2020 04 27

Talia 2022-03-21 09:03:26

The following is the report of the Bullet Points that Mikael asked to write, just for the record, because I really like it and began to change my opinion of Fassbender

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

- Actors tend to face the camera/audience, like in theater.

- Actors do not have extra movements to make the scene look more natural. ("stage business") minimum action, but lots of intended blocking.

- It's very interesting that, although it seems that actors are used as elements, no more than camera, prop or custom to tell the story, but somehow we can still feel their existence as human. I think this suggests that we don't always need Stanislavskiy's traditional acting, we can also use action, language along with all the other elements to create a different effect on audience. With saying that, I do think the performances are great in this film.

- I really like the scene where Emmi tells the other workers about a guy hitting on her on the train. It reminds me of Raymond Carver's short story - Why don't you dance? And I do think the novelist and director have things in common in aesthetics. Very restraint visual language, but also very refined.

- when characters stare right into the camera and stay still for some time, it also feels that they are staring at themselves.

- I really like it when Emmi says, "let's go to somewhere else, and by the time we come back, everybody will be different", having the camera dolly back gives the scene a sad feeling, indicating the despair.

- The first night when Emmi and Ali are together by the dining table, there is a shot from outside the dining room, it feels warm, two lonely persons find each other. By the time they are back from traveling, Ali left to the bar because Emmi doesn't like Arab food. There is a same shot echoing with the previous one, which enhances the sadness. Same thing happens with the bar owner's house and the reconciliation scene at the bar.

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Extended Reading
  • Coleman 2022-03-27 09:01:21

    In the first Fassbender, the most intuitive feeling is calm and restraint. Use extremely realistic techniques (capture of facial expressions, narrative of spatial motion, use of sliding mirrors) to express the depression and loneliness of this group of marginal characters, not only Amy and Ali's exotic love, but also the neighbors and bars. All beings. The dance of the bar is contrasted from end to end, with emotions ranging from blue to red, and the use of composition and color is admirable.

  • Laurie 2022-03-28 09:01:13

    Cai Mingliang loves it. I feel that the director likes to look through various frames, various door frames, stair frames, door frames in the restaurant, and the images in the mirror (since Lacan, the mirror has become a different thing), perhaps in a metaphorical bondage Spiritual shackles, moral shackles on people?

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul quotes

  • Girl in bar: Well... are you coming?

    Ali: No.

    Girl in bar: And why not?

    Ali: Cock broken.

  • Emmi Kurowski: We'll be rich, Ali... and we'll buy ourselves a little piece of heaven.

    Ali: Why heaven?

    Emmi Kurowski: Oh, just a fancy of mine.