Movie Review : A ‘Love’ Story Woven With Compassion

R.W. Fassbinder’s superbly understated “I Only Want You to Love Me,” made for German TV, arrives 18 years after its completion and nearly 12 years after its prodigious maker’s untimely death, at once underlining its own timelessness and the great loss to world cinema in general and to German films in particular caused by Fassbinder’s passing.

There are many talented German filmmakers, but none has had quite the unique, sustained and far-ranging impact of Fassbinder. The consolation is that at his death at 36 he left behind an incredibly rich legacy of 28 plays, three radio plays and no less than 43 films, a number of which have yet to surface in America.

Fassbinder was one of the first openly gay filmmakers in the world, but his strength lay in his ability to empathize no less with straights than with gays. Based on a true incident, “I Only Want You to Love Me” is a perfect case in point, a study of a young married man Fassbinder views with the utmost compassion as he proceeds to his fate with a remorseless inevitability.

In flashback we witness the stark childhood of a boy born in a small Bavarian town to hard-working parents--they run a restaurant and live above it--who are both perfectionists and severe disciplinarians, absolutely lacking in any capacity for affection for their only child. Their son Peter grows up obediently to be an understandably shy young man (Vitus Zeplichal) but with a quiet determination not to be the failure his father predicts he will be.

At first it looks as if Peter will prove his father wrong. A pleasant-looking young man, he attracts a young woman, Erika (Elke Aberle), as ordinary in appearance as he, but capable both of appreciating him and of making the initial overtures between them. A first-rate bricklayer who in his spare time has built his parents a sizable home (for which he receives no thanks), he marries Erika and dares to seek his fortune in Munich, where he quickly finds employment in construction and where his zeal and ability are recognized by his boss and co-workers.

Peter seemingly has the wherewithal to make something of his life, but his arrival in Munich coincides with West Germany’s economic miracle. Munich is one the most beautiful and sophisticated of European cities, but it’s also a shoppers’ paradise. Material goods abound, along with inducements to buy them. Peter, starved for love his entire life, believes that the way to secure his wife’s love is to keep buying her things. Erika is at once more mature and sensible than Peter, but it’s beyond her ability to comprehend or to control her husband’s compulsive spending. Surely, something’s going to have to give.

Fassbinder draws from his cast, in particular Zeplichal and Aberle--and also from esteemed veteran actress Johanna Hofer as Aberle’s gentle grandmother--the remarkably complete and selfless portrayals that are his trademark.

* No MPAA rating. Times guidelines: Adult themes, scene of intense violence, casual frontal nudity, both male and female. ‘I Only Want You to Love Me’

Vitus Zeplichal: Peter

Elke Aberle: Erika

Johanna Hofer: Grandmother

Alexander Allerson: Father

Ernie Mangold: Mother

A Leisure Time Features release of a Bavaria Atelier GmbH production for Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). Writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. From an interview in the book “Lebenslasnglich” by Klaus Antes and Christiane Eherhardt. Producer Peter Marthesheimer. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Editor Liesgret Schmitt-Klink. Music Peer Raben. Production designer Kurt Raab. In German with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd . , West Los Angeles. (310) 478-6379.