I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976)

Made for German television, Ich will doch nur, daß ihr mich liebt is generally regarded as minor. Its modesty, though, is deceptive. The film is assured at showing how socioeconomics cross with individual history and psychology to produce a violent result. Rainer Werner Fassbinder based his film on a book (Lebenslaenglich, by Klaus Antes and Christiane Erhardt), I understand, that includes an interview with a convicted killer. In the film someone (like Erhardt) interviews Peter. Flashbacks reveal the gentle young man’s attempts to please cold parents and win their approval and love.
     A construction worker, Peter builds a house for his Bavarian parents, who nevertheless pressure his decision to move with wife Erika to Munich, to prove his ability to make something of himself. There, he scrapes by, and only by working hard at racking up hours of overtime, which eventually dry up. Munich is very expensive; wishing to give his wife “everything normal people have,” Peter buys things on credit and gets caught in a maelstrom of debt. Emotions between the couple grow increasingly tense, especially once Erika is pregnant. Peter, fragile, feels unloved. As the two undress to make love, Peter’s image occupies a mirror whereas Erika, in the same shot, occupies real-space, causing them to appear as if they’re facing in the same direction when in reality they are facing each other. They appear to be divided, then, not a couple. We aren’t shown their bodies coming together.
     Peter separates himself from Erika by telling her lies so as not to shame himself by exposing his financial and work difficulties, so as not to risk losing her love.
     We glimpse Peter’s parricide-by-proxy in a quick flashforward within the flashback. We glimpse his demoralization and mental disarray.