Our Daily Trailer: ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL

(The above trailer comes with a WANG Warning!)

Romantic movies are hard to pull off. Or it at least seems that way given how few good ones I’ve seen. It’s not a genre I explore much, which makes it sound like I have no interest. But that’s not true! When a romantic movie hits me like it’s supposed to, it hits me hard, and I’m likely to carry it around with me for a very long time.

Such is the case with Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s quickly put together 1974 film about an old German lady named Emmi who falls in love with a young Moroccan guy named Ali. Not only do they have a huge age gap to deal with, but everyone sneers at them for class and racial reasons as well. That stuff is all very interesting, but little of it plays into my love for the film. I'm in it for Emmi. I love her optimism but also her susceptibility to human weakness. And I love the enigmatic Ali, a stiff and robotic figure whose passivity makes him seem almost emotionless, though he offers just enough to show us that he truly has great affection for Emmi while also carrying the considerable pain of being a Moroccan in an unfriendly land.

This is a short, magical movie. It follows a pattern familiar to romantic movies, but nails what it’s going for in a way many others do not. When Emmi and Ali recover from an inevitable falling out, their reunion is quiet, not about huge displays of devotion but rather a mere promise to be “nice” to one another. Really, that’s the best any of us can ask for.

The first time I saw Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, I immediately watched it again. Now, looking at this trailer, I feel ready for another viewing. If you haven’t seen it before, I highly doubt you’ll regret giving it 90 minutes of your time. The film is currently available on Hulu Plus - you can find it streaming here.