FOX: FISTRIGHT OF FREEDOM
Faustrecht der Freiheit
Rainer Fassbinder's second film of 1975 was made before Mother Kuster. In Fox
, he plays the leading role himself, as a young homosexual who is seen first as the lover of a fairground showman. He appears in the showman's booth as 'Fox, the Talking Head'. But the showman is arrested and with the sideshow closed down, Fox is left alone. He wins half a million marks in a lottery and, overnight, becomes an attractive proposition. He meets Eugen, a young businessman, whose father's printing works are on the brink of financial collapse. Fox moves in and puts money into the business, sets himself and Eugen up in a new apartment, and buys them both a new car. But Fox cannot match the middle-class sophistication and shrewd cruelty of Eugen's family and friends. They steadily drain away his fortune, and when the money is gone, discard him.'It is one of the best films about the life of homosexuals, their passions, their quarrels, their enforced pretences, their ghettoes, their ultimate drab normality.'
David Robinson, Daily Times
'The film is nearer to the highly-wrought artifice of Petra von Kant than to the realism of Fear Eats the Soul, but the brilliance of Fassbinder's work lies in the continuing dexterity with which he manages to juggle both styles within the framework of a single film.'
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times