Christian brad thomsen fassbinder biography

We all know the facts: over 40 made-for-TV and feature films, more than 30 theatre plays, acting performances galore and a brilliant, provocative body of work cut short by his death at 37 of a “work overdose.” But Christian Braad Thomsen’s take on Rainer Werner Fassbinder goes much deeper. The Danish filmmaker was a friend and admirer of the so-called enfant terrible of German cinema from the stormy reception of his first feature Love Is Colder Than Death at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1969 until the end. Fassbinder – To Love Without Demands covers the filmmaker’s complicated (to say the least) bond with his mother Lilo Pempeit, whom he transformed into an actress, his thwarted desire to have children, metaphorically represented in many of his films, his rapport with actors and actresses including his muse Irm Hermann, his hatred of paternalism, his worship of Brecht and Douglas Sirk and his take on sadomasochism and social structures