Fassbinder's use of color is often beautiful and occasionally exhilarating. It is a delightful cinematic moment when Ali first asks a drab and rainsoaked Emmi to dance in the bar, and she takes off her coat to reveal a technicolor dress underneath. There is no question that Fassbinder is the equal of his idol Douglas Sirk in composing a pretty image. But as nice as the style of this film is, it falls down on content. The preachy anti-racist tone gets monotonous, and the judgemental children and neighbors are just a bit too evil.
On the age difference issue, perhaps I am being just as bigoted as the antagonists in the film, but I find it a little implausible. Ali is a handsome youngish man, and I don't see how he could overcome the instincts built up by millions of years of evolution, and fall in love with the decrepit old Emmi. There is some vague reference in the film to Ali growing up without a mother, but this seems a psychological stretch.
On the age difference issue, perhaps I am being just as bigoted as the antagonists in the film, but I find it a little implausible. Ali is a handsome youngish man, and I don't see how he could overcome the instincts built up by millions of years of evolution, and fall in love with the decrepit old Emmi. There is some vague reference in the film to Ali growing up without a mother, but this seems a psychological stretch.