An Interview With Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Production Assistant
Dieter Enzenauer (78) was a production assistant and personal assistant for the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He worked on several classics of the New German Cinema, such as Nora Helmer (1974), Martha (1974), and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974). We met for a conversation in Cologne.
You started to work for Fassbinder in 1974. What was the director up to in those days?
Around 1974, Fassbinder was finally in a situation to comfortably realize his movies, because the WDR gave him lots of money to make 6 or 8 films. Previously, Fassbinder had boasted “I’ll give you 8 films a year, that’s something you can never do with your usual suspects.”
8 films in one year! And the WDR agreed to that?
Yes, but part of the reason was also that they were actually afraid that Fassbinder could die because of his lifestyle- which he unfortunately did at a very young age. (Fassbinder died on 10 June 1982, at age 37, from a lethal cocktail of cocaine and barbiturates. Between his first feature-length film in 1969 (Love Is Colder Than Death) and his death in 1982, the prolific auteur realized over 40 feature films, two television series and three short films. Fassbinder has also written 24 plays and produced four radio plays.)
How did it happen that he hired you for his films?
I was running my own production company back then, but didn’t have any background in cinema. I had established my studio just two years ago and had only been working for WDR Television before I worked on my first feature film with Fassbinder (Nora Helmer). I also used to live in the Trajanstrasse in Cologne’s Südstadt quarter, where Fassbinder had made a film with the WDR- an experience after which he no longer wanted to work with the public broadcaster. Well, he still wanted their funding, but just did not want to work with their staff.
Tell me more.
Fassbinder said that he wanted no technician, cameraman, soundman etc from the WDR! He was appalled by their uneffective and bureaucratic way of working and their poor results. The only man that he wanted from the WDR was none other than cameraman Michael Ballhaus. (Ballhaus worked for German television since the 1960s and at the end of the decade became the regular cameraman of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, with whom he made 15 films. After going to Hollywood in 1982, he shot with many important US directors such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, and became acknowledged as one of the best cinematographers worldwide.)
Ballhaus suggested to Fassbinder that he should also get me on board. Fassbinder didn’t know me and asked, “Why this guy?”. Ballhaus praised me as a personality who can deal with any situation, an unconventional and flexible type without that dusty bureaucratic mentality. I was uncomplicated and with an open perspective, and was basically hired as personal assistant and intermediary between Fassbinder and the WDR, despite my official description as production designer.
How were the first days working for him?
Well first of all, I got my driver’s license pulled before the first day of shooting. I had a big farewell party, with the car and equipment packed up to drive to Switzerland the next day. Everybody drank a lot. The next morning the police knocks at my studio door: “Can you move your car 10 meters away?” So I sat in my car and moved it a few meters away- the next thing I saw were blue flashing lights. “Did you drink?” “Yes, last night” It was surreal. It were those cops who had asked me to pull my car away for a few meters, and the same cops then busted me for drunk-driving! They asked me to walk in a straight line, brought me to the next police station, and removed my driver’s license with the words “You are not going to Switzerland or anywhere”.
Wow. Was this the usual evil and petty cop action or an act of sabotage?
I still cannot figure that out. It was surreal. They must have been tipped off, either by an angry neighbor or somebody who wanted to sabotage Fassbinder. I informed Fassbinder about my pulled driver’s license, which made my job and going to Switzerland impossible. Fassbinder insisted “You are coming with us!!” He made a few calls, including a call to the Mayor of Zürich, who gave me a free pass for the next 8 weeks “You have green light and will not be stopped anywhere in Switzerland, Mr. Enzenauer”. That felt really good- those damned cops!
Tell us how Fassbinder worked.
It was all very work-intensive. While shooting, he was always highly focused and blended out the world around him. Playing around with his nipple when lost in his thoughts. He often just turned away from the actors and scene because he was always one step ahead and already had the scenes for the next day in his head, and of the day after. Often it would be scenes for a completely different film. It could happen that he suddenly said something like: “We are shooting the scene for film 5 next, then we need this one scene with Hanna Schygulla for film 7 that is scheduled in 8 weeks.” He was an absolute master at multitasking, always doing several projects at the same time. He sometimes had doubts and then consulted me: “Is it even possible to do what I’m doing, can we do it? Script number 6, good weather etc is that correct, will the WDR take it off?”
Given the quality of his output, it seems like Fassbinder was a shimmering argument against overregulation and lengthy democratic processes. A man of action, unconventional and highly productive.
He was perfect, absolutely perfect. Fassbinder didn’t want to be distracted. There were no breaks during shooting, with him there was no waiting around. He often changed plans but was perfectly organized, he just wanted to work without any bureaucracy. I always compare him to Lagerfeld with whom I had worked before: the same perfectionism, the same focus, and with Fassbinder it wasn’t about the money either.
Why do you compare him to Karl Lagerfeld?
Lagerfeld was a rich entrepreneur’s son, Fassbinder came from a wealthy middle-class family, both were extremely educated and intelligent. Lagerfeld was great. We were filming a portrait of Lagerfeld for the WDR in 1976 and Lagerfeld liked me and invited me- and only me- to live in his old apartment in the middle of Paris. I am not gay, by the way. This was not a romantic, but professional appreciation… Just like Fassbinder, Lagerfeld was driven, he was always in a hurry, always coordinating, he wanted to get things done effectively and without wasting any time.
How was Fassbinder with the actors?
If any of the actors showed star attitudes, he deflated them right at the beginning “I want nobody here to act like a prima-donna, regardless of whether you have a lead or supporting role, if you can be seen 2 or 80 minutes in the film – all are equal here. And I am equal, too.” This was true, but Fassbinder didn’t keep up with anyone except for the main actors, Ballhaus, and me. It could also happen that he got annoyed and said something like, “Dieter, make sure that I don’t see XY for the next few days,” or fired and replaced people. Fassbinder wanted everything to be harmonious, but he didn’t want to talk everything through, he didn’t want to dwell on mundane things and discuss bullshit. It was fantastic, efficient. He just wanted to take care of the film and his art- and remember that this man was busy with up to 8 films in a single year.
How did narcistic actors and harmonious technicians cope with this? I bet not everybody was happy.
He could be difficult and impatient. When somebody, for example, asked a question like “Where are we going to have lunch today?” Fassbinder would suddenly have a fit and scream: “It’s not about having lunch somewhere, but rather that we’re making a film here!! I’m the man who coordinates you, and not concerned with where you eat your Wurst for lunch!” He was a true original, wonderful.
Of whom was his entourage made up?
Kurt Raab, Hanna Schygulla, all gay and lesbian types. He walked in everywhere and moved completely naturally with his gay troop, which was completely unusual and impossible for the time. Kurt Raab was his closest gay friend, and he chatted a lot and wanted to make himself a bit important with things he had no clue about. Half of the time it was “Rainer we can’t do this” and “Rainer we can’t do that”. At one point I told Fassbinder “Rainer, either he or I, it has to stop.” Fassbinder just said “I’ll button this up tonight,” and the next day Kurt Raab would be like exchanged, now very tame and apologizing. Telling me that he was doing a film for the first time, and that I was right. Fassbinder was in good control of things.
Do you remember a particular episode of working for Fassbinder?
One day Fassbinder came to me with a special job. “Dieter, get yourself a visa and drive down to Morocco, there are three people waiting for you. Yusuf, Ali…” He would give me the location and date and then I had to go pick them up for him- Fassbinder had a thing for Arab men, including hookers. He was passionate in all regards. Other than that, he was very closed up about his private life. Of course, during the production of Ali: Fear Eats Soul that privacy couldn’t be maintained anymore, since the lead actor (El Hedi ben Salem m’Barek Mohammed Mustafa) was also his long-time partner.
Their story is the essence of Fassbinder and his films in a nutshell. Untamed, passionate, messy, real. It just destroys you.
Why?
El Hedi ben Salem had a wife, three sons and a daughter back in Tunisia, two of whom Fassbinder tried to adopt later. They fell in love in a gay bar in Paris, and ben Salem moved to Germany and worked on several Fassbinder films behind and in front of the camera. After their break-up in the winter of 1974, ben Salem was allegedly involved in a knife fight in Berlin. He fled to France with the help of a brave Fassbinder. In Nîmes he robbed a jewelry store with his nephew, was arrested and sentenced to prison. In 1977 he committed suicide in prison. Everybody around Fassbinder sheltered him from this news, and so the director didn’t learn about his ex-lover’s death until 1982. Fassbinder then dedicated his last film Querelle (1982) to ben Salem.
I didn’t know all of that, but it sure sounds like a Fassbinder film. That was Fassbinder: never at a loss with the laws of passion and those of the street. He was unafraid and passionate and messy.
Fassbinder’s films were shocking for audiences back then, and they strike you as subversive even nowadays with their frank display of homosexuality and male nudity and uncomfortable topics like racism, class struggle, and the dehumanising character of capitalism. He was definitely not a beloved ‘folk artist’, but exposing the German society and very uncomfortable to watch for most. How the hell did he get his films funded by the state broadcaster WDR?
I really don’t know it. His films have definitely not been praised, but rather all got panned back then. He pissed off everybody and confronted the audiences with uncomfortable topics and truths. The general opinion about Fassbinder was negative… or rather very negative. The people simply did not understand him. But he was definitely good, and he delivered the films, he was worth his money. And he was bold in demanding it. It was also not like there were lots of other talented directors who could challenge him in Germany. One other reason Fassbinder could sell his films so well was the fact that he often used very well-known and traditional German actors in his films which he re-invented. He gave them a rare chance to show another side of themselves. Take Karl Heinz Böhm for example, the actor of Sissi. Böhm was a very conservative actor and every German grandmother’s favorite son-in-law. Suddenly, late in his career, or rather when there was no career anymore, he plays these psychopaths and gay characters in Fassbinder’s films. It was shocking for the audiences, but they were also curious, so they tuned in.
What did the time with Fassbinder mean to you personally?
I treasure that time deeply because of the priceless knowledge that was offered to me, and the freedom under which this knowledge was passed on. One thing that I learned from him is that I have to defragment my head. That means knocking unimportant things out of my mind. But this insight only comes when you use your head continuously and work so hard that you can get to this point. The best people in the industry that I have met were the ones who courageously followed their art without feeling that they owed anything to anybody. Rainer was one of these people, he was great, a down-to-earth master. It is always just a few intelligent artists who hold the art and its business together. Rainer was one of them.
– February 2021
Interview by Saliha Enzenauer