Fox And His Friends

The trailer for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Fox and His Friends", which is included with Criterion's Blu-ray release of that film, makes at least two promises. The first is that the film is "the unfortunate story of an exploited man." That, objectively, is correct. Fassbinder's subject is Fox (whom the director himself plays), a working-class man who is bilked by denizens of the upper caste after winning the lottery. Among this new class, he is particularly taken with Eugen (Peter Chatel). Their relationship develops, but downward; Eugen quickly bleeds Fox of both his dignity (he's constantly belittled for his "poor" mannerisms) and his winnings (he's advised to spend it all, usually in ways that benefit his friends.). This falls in line with the relationships depicted in the filmmaker's other movies -- ones that are perpetually eroded by differences in finances, aesthetic tastes, and public personas. That's the other promise the trailer makes: "Only Fassbinder could film this story in such an honest and direct manner."

Criterion's release of "Fox" is yet another entry in their much-appreciated series of Fassbinder releases. Across DVD and Blu-ray, they've already released more than 15 of his films, with more presumably to come. This release need not be a definitive study of his career, but rather a study of the film at hand. So while there are extra features included on this disc -- interviews, mostly, in addition to the aforementioned trailer -- they're brief, to the point, and focused entirely on "Fox." First among those interviewed is contemporary filmmaker Ira Sachs ("Love is Strange," "Little Men"), whose own distanced sense for blocking and staging has often felt influenced by Fassbinder. Sachs talks about the "genius" of the director, truly investigating what that word means in relation to the Fassbinder's exceptionally fast working methods.

Next up are some of Fassbinder's collaborators, who offer comments from both the past and the present. From the past, there is composer Peer Raben, who is seen in a brief interview regarding "Fox," sourced from a 1981 episode of the German television program "Cinemania." From the present there is an interview with actor Harry Baer, one of the last witnesses left: he volunteers that he struggles to even watch "Fox" these days, as he believes he's one of only three performers from the film still alive (along with Ingrid Craven and Irm Hermann). Baer offers us not only the contemporary perspective, but also the personal one: He speaks thoroughly about the type of man that Fassbinder often dated -- those from the working class, whom Baer calls "underdogs" -- before connecting that to the unbalanced relationship dynamics always seen in the films themselves. This is a thoroughly intimate remembrance of a friend, with the unreserved nature that would entail: Baer even analyzes the fluctuations of Fassbinder's weight.

Baer also considers the significance of "Fox" being the first film that Fassbinder set in a specifically gay milieu. He's not the only one: Sachs also offers thoughts on that subject, as does essayist Michael Koresky, whose writing is published in a booklet accompanying the disc. And for yet another perspective on that decision, we can go to the man himself: The last special feature included on the disc is an extremely brief "interview" with the director, which is really only a couple separated comments, which was originally aired in 1975 as a segment of the French television program "Pour le Cinema." He takes a separate but related angle, suggesting that he set the film among gay characters for the sake of universality -- to show that the grinding trauma of a fiscally-oriented life is not exclusive to heterosexuals. Maybe there is some universality in that. But as the trailer professed, only Fassbinder could've filmed it.

"Fox and His Friends"
Blu-ray
$39.95
Criterion.com