Fox, a former circus performer, wins the lottery of DM 500,000 and can now have the life and things that he has always wanted. He enters an abusive relationship with wealthy industrialist Eugen in an attempt to climb the social ladder. His desperation for love and affection soon spirals into tragedy.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder Peter Chatel Karlheinz Böhm Adrian Hoven Christiane Maybach Harry Baer Hans Zander Kurt Raab Rudolf Lenz Karl Scheydt Peter Kern Karl-Heinz Staudenmeyer Walter Sedlmayr Bruce Low Marquard Bohm Brigitte Mira Evelyn Künneke Barbara Valentin Elma Karlowa Ingrid Caven Lilo Pempeit Ulla Jacobsson Hark Bohm Katherina Buchhammer El Hedi ben Salem Irm Hermann Dietrich Kerky Ursula Strätz
O Direito do Mais Forte, O Direito do Mais Forte à Liberdade, Le droit du plus fort, Il diritto del più forte, Vahvemman oikeus, A szabadság ököljoga, Frihedens knytnæve, Özgürlügün zorbalik hakki, La ley del más fuerte, 폭스와 그의 친구들, 自由の暴力, Frihetens knyttneve, Кулак свободи, Фокс та його друзі, O Direito do Mais Forte é a Liberdade, Το παιχνίδι της τύχης, Jiyû no Daishô, Prawo silniejszego, Кулачное право свободы, Frihetens nävrätt, Fist-Fight of Freedom, Le Droit du plus fort, 狐及其友, O Direito do mais Forte à Liberdade, ფოქსი და მისი მეგობრები, Pěstní právo svobody
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Germany16 France 
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Finland Australia Czechia Denmark Finland France Germany Hungary Italy Japan Portugal Spain Sweden UK USA Uruguay 
i don't know if a better movie about being autistic exists than this German movie from the 70s which was almost certainly not made with any intention to depict being autistic whatsoever. big thing i see in the reviews of this movie (both on this website and in general) is people's disbelief at how naïve Fox manages to be and how he manages to get manipulated over and over, which is a reaction that surprises me time and time again because i honestly have nothing but sympathy for Fox. i can't say that such a cynical reading of the film is "wrong" because this is a very cynical film from a very cynical filmmaker, but for me the undeniable cruelty…
The tragic trajectory of Fox is evident from the start, though the exact details of his path are worth watching play out. This is a bleak portrait of a man unable to control his life, of the tragedy of being a misfit, of the power of money and love to destroy and blind and confuse. Fassbinder's awkward fool Fox bumbles through his life in a manner Terry Pratchett would call "gormless," and his helplessness is amplified by being a sort of fish-out-of-water socially. It is an indictment of class, a scathing sneer at the divisiveness of financial strata and the shifting mores between them.
At the same time, Fox is shown to be one of the few genuine people in…
i'm gonna say it Donald Trump was gay af for having this playing in the White House all the time
“Cash. Cash. Cash! If you repeat a word often enough you don’t know what it means anymore“
Often, it is when you do not look for love that it falls into your life. It plummets into your heart and colors it red with a brush called idealism. You idealize the other person, you say things like 'I'd never have come so far on my own', things like 'Yeah, you're right. Some people are always right.' You love and you feel loved in turn - and you don't realize that it is a one-way street back into your own heart that beats with the red of destruction, not passion. It is a heartbeat that adjusts to the rhythm of the other person, abandoning you. He says you should speak French to be 'fancy'? You learn French so…
Fox and His Friends is as unapologetically gay as it's cynically scathing. Characteristic of Fassbinder's queer sensitivity as well as his pessimistic, sometimes comical mockery of a materialistic German society and its gapping class differences, Fox and His Friends is a quite accessible entry point to Fassbinder's glorious filmography.
Fox and His Friends depicts Fassbinder's distaste for a morally decaying society wrapped in a captivating gay romance story. Playing the titular character Fox himself, Fassbinder completely involved himself in the creation of such an iconic, sympathetic role with his totally believable delivery. It's simply impossible not to fall in love with Fox the man child who blindly believes in true love and ultimately gets punished for his naivety. With equally…
once the Leonard Cohen song comes on at the gay bar you more or less know that everything is basically doomed
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Fox and His Friends primarily explores the hierarchical power of money. It’s certainly not a movie that communicates these themes positively or pleasurably, with Fassbinder amplifying a trait of willful self-debasement with its protagonist, Fox (played by Fassbinder himself). He excavates sorrow and wisdom from a mischievousness of getting what one wants and displays an excellent approach to both the editing and framing, with dishevelled images and careful composition, and although the overall tone of the film is pessimistic, it’s not without some well-needed humour.
Fox's friends are the fucking worst.
48/100
As I remembered it from (yeesh) 20 years ago. (I saw much of Fassbinder's oeuvre for the first time in a big '97 MoMA retro.) Each individual scene is impeccable, but the movie consists of the same impeccable scene repeated over and over and over again, without sufficient variation. The dynamic is clearly established within half an hour; after that, it's strictly a question of whether the next interaction will focus on exploitation, class condescension, or both simultaneously. It's like watching someone being killed via lingchi, with lots of sneering thrown in as well. Nor is Fassbinder strong enough as an actor to make Fox transcend his function as a pathetic, symbolic victim. More an outrage-generating device than even a sociological treatise (much less a narrative), partially redeemed by a strong supporting cast and by the specificity of its queer demimonde.
I felt the urge to rewatch Fox and his friends again even if I only watched it a few months ago but on a rewatch it still remains a devastating miserable exploration into class and exploitation. The movie acts as a gay love story but is ultimately more about the idea of class dynamics and criticism of the bourgeois. Fassbinder is excellent as fox here bringing a certain rawness to the role he plays not a man undone by love but undone by the ideas surrounding it. Fassbinder’s direction itself too is scathing and unrelentless he’s not interested in the slightest about a love story but instead wants to show the social anatomy of the class system and how flawed it is while love is simply transactional and a part of the system. Overall it’s one of Fassbinder’s strongest melodramas and an effective drama which shows the audience the uncomfortable truth about the world.
They say misery loves company, but Fassbinder knows the real truth is that companies love misery. Plays a downright insane tonal gambit, which is to say, this starts as an outright goofy comedy that the acid of capital slowly starts to eat away at until not even the black, corrupted heart is left. Maybe the greatest movie ever made about the economy? You'd think we'd have outgrown this.
