A HARD MAN TO KEEP UP WITH, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Born in Bavaria just as the Second World War was ending, he directed more than 40 films and 15 plays. He wrote the scripts for many of them, as well as designing the sets — starring in more than a few along the way.
And did I mention Fassbinder’s 14-part TV adaptation of Alfred Doblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz — an epic that would take you a full waking day to watch? Not bad for a guy who died of a coke overdose a few days past his 37th birthday. Had he lived, Fassbinder would be about to turn 78.
Assuming he’d gone on working at the same rate, he’d be directing, has never been profligate. Here he is, 45 years a journalist, and this is his first book. (There have been a couple of essay collections down the years.)
