“I wish I knew what was going on inside your head.”
Fear of Fear is the story of a German housewife, Margot (Margit Carstensen) who begins to experience strange episodes of disassociation and depression when she is pregnant with her second child. Margot, her plodding, reliable husband Kurt (Ulrich Fauhaber), and their daughter Bibi live in the same apartment building as his disapproving mother (Brigitte Mira) and self-righteous sister-in-law Lore (Irm Hermann). Margot experiences some nervous anxiety that she masks by throwing herself into various household activities and playing with her daughter, but these episodes become overwhelming after the baby’s birth.
Margot is only able to describe these episodes of disassociation by saying she feels ‘fear’, and none of her relatives are that interested in Margot’s problems. Her in-laws just think she’s spoiled and capricious, and Kurt is too busy and too simple a soul to grasp his wife’s mental state. Margot, hemmed in with almost suffocating domesticity suffers silently the inflexibility of her role. Margot’s world is ordered but it’s also confining, and in contrast to the calm exterior of her world, her mind is in turmoil. Her episodes are often stimulated by a glance in the mirror–an event that causes panic. She tells Kurt “as long as I can feel ‘myself’ I’m fine.” After a consultation with a doctor who can discover nothing wrong with Margot, she begins taking valium, and then numbs herself with alcohol. As she begins her decline, two predatory males hover close by–a pharmacist Dr. Merck (Adrian Hoven) and a troubled neighbour Herr Bauer (Kurt Raab).
Fassbinder understood the medium of cinema unlike any other director, and Fear of Fear–while a seemingly simple film is another example of Fassbinder’s extraordinary style. Here he manages to recreate with perfection, the bourgeois conformity of German family life. The film’s open-ended conclusion allows the viewer to toy with the ultimate conclusion to Margot’s story. If you enjoy Fear of Fear, you may consider seeking out a copy of the companion film Why Does Herr R Run Amok? This film is the story of another character–Herr R–a quiet, unassuming individual who’s driven berserk by the endless boredom and triviality of his existence. If you’ve never watched Fassbinder before, I suggest you start with The Marriage of Maria Braun or The Stationmaster’s Wife. DVD extras include a filmography, weblinks, information on other Fassbinder films, and a trailer. In German with English subtitles.
