This seems to be the message of this movie. Why was it that terrible? There are no answers in here. The German police had captured the leaders of the RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion) and some RAF members took hostages to obtain their release. The German government didn't comply. It was the dominant topic of the year. There are fundamental ethical issues behind this conflict. This movie doesn't seriously address them at all. Fassbinder presents his opinion: In a democracy the state would have to do the exchange, otherwise it would be fascism. Shallow thoughts and buzzwords, that's all they have to offer, the artists and intellectuals, who collaborated in the making of this anthology film.
"Deutschland im Herbst" isn't about arguments, it's about moods. Sadness, resignation, paranoia, doom and gloom. The film does not convey what agitated its makers so much, it only shows that they were. Rainer Werner Fassbinder uses his segment to stage himself as a despaired democrat. He abuses his lover and his mother as foils, representing the "reactionary" and "undemocratic" majority in Germany, a move that should not garner him much sympathy.
The movie starts with the solemn state memorial service of one of the terrorists' victims. It ends with the funeral of three RAF leaders, with some RAF supporters using the stage for protests. The rest of the segments looks very much like the safe and arbitrary stuff Alexander Kluge was known for.
The RAF terrorists wanted to ignite a communist revolution in West Germany. That pipe dream died long before 1977. What was their legacy? The state became stronger, more resilient, more efficient. The functional elites became less approachable, more aloof. In hindsight, the hysterics and their support for a lost - or more accurately: stillborn - cause look rather unsophisticated.
Compared to today, the Germany of 1977 appears to have been simple, down-to-earth, assessable, humane. Everything got much worse, of course. The segment written by Heinrich Böll and directed by Volker Schlöndorff is about a board of functionaries at a public-service television broadcaster, who postpone the broadcast of the televisation of a tragedy by Sophocles, because it could somehow, very esoterically influence the public debate in unwelcome ways. Oh, the sweet old days! Today the programm of the public TV stations consists of insipid serials, quiz shows and sports. No more Sophocles, no more classics, no more cultural education.
Fassbinder pretends to be very much afraid that the police could show up any moment to arrest him. Why? No reasons, it's just an act. Today and in the world of Palantir there are very good reasons to be paranoid. Maybe he communicated with someone, who is under suspicion. Maybe he once said something that the now omnipresent spies reported. An intrusive, presumptuous, all-controlling state? If only you knew how bad things would really get, kids, you would have enjoyed your time a lot more.
"Deutschland im Herbst" is a fairly dull movie. The patient viewer might still find something of value in this contemporary document. ("Bad German Movies"-Review No. 32)
