FASSBINDER, RAINER WERNER

born May 31, 1946, Bad Wrishofen, Ger. died June 10, 1982, Munich, W.Ger. [now in Germany] motion-picture and theatre director, writer, and actor, who was an important force in postwar West German cinema. His socially and politically conscious films often reckon with themes of oppression and despair. Fassbinder left school at age 16 and became involved with an avant-garde Munich theatre. In 1967 he and others formed the Antitheater, producing original works and unusual theatrical versions of such writers as J.W. von Goethe and Sophocles; many of the actors and actresses in that company later starred in his films. Fassbinder, a prolific artist, made his first full-length motion picture in 1969; he completed 41 feature-length films and many theatre pieces. His films, largely criticisms of middle-class values and manners, include Katzelmacher (1969; the word is Bavarian slang for foreign worker), about a working-class Greek who shocks the German bourgeoisie; Die bitteren Trnen der Petra von Kant(1972; The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant), an account of power struggles in human relationships; and In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden (1979; In a Year of 13 Moons), a political allegory concerning a transsexual who regrets having had a sex-change operation. Fassinder's great trilogyDie Ehe der Maria Braun (1979; The Marriage of Maria Braun), an ironic portrait of a marriage that reflects German history from World War II to the economic miracle of the 1950s; Lola (1981), Fassbinder's version of the Blue Angel legend; and Veronika Voss (1982), based on the life of the German actress Sybille Schmitzwas well received. He also adapted Alfred Dblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz for television in 1980. Though initially Fassbinder's success was critical rather than popular, both his later films and his death at the age of 36 prompted widespread interest in his early work.