This took me a while to process. It's long of course, has many technical challenges for the viewer, but I sort of knew the range of what to expect from Fassbinder and rode with it all just fine. Wow. This is an intense portrait of a strangely likable dupe. The acting is fantastic. Günter Lamprecht is amazing. There were technical complaints about the production, but I think Fassbinder got what he was after. I can't bring myself to say I loved it, although it affected me profoundly. The epilogue was mind blowing. The cascade of dream images succeeded in feeling appropriate and deeply revealing of the character's descent. Weird and disturbing, but true somehow.
A modernist tragedy is bitterer than the classic sort. The one is a culmination of a life's unfortunate meaning, resolving destiny with death. Franz's destiny is surely spent, but in our day and age a life devoid of meaning is still lived.
A pimp, a thief, a murderer, sure, but Franz is somehow a sympathetic character. I wanted him to find the happiness he seemed nearly capable of. Something is broken in him. The implication would seem to be some psychological disorder, perhaps a remnant from WWI. There are lots of avenues to rationalize him. I liked Franz. He creeped me out, but I liked him. And I liked Mieze too though she had some off things about her. They are both a little crazy in a way that makes them seem innocent of their lives. Unlike Reinhold who is irredeemable in my book. A bad man.
Living in a bad time increases the pressure towards an inhuman decay of society. But that does not excuse bad behavior, it just makes it all the harder to live up to. Germany in the twenties feels a little post-apocalyptic and some of those classic scenarios play out. Franz is the perpetual optimist, believing in the basic humanity of others until experience can break him of it. It's hard on the heart to watch it happen.