Rosel Zech is Veronika Voss, a glamorous movie star of Nazi-era Germany. Reporter Hilmar Thate runs into her on a trolley car and thinks she might make an interesting story. He discovers a woman forgotten by the industry, living on the edge of poverty and subsisting on drug-fueled dreams.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's look at the embarrassing detritus of UFA is alleged to be based on what happened to Sybille Schmitz after the war. It's shot in black & white, with Miss Zech's scene clearly set in her imagination, where the lights are bright and brilliant, smoothing out her wrinkles as she descends into madness. Fassbinder clearly disapproves of everyone, from the reality-shunning Zech, to the new film industry, impatient of such embarrrassing ruins, to the police efficiently and indifferently carrying out the dictates of the law, to Thate, representing the press, who makes a futile effort, gives up and comments that it's not a story that anyone will want to read. Should we applaud Fassbinder for telling the story, or did he simply think it commercial?
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's look at the embarrassing detritus of UFA is alleged to be based on what happened to Sybille Schmitz after the war. It's shot in black & white, with Miss Zech's scene clearly set in her imagination, where the lights are bright and brilliant, smoothing out her wrinkles as she descends into madness. Fassbinder clearly disapproves of everyone, from the reality-shunning Zech, to the new film industry, impatient of such embarrrassing ruins, to the police efficiently and indifferently carrying out the dictates of the law, to Thate, representing the press, who makes a futile effort, gives up and comments that it's not a story that anyone will want to read. Should we applaud Fassbinder for telling the story, or did he simply think it commercial?