that sentimentalize life's mysteries. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 22, 2002
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul might sound like improbable, contrived soap opera. It doesn't play that way. Full Review

May 25, 2011
Film4

A powerful attempt to deal with a range of serious issues as well as the characters' own complex psychologies. Visually and dramatically intense, it remains one of Fassbinder's finest. Full Review

David Parkinson
May 25, 2011
David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

Affecting and moving drama that really explores the selfish nature behind human actions. Full Review

Fernando F. Croce
September 6, 2009
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

Manages to be both more clinical and more humane than Martha Full Review

September 18, 2006
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A mordant satire that's also a touching romance and a powerful indictment of prejudice. Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
May 26, 2006
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Fassbinder made this one on the cheap between bigger projects and scored with a beautifully observed, and even oddly gentle tale. Full Review

January 26, 2006
Time Out

Fassbinder uses dramatic and visual excess to push everyday events to extremes, achieving a degree of political and psychological truth not accessible through mere social realism. Full Review

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