Warum läuft Herr R. Amok?

The aptly titled Warum läuft Herr R. Amok?, one of Fassbinder's earlier films, is one of the most excruciating film experiences I've ever gone through. Herr R. lives with his wife and kid. His parents seem to live with them, too. He works as a draftsman at a, I think, architect office. In the beginning of the film, we don't see a lot of what goes on with Herr R. He is just there. When his co-workers deliver crude jokes, he sits, statue-like, with a blank expression. He smokes copiously. All characters do. We see Herr R. walk into a record shop. He has heard a song on the radio, if only he could remember what song it was. As he tries to explain to the clerk girls what records he wants to by, the girls can't stop giggling. Herr R. knows he is ridiculous. Or does he? The scene is absolutely impossible to hold at a distance. I find myself longing for verfremdungseffekts, the stylized distancing that Fassbinder employs in so many of his other films. Watching Herr R ramble on emptily in a speech held to his co-workers on one of their parties hits too close to home. Looking at Herr R.s drunken, exhilarated face & how he is being mercilessly watched by his boss - makes me hold my finger close, close to the STOP-button. It's brutal. It's brutal in a way that makes me think about The Office (only without the relief of humor) or Michael Haneke or Winterberg's Festen. There are, however, hints of humor: the dull drawings of house-boxes that preoccupy the office workers make for a humorous expression of the alienation all characters are placed in. I also remember the scene in which Herr R. drills his son to pronounce "sch" correctly.

Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? pins me down to my own reactions. I feel embarrassed when watching the never-ending, totally trivial chit-chat about Othello. I feel annoyed at the stupidity of the characters. I am disgusted at Herr R.s mother. Fassbinder succeeds - maybe too shrewdly? - in making us take on Herr R.s perspective. I simply cannot resist. I would like to compare the film experience to tooth-ache or having one's arm bent behind one's back. This is not only a psychological comment about my "feelings". It is, I would rather say, internal to the point of the film that we react this way. The title of the film poses a question. Why does Herr R. run amok? - There is no answer whatsoever in terms of "psychological reasons" or "circumstances". The only answer there is are the things we see; banal chit-chat, a wife, eager to please, listening to her girlfriend's blabberings about a ski-trip in the fucking alps. He is blamed for carelessness at work. Stuff like that. We are not, mark my words, asked to "draw our one conclusions". There is no room for that. Instead, we are forced to watch. A reviewer on IMDB sullenly comments: "depth? important statements? subtext? NEIN!" For me, that is exactly what epitomizes the greatness of the film. Drab is drab and humdrum is humdrum.