Rainer Werner Fassbinder (31 May 1945 — 10 June 1982) was a German film director, screenwriter, and actor. Considered one of the most important figures in the New German Cinema, Fassbinder was prolific; in a professional career less than fifteen years, he completed forty feature-length films, two television film series, three short films, four video productions, twenty-four stage plays, and four radio plays. He had tortured, personal relationships with the actors and technicians around him who formed a surrogate family. However, his pictures demonstrate his deep sensitivity to social outsiders and his hatred of institutionalized violence. He ruthlessly attacked both German bourgeois society and the larger limitations of humanity. Fassbinder died in June 1982 at the age of 37 from a lethal cocktail of cocaine and barbiturates. His death has often been cited as the event that ended the New German Cinema movement.

Filmography

• 2024Sukowa - Playful Like A Child
• 2022Peter von Kant — Original Story
• 2013Frogman Katzelmacher — Writer
• 2012Garbage, the City and Death — Theatre Play
• 2008The Marriage of Maria Braun — Writer
• 2000Water Drops on Burning Rocks — Writer
• 1984The Last Trip to Harrisburg — Voice of Man and Woman in Train (voice)
• 1982Kamikaze '89 — Police Lieutenant Jansen
• 1982Querelle — Editor, Screenplay, Director
• 1982Veronika Voss — Kinobesucher (uncredited), Director, Screenplay, Co-Producer
• 1981Lili Marleen — Günther Weissenborn (uncredited), Editor, Director, Screenplay
• 1981Lola — Screenplay, Director, Editor, Line Producer
• 1981Polnischer Sommer — Babiuch
• 1981Theater in Trance — Director, Writer
• Berlin Alexanderplatz — Narrator (voice, uncredited), Writer, Director, Creator
• 1979Bourbon Street Blues — Writer
• 1979The Marriage of Maria Braun — Peddler, Director, Idea, Editor
• 1979The Third Generation — Director, Producer, Screenplay, Director of Photography, Camera Operator
• 1978Despair — Director, Editor
• 1978Germany in Autumn — Self (uncredited), Director, Screenplay
• 1978In a Year with 13 Moons — Self (archive footage) (uncredited), Director, Art Direction, Writer, Editor, Director of Photography, Producer
• 1978Little Godard — Second Director
• 1978Spiel der Verlierer — Producer, Editor
• 1977Adolf and Marlene — Hermann, Producer
• 1977Chinese Roulette — Writer, Director
• 1977The Stationmaster’s Wife — Director, Writer, Editor
• 1977Women in New York — Director
• 1976Fear of Fear — Director, Writer
• 1976I Only Want You to Love Me — Writer, Director
• 1976Satan’s Brew — Director, Writer
• 1976Shadow of Angels — Raoul, Theatre Play, Screenplay
• 1976The American Soldier — Franz Walsch (uncredited), Director, Writer, Producer, Production Design, Songs
• 1975Die Wohngenossin
• 1975Fox and His Friends — Franz "Fox" Bieberkopf, Producer, Writer, Director
• 1975Like a Bird on a Wire — Director, Writer
• 1975Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven — Director, Writer
• 1974Ali: Fear Eats the Soul — Eugen, Original Music Composer, Production Design, Producer, Director, Screenplay
• 1974Effi Briest — Narrator (voice) (uncredited), Screenplay, Producer, Director
• 1974La Paloma — Writer
• 1974Martha — Director, Screenplay
• 1974Nora Helmer — Director
• 1973Jail Bait — Writer, Screenplay, Director
• 1973Tenderness of the Wolves — Wittowski, Producer
• World on a Wire — Director, Writer, Creator
• 1972Bremen Freedom — Rumpf, Director, Author
• Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day — Director, Writer, Producer, Creator
• 1972The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant — Screenplay, Director, Producer
• 1972The Merchant of Four Seasons — Zucker, Screenplay, Director, Original Music Composer, Producer
• 1971Beware of a Holy Whore — Sascha, Director, Writer, Editor
• 1971Haytabo — Courier
• 1971Mathias Kneißl — Flecklbauer
• 1971Pioneers in Ingolstadt — Director, Screenplay
• 1971Rio das Mortes — Hannas Tanzpartner (uncredited), Director, Writer, Editor
• 1971Supergirl — Man in Front of Shop Window
• 1971The Ancestress — Jaromir
• 1971The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach — Bauer
• 1971Whity — Saloon guest (uncredited), Director, Screenplay, Editor
• 1970Baal — Baal
• 1970Gods of the Plague — Pornokunde, Editor, Director, Screenplay, Producer
• 1970Love Is Colder Than Death — Franz, Screenplay, Director, Editor
• 1970The Coffee House — Director, Writer
• 1970The Niklashausen Journey — Schwarzer Mönch, Director, Writer, Editor
• 1970Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? — Screenplay, Director, Editor
• 1969Al Capone im deutschen Wald — Heini
• 1969Frei bis zum nächsten Mal — Mechaniker
• 1969Katzelmacher — Jorgos, Screenplay, Director, Editor, Production Design, Theatre Play
• 1969Tonys Freunde — Mallard
• 1968Mit Eichenlaub und Feigenblatt — Soldier
• 1968The Bridegroom, the Actress, and the Pimp — the pimp
• 1966Ein Platz für Günter — Assistant Director
• 1966The City Tramp — Man #1 on Toilet, Director, Writer, Editor
• 1966The Little Chaos — Franz, Director, Writer
• 1966This Night — Cinematography, Director, Writer

Appearances as themselves (42)

• 2020Wim Wenders, Desperado — Self (archive footage)
• 2019Photographer "Eise" — Self
• 2015A German Youth — Self (archive footage)
• 2015Fassbinder — Self (archive footage)
• 2015Fassbinder: Love Without Demands — Self (archive footage)
• 2014Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance — Self (archive footage)
• 2012Once Upon a Time… The Marriage of Maria Braun — Self (archive footage)
• 2011My Name Is Not Ali — Self (archive footage)
• 2010Daniel Schmid: Le Chat Qui Pense — Self (archive footage)
• 2008Back to Room 666 — Self (archive footage)
• 2008Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers — Self (archive footage)
• 2007Atlètic Club Banyoles — self
• Filmlegenden. Deutsch — Self (archive footage)
• 2005Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977 — Self
• 2002Fassbinder in Hollywood — Self (archive footage)
• 2002Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Der Theatermensch — Self (archive footage)
• 2000Fassbinder's Women — Self (Archive footage)
• 1992I Don’t Just Want You to Love Me — Self (archive footage)
• 1987Filmarbeit mit Douglas Sirk — Self
• 1985Room 666 — Self
• 1982Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Last Works — Self
• 1982The Wizard of Babylon — Self
• 1981Cinémania: Rainer Werner Fassbinder — Self
• 1980Douglas Sirk: Über Stars — Self
• 1980Notes on the Making of 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' — Self
• NDR Talk Show — Self
• Biographies — Self
• 1978Life Stories: A Conversation with RW Fassbinder — Self
• 1976Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema — Self
• 1976The Culture Industry Needs Something Like Me — Self
• 1975Auf dem Trümmerfeld der Träume — Self
• 19741 Berlin-Harlem — Self
• Am laufenden Band — Self - Guest
• Spécial cinéma — Self
• Je später der Abend — Self
• Dalli Dalli — Self
• 1971Fassbinder Produces: Film No. 8 — Self
• 1970End of the Commune? — Self (uncredited)
• aspekte — Self
• Grimme Award — Self
• Stars in der Manege — Self
• German Film Award — Self