I wasn't really that impressed with Fassbender. Strictly speaking, outside of the New German Cinema Movement, I have never heard his name again. But that doesn't affect my viewing experience of this film (of course, you at least have to know what the director looks like, or you'll miss his self-deprecating laziness).
Because Fassbender told an extremely simple story, using the most straightforward narrative method and camera language. In Roger Ebert's words, because of the rush of time (the film only took 15 days), Fassbender could only choose to tell the truth. Therefore, the really exciting part of this film is the director's choice of topics and the angle of entry. At the time, his statement was quite bold.
The subject of old and young love, even in today's context, has an indescribable sense of taboo. It even goes beyond the sensitivity of sexual minorities and racial themes (the latter has shown signs of desensitization because of too many works that react). In the 1970s, it was undoubtedly a bold discussion. The film tells the story of Amy, a cleaner in her 60s, who meets Ali, an Arab in her 40s, in a bar. Two kind and lonely souls find the warmth of humanity in each other. But there are many contradictions in the love itself. Such as age, identity, race, and therefore despised by those around them.
Probably because of the director's own reasons (bisexuality), he has a precise grasp of self-identity, discrimination and indifferent social environment. Like that impressive restaurant scene.
Amy held Ali's hand and cried and told him, "On the one hand, I am happy for us to be together. On the other hand, I really can't take it anymore." In the camera, in the empty open-air restaurant, only The two of them and the other guests stood at the door and refused to come in. The director deliberately used the camera lens to widen the distance between the two. This feeling of isolation and wait-and-see is indifference, insult, and also a kind of violence unique to society - isolation.
In proud Germany, Ali was an isolated foreigner, a lower race. And in the foreigner bar, Amy also became Ali there.
So when the two of them were together, there was nowhere for them to stay. Vulnerable groups live in such a small state in the social environment. As one of them, Fassbender himself can be said to be suffering from the same depression as Amy every day. So, a lot of times in this movie, the director just stops the camera on a face for a while. You can all feel a tingling disgust and malice.
The protagonists of the film, Amy and Ali, are endowed with childlike kindness and sincerity by the director. Then he puts the characters into a dirty reality to fool and mock.
This familiar technique always reminds me of Wilde. Because he loves to give you the most beautiful thing, and then smash that thing into pieces. Destroyed beauty often has strong poetic and tension. But Fassbender stopped at the end. He got the crowd to embrace Amy and made Ali dance with Amy again. It seems that the director is using romance to end the painful reality, but in fact, it is just a beautifully packaged bowl of poisonous chicken soup from Fassbender. Yes, the crowd finally re-accepted Amy, but it wasn't because of some divine apparition that people's conscience found out. Amy's co-workers need to ally with Amy because they have to deal with new co-workers and plan a raise. The grocer accosted her in need of this generous guest. The son came to ask for forgiveness, simply because the child was not taken care of. So you will find that these so-called understandings and acceptances are just people's surrender to another reality.
Persecution and isolation often come from the fear of one group of another. So the soul that is swallowed is usually the side of the perpetrator. At the end of the film, Amy is drawn back into that group of fear and hypocrisy.
Ali was admitted to the hospital because of a perforated stomach. And then came the movie where I thought the best part, when the doctor told Amy, "There's no cure for this disease, and you'll have to come back in six months."
In other words, Amy and Ali, Fassbender and his same-sex lover, all the minorities in the world, will have to go back to this hospital as long as the disease people fear is not cured.
View more about Ali: Fear Eats the Soul reviews
