"I Don't Just Want You to Love Me" is a German 95-minute movie from 1993, so this film will have its 25th anniversary next year. It is the most known effort by writer and director Hans Günther Pflaum and this has of course mostly to do with the subject of German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder that this documentary is about. RWF died an untimely death before the age of 40 and this film was made about a decade after his death and it includes interviews with many of Fassbinder's collaborators during his career that may have been short-lived, but was very prolific nonetheless. I am a little bit surprised though how most people we hear in here worked with Fassbinder behind the camera and I wish we could have heard a bit more about the actors. The actors' opinion could have been interesting too as he had a not too tiny, but not too big either circle of actors in his movies that he cast again and again. Anyway, there are still interviews with some performers, so it is not all bad I guess. I just would have loved to hear Brigitte Mira for example. For the most part, the film is chronological as it begins with Fassbinder's early short film efforts before moving on to his feature films that are still very well known today.
I think we find out some interesting little facts about his films, especially when it comes to the production and Fassbinder's vision. There is a part about the screen being split into 2 or even 2 parts from "Fontane Effi Briest" that I found one of the most interesting parts. So it is definitely a decent summary of Fassbinder's most known works, really only the German-language films though almost, even if it is debatable if Lili Marleen is German or English. The one thing I was missing here was the personal side and Fassbinder sure led a tumultuous life. For example, there is no mention of El Hedi ben Salem. I can understand, however, that it was the filmmaker's approach and idea to keep this film strictly business about Fassbinder's career. It is just a personal opinion of what I would have liked more, especially because Fassbinder's personal life in terms of his ideas about sexuality and politics was so closely connected to his cinematic works. Nonetheless, overall it was a good watch I think and this comes from somebody who really loves 2 or 3 Fassbinder films, but finds a large part of his work also relatively forgettable. This means that you do not need to be a fan to appreciate Pflaum's work we have here. There is no denying that Fassbinder was an icon at least on the same level as Herzog, Wenders or Schlöndorff back then. I somehow also feel that this documentary can make for a good start if you are planning on seeing Fassbinder and haven't watched (almost) any of his films yet, as some kind of introduction to who he was and what he did before taking a deeper look into his many many works. Go see it.
I think we find out some interesting little facts about his films, especially when it comes to the production and Fassbinder's vision. There is a part about the screen being split into 2 or even 2 parts from "Fontane Effi Briest" that I found one of the most interesting parts. So it is definitely a decent summary of Fassbinder's most known works, really only the German-language films though almost, even if it is debatable if Lili Marleen is German or English. The one thing I was missing here was the personal side and Fassbinder sure led a tumultuous life. For example, there is no mention of El Hedi ben Salem. I can understand, however, that it was the filmmaker's approach and idea to keep this film strictly business about Fassbinder's career. It is just a personal opinion of what I would have liked more, especially because Fassbinder's personal life in terms of his ideas about sexuality and politics was so closely connected to his cinematic works. Nonetheless, overall it was a good watch I think and this comes from somebody who really loves 2 or 3 Fassbinder films, but finds a large part of his work also relatively forgettable. This means that you do not need to be a fan to appreciate Pflaum's work we have here. There is no denying that Fassbinder was an icon at least on the same level as Herzog, Wenders or Schlöndorff back then. I somehow also feel that this documentary can make for a good start if you are planning on seeing Fassbinder and haven't watched (almost) any of his films yet, as some kind of introduction to who he was and what he did before taking a deeper look into his many many works. Go see it.