In a country that he considered too conservative, conformist, spießerhaft' and charged with latent violence' (Elsaesser, 1996: 25), he also deals with the issues of ageism and crossing social boundaries. ... Central to this film is the way that he contrasts and contradicts one scene with the next, in order to make the spectator question what he has just accepted. ... Exploitation is another theme in the film that seems related to contradiction and contrast. ... While in FETS, Fassbinder has kept to the pre-defined rules of melodrama, permitting the film to be classified as suc...

• Word Count: 2626
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate