Fox and His Friends

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The original German title, Faustrecht der Freiheit, which roughly translates as "Might Makes Right," describes rather bluntly the crux of this compelling drama, one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's most acclaimed films. Fassbinder takes a rare starring role as Franz--"Fox" to his friends--a gay carny thrown out of work when the cops close a fairground sideshow. Introduced to a group of cultivated homosexuals by an antique and art dealer (Karlheinz Böhm of Peeping Tom fame), he becomes involved with high-class dandy Eugen (Peter Chatel), who finds the naive, uneducated innocent easy prey when he unexpectedly wins 500 thousand marks in the lottery. Eugen alternately flatters and humiliates Fox, ridiculing his working-class manners and tastes while sponging off his fast-disappearing fortune. The story is partially autobiographical, inspired by Fassbinder's own relationship with an illiterate butcher, but the director casts himself as the victim in the cinematic incarnation and turns his tormentor into a veritable vampire. Biographical considerations aside, it remains one of Fassbinder's most affecting, accomplished, and personal films, and he delivers a sweet, wounded performance as the proletariat Fox in a den of cultured, upper-class hounds. His evocation of the affluent gay community is catty and brittle, but ultimately this powerful drama is less about sexual orientation than class, power, and sexual control. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Another Memorable Fassbinder's film.......2007-09-02

In "Fox and His Friends" (1975) which Rainer Werner Fassbinder wrote and directed, he played a main character, Franz Bieberkopf alias "Fox" a lower class, uneducated circus worker who loses his job when his lover, the circus owner is arrested and sent to prison for tax fraud. Fox believes in his luck and strikes it rich by winning 500,000 marks in the lottery and very soon attracts the attention of an elegant, posh, and sophisticated Eugen who knows very well how to make Fox pay for his expensive habits and how to make him invest a lot of money in his father business that is not very successful to say the least. What fascinated me the most - how convincingly Fassbinder - one man production company who came up with the idea, wrote the screenplay and directed the movie- played seemingly tough but as it turned, confused and vulnerable Fox. Another interesting aspect of the movie is the way Fassbinder describes the gay community in Germany of the early 70s. He does not make any excuses and he does not make his characters complete villains or innocent victims. The story he tells could've happened in any community.

A GAY CLASSIC.......2006-12-18

"FOX AND HIS FRIENDS"

A Gay Classic

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

"Fox and His Friends" (Wellspring Video) caused a great deal of controversy when it was first released in 1975. Many thought that the story of a gay sideshow worker who won the lottery and was then exploited by his upper class lover was homophobic. Fassbinder, the famed gay German director even said that the movie could have been about a heterosexual couple but it would not have been as clear. Fassbinder also plays the central character, Fox, and his street skills and humor do not reach full potential because of his naiveté as his snobbish boyfriend scams him out of his lottery winnings. As Fox becomes more and more demoralized the movie moves along to its inevitable conclusion. What sounds so depressing here is really quite the opposite as this is a film filled with subtle humor.
What the movie is really a character study of a not-too-smart circus worker who suddenly finds himself wealthy and is a touching film with a great performance from Fassbinder. It is also a strong examination of the German class system and gay relationships in Germany in the 1970s. It is an unsentimental and even guileless film most of the time as well as droll and melodramatic as well as poignant and tragic,
Fox knows before he even enters the lottery that he is going to win so on his way to buy a ticket, he allows himself enough time to have sex in a local public toilet. As he revels over his win in a gay bar, he becomes involved with a pretentious and arrogant character that is already in a relationship but pretends to love Fox as he scams him out of his winnings.
The film is also a good study in how to make a really good movie as it is an example of a movie that never loses its focus. It is a study of sexual and political issues that were relevant in the 70s and still relevant today. Whenever I see a Fassbinder movie I am literally blown away. He challenges all that I know and in his own way forces the viewer to have an experience he has never had before. The movie is full of cliché but Fassbinder is conventional like this for a reason He is truth and he makes movies about truth and as we know, truth is not always easy to take. Fassbinder is known for wallowing in the less fortunate but he does it with grace and compassion. His films are usually focused on the barriers between classes and this movie is a noir film about a gay relationship.
Fassbinder was very brave to cast himself in the role of Fox, a role that is unromantic and unflattering. We see that Fassbinder is not content with the gays that are fixated on money and looks but his own film as a great deal of male nudity and these are the kind of men that Fox finds attractive. This is a movie that can be watched again and again and understood differently every time. It never becomes stale and the tongue-in-cheek quality of the movie makes it completely captivating. There are intelligent observations on the motivation of society, political aspirations and above all else on human nature. It is an example of human manipulation. This is really a film that set the way for many films that were follow in the genre known as gay cinema and should be a valuable addition to all libraries.

If only Mom were still alive.......2006-10-29

I was very disappointed in this film. While it is well done and the acting and casting was good, frankly this film is not at all worth having to endure the subtitles for. Perhaps if it were in english it would have been better, but I found it very boring and depressing to watch. It drags on for over two hours with the same poor guy being ripped off at every turn. I can relate somewhat to the main character but it is certainly not entertaining or a "feel good" movie. Really the only part that wasn't good was the plot. It does make you want to react in several parts, and feeling for "Fox". It is the story of a man searching for love but unable to find real happiness. I doubt I will ever want to watch this one again. Could have been much better with a different screenplay writer. It fell way short of it's potential. The DVD doesn't offer anything along the lines of extras, but filming quality is good. Maybe you will like it more than I did, but probably not unless you are just really in the mood to be depressed. Not recommended.

A Tale of Deceit, Power, and Victimization: Fassbinder at his Best!.......2006-08-07

Rainer Werner Fassbinder has long been honored as the 'bad boy' in European cinema, a writer/director/actor who repeatedly has taken chances and because of his brutal honesty has succeeded in making a stream of important films. FOX AND HIS FRIENDS dates back to 1975 and remains one of Fassbinder's most successful films. As with all of his films, Fassbinder deals with the homosexual subculture in Germany but his main message goes far beyond the characters he creates: the examination of how people manipulate people for personal gain and the destruction that produces is a recurring problem and one that this film certainly explores.

'Fox' - a nickname of Franz Bieberkopf - (acted with consummate skill by Fassbinder himself) is a lower class gay carny kid whose lover is arrested, leaving the carnival to collapse and leaving Fox without support. Enter handsome Max (Karlheinz Böhm), a wealthy antiques dealer, who picks up Fox, helps him buy the requisite 'lottery ticket' on which Fox bases his hopes for financial survival (!) via manipulative means, and takes him home, introducing Fox to his gay friends who regard Fox as scum but show obvious physical attraction to his rawness. Surprisingly Fox wins the lottery and suddenly has 500,000 DMs and with his new money, Max's friends abruptly see a target for obtaining that money. One of the friends named Eugen (Peter Chatel) takes Fox in as a lover and talks him into investing in Eugen's family business of bookbinding. Eugen's father Wolf (Adrian Hoven) and mother (Ulla Jacobsson) tolerate their son's life with a low class wretch, ridiculing his manners and lack of culture and education, but willingly take his money to salvage their business.

With a lover and a business and a role model to make him suave, Fox dons fancy clothes, banters with his old friends in a tawdry club, and makes the pretenses that at last he is secure and happy. But in time Fox is blamed for problems at the business and when his funds have been depleted on expensive vacations and apartments by the smarmy self-centered Eugen, Fox realizes that now without money he has no 'fancy friends', no lover, no security and his life becomes unbearable: the ending to the film is a tragedy beyond description.

Some would say the film is mannered in ways that depict stereotypes of the gay world (effeminate men, transvestites, opportunists, hustlers, etc), but Fassbinder is completely honest in his attempt to recreate a subculture of a specific time in Germany. And the characters are well written and well acted allowing us to look at Fassbinder's greater picture of depravity between social class antipathies. In many ways this is a difficult film to watch, but Fassbinder wisely places the main character that he enacts in a place where his foibles and lack of higher-class knowledge can be at once very humorous as well as pitiable. FOX AND HIS FRIENDS has some minor flaws but it has already become a classic in gay cinema repertoire. In German with English subtitles. Grady Harp, August 06

Nice Guys Finish Last.......2005-07-14

Fassbinder gave it all in this film. To play the lead,he lost a lot of weight & was willing to go naked. Fox is a nice guy but a loser. Suddenly he wins the lottery. Aspiring to upgrade his life, he gets in a relationship with a "class" guy. Eventually Fox finds his new friends are worse than the old ones. By then he's lost everything. Fox is often reviewed as gay cinema, but I would like to see a straight film with the same plot. Fox can be taken to be the curse of being in the wrong body. To me Fox is more about Fassbinders fear that to be a good guy is to lose.

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