tipo um Sam Mendes alemão filmando um Mme. Bovary moderno

An unheralded gem, one of Fassbinder's most calculated and nuanced films, Fear of Fear requires repeated watching to fully appreciate. Another seemingly straightforward, not very verbal melodrama, it's actually profoundly deep without at all being coy or secretive. Feminism, existentialism and individual alienation in a conformist society are a few of its many facets, though it certainly defies reduction.

Well-worn premise (hysterical suburban hausfrau turns to drugs and alcohol) saved by Carstensen's performance and Fassbinder's unsettling direction; claustrophobic and closed in a way that does not follow directly from the stage. Solid mid-period Fassbinder. Watch for Kurt Raab in a small but strange role.

Piercing and desperate. Carstensen gives one of the most convincing performance I've come across [repeated watches over the years hasn't disproved this] and the camerawork is intensely attentive. A script of immeasurable depth & subtlety ties it all down. One of Fassbinder's best.