FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Fassbinder - The Third Generation (engl. subt.) 

Is Fassbinder's work actually outdated? A nice question to get the nerds in our video store to have an excited conversation. I mean: In an age of lame Coming Of Age dramas and mainstream movies, Fassbinder always chose bold projects with universal themes. He defiantly filmed them against the mainstream! What does Fassbinder's world look like? Today, in the Corona world, it's easy to imagine: The Fassbinder figures are separated by invisible walls (like the transparent plastic tarpaulins that now hang in our bar). You can see and hear each other, but never connect. Just like Fassbinder's figures. They are guided by fate. They are trapped in space. The camera isolates them. They follow unwritten laws and we sense that they are forever doomed to tread on the spot. If they try to free themselves, they do so with anger and bitterness. For this experiment Fassbinder always cast the same actors. That's why he also shot The Third Generation as a comedy. A comedy with terrorists, easily recognizable as RAF terrorists. If they did not exist, the state would have to invent them. How else could he follow the totalitarian with full delight? Fassbinder's theory. Dominik-Graf has described it aptly: "Germany, land of criminals. The worst ones are always right at the top of the corporate executive floors. "So we dive into the West Berlin of the late 70s. The Gedächtnis Kirche stands out of the Ku'damm. In the spirit of the Nouvelle Vague, the names of the actors appear. At that time, cinematic art understood itself as socially overturning. If FILM is not able to do this, then it is of little use. That's what people thought. Fassbinder obviously does not share this approach. He tells the story of a company that sells too few computers. That's why a terror cell is needed to finally increase sales with comprehensive surveillance. The terrorists - the third generation - are citizen children with high school diplomas. They only disguised themselves as anarchists, but in reality they have completely different problems. Like Ilse (Y Sa Lo from Grips Theater), who wants to overcome her heroin addiction through sex. They read Hegel or Schopenhauer - but don't know what they are living for. That's why there has to be another war! This is how Fassbinder's B-movie works, which was definitely a lot of fun for everyone involved. And it carries over to us today. Outdated? Not by any stretch of the imagination!