Search - Ali: Fear Eats the Soul [Criterion Collection] on DVD

Content Advisory: Nudity, Adult Situations, Profanity Movie Release: 1974 DVD Release: 06/24/2003 Format: DVD Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: German Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 33 mins Studio: Criterion Members Wishing: 34 Genres: Drama, Romantic Drama, Psychological Drama, Melodrama

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 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, All Movie Guide

Brigitte Mira - Emmi
El Hedi Ben Salem - Ali
Barbara Valentin - Barbara
Irm Hermann - Krista
Peter Gauhe - Bruno

Considered one of the seminal works of the German new wave of the '70s, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul gets the treatment it deserves from Criterion on this DVD release. The film has been remastered and has never before looked or sounded this good on home video. The English subtitles have been retranslated and are better than they are on any other video edition of the film. Supplemental materials include an introduction from Todd Haynes, whose award-winning Far from Heaven took its inspiration from the same films that inspired Fassbinder to make Ali. Haynes' comments are cogent and incisive. An episode of the BBC series Omnibus dealing with Fassbinder and his contemporaries (Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and others) is a fascinating look at how one culture looks at another country's films. Interviews with lead actress Brigitte Mira and editor Thea Eymèsz offer insights into both the film and Fassbinder's legendary work habits. A clip from Fassbinder's The American Soldier, and the original theatrical trailer round out this typically flawless Criterion title. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide