FOX AND HIS FRIENDS (1975), one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s very few films with a queer protagonist, pits the title character (played by Fassbinder himself)—a hapless, clueless circus performer who has just won the lottery—against the imperatives of the sleek, educated gays he suddenly has access to.
“FOX contains Fassbinder’s most pointed social observation…. a deep, warts-and-all image of queer identity….It questions the conventional social authority that often oppresses those who, like gay, naive Fox, go through life unaware that they lack social power.” — Armond White*
In addition to Fassbinder, FOX stars Peter Chatel as Fox’s social-climbing lover, Harry Baer as Fox’s rival, and El Hedi ben Salem (Fassinder’s real-life lover) as a Moroccan hustler. Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus.
FOX AND HIS FRIENDS, Thursday, June 8 at 7:30 pm.
CINEFAMILY, 611 North Fairfax, Los Angeles.
cinefamily.org/films/cinefamily-editions-presents/#fox-and-his-friends
*out.com/movies/2017/4/28/fassbinders-mirror-how-gay-filmmaker-examined-self-society
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (left) and Peter Chatel in Fox and His Friends. Image credits: The Criterion Collection, and Slant.
