Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Faustrecht der Freiheit | Fox and His Friends (1975)

I'm not exactly too sure why, but to some extent I see Fox and His Friends as the flipside of Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul. Homosexuality never presents itself as a problem here, rather it's the difference between social classes, and it's this second issue which is partly why I see this as a film which has aged more than Fear Eats the Soul. We're still living with racism and ageism today, although class issues have partly blurred: who is really interested today if a person doesn't eat a dessert with a fork, as if they know nothing of classical music or opera? Pop and rock are the great levellers.

'Fox' (played by Fassbinder himself) is an illiterate working-class gay guy who loses his fairground job when his boyfriend Klaus (Karl Scheydt) is arrested for tax fraud, but wins 500,000 marks in the lottery*. While cruising a public toilet Fox meets Max (Karlheinz Böhm), an art dealer who introduces him to some of his gay friends. One of these is Eugen (Peter Chatel), who leaves his boyfriend when Fox stupidly mentions his win. Fox is soon living with Eugen, who is a swindler and a manipulator, although it's too late as Fox has fallen in love with him.

Eugen first gets Fox to 'invest' 100,000 in his factory, then to buy an appartment and to fill it with expensive furniture. They hold a party there but it has to be disbanded when Fox's sister Hedwig (Christiane Maybach) gets drunk and behaves uncouthly. To ease feelings off – it's obvious that Eugen is using Fox to milk him of all his money but Fox is too far gone to understand that – they decide to go on holiday, to Morocco but nothing so common as a cheap package tour, of course. In Morocco they meet Salem (El Hedi ben Salem, from Fear Eats the Soul – and incidentally a former boyfriend of Fassbinder's), who seems interested in them, but on the way to their hotel room a member of staff tells them Arabs aren't allowed in the rooms. They stare at the member of staff (who's surely  an Arab too), but he says they can have one of their 'boys' if they like: they pass on that one.

Eugen's company is going bankrupt and the workers need to be paid. The forever gullible and unbelievably good-natured Fox gives his flat to Eugen so he can take out a bank loan. Things get worse. When they have Eugen's family to dinner all Eugen can do is criticise Fox's table manners and generally make fun of him. Eventually Fox he splits with Eugen, only to find what a mess he's in: he's not been able to read the agreement he made on the 100,000 marks, Eugen now owns his flat and put new locks on it, and the new car he's bought is a gas guzzler that no one wants so he has to sell it for just 8000 marks.

Fox had previously been prescribed strong Valium for panic attacks, he gobbles the lot and is found dead lying in an underground station. Schoolkids rifle his pockets and even take his jacket from him.

*Brigitte Mira, who starred in Fear Eats the Soul, makes a cameo appearance as the kindly shop keeper who sells Fox the ticket just as she's closing down.