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Given its loose, naturalistic style and improvisational approach, it is not surprising that Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? was the first of only two times Fassbinder shared directorial duties. He asserted that the film was really the work of co-director Michael Fengler (his cinematographer on The Little Chaos). Fengler himself later said that Fassbinder only visited the set twice, though the film is still considered part of the Fassbinder canon. Kurt Raab stars as the complacent Herr R., a mild-mannered engineer stuck in the banal routine of his middle-class existence. Herr R. is a passive observer in his own life, a quiet figure on the side-lines, even in the camera's frame. The film is an excruciating yet darkly comic slow-burn, underlining the unbearable tedium of Herr R.'s days and building to a shocking, brutal climax. "The most disgusting film I ever made," according to Fassbinder himself.

Ages 18+

Ages 18+