Revisiting Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the cult director of New German Cinema

Fassbinder's first feature film, "Love Is Colder Than Death," came out in 1968, but his directorial debut was exactly 50 years ago. "This Night" (1966) is considered lost. The filmmaker went on to direct two other short films, "The City Tramp" and "The Little Chaos." The latter stars Fassbinder himself, in the role of a crook selling magazines.

Fassbinder's creativity exploded in 1969. In an essay of picture book "R.W. Fassbinder. Die Filme 1966 - 1982," the editor writes about "Love Is Colder Than Death," saying, "The mysterious and dark beauty of the title of this film encloses the general theme of all of Fassbinder's following films: the relentless exploration of all forms of love among people in a materialistic, ever-changing world."

He was the creator of an exciting chapter of West Germany's cultural history. Within a few years until his early death in 1982, Fassbinder directed an incredible number of feature films and TV movies: 44 altogether. The filmmaker surrounded himself with regular contributors. Some of them would pursue major careers after his death, such as Hanna Schygulla, here in "Rio das Mortes" (1970).

Though he is most famous as a film director, Fassbinder also created innovative TV series. In 1973, he directed the two-part science-fiction film "World on a Wire," which explores a world of virtual realities. The picture book "R.W. Fassbinder: Die Filme 1966-1982" documents the director's works in no less than 1,414 photos, featuring some of his works' very original sets.

All while creating innovative works, Fassbinder's films almost always had a melodramatic core. This is particularly the case in "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" (1973), which tells the story of a relationship between a 60-year-old widow and a much younger Moroccan in Germany. The issues explored by the film are still relevant to this day.

One of Fassbinder's most famous scenes is the 360-degree tracking shot by cameraman Michael Ballhaus in the drama "Martha" (1973). In typical Fassbinder fashion, this film tells a morbid and sadistic love story affected by jealousy and painful dependence. Ballhaus would later become a big name in Hollywood. Margit Carstensen and Karl-Heinz Böhm, two Fassbinder icons, star in "Martha."

Fassbinder was a director who was fully dedicated to cinema. He would uninhibitedly reveal his own fears on the silver screen, often acting in his own movies, such as in "Fox and His Friends." Through his extremely subjective and intimate approach, he also exposed many aspects of German society.

One of the editors of the picture book, Juliane Lorenz, is the head of an organization that manages the works of this exceptional director, the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. She was the editor of many of his films. Film stills make up most of the pictures, such as this one from "Satan's Brew" with Kurt Raab.

By the end of the 70s, Fassbinder's films were popular among a wider audience. Works such as "The Marriage of Maria Braun" (pictured, with Klaus Löwitsch), "Lili Marleen" or "Lola" featured prominent stars and achieved international recognition, all while exploring German history.

"Our book aims to transmit the visual essence of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 44 films in print," writes editor Lothar Schirmer in the preface of "R.W. Fassbinder. Die Filme 1966 - 1982." Through numerous film stills, such as Hanna Schygulla in "Lili Marleen" pictured here, it is now possible to catch a glimpse of all the works of this outstanding movie director.

The book "R.W. Fassbinder. Die Filme 1966 - 1982" contains over 1,400 photos and film stills from all of the 44 works Fassbinder created within 17 years, offering a unique encyclopedic coverage of his creative universe. It is accompanied by short essays by Laurence Kardish, Juliane Lorenz and Lothar Schirmer, as well as by Fassbinder himself.