the merchant of four season isn not what i would call a happy movie and at all and or even one that impress me to the point of praise it to the sky ( there be other fassbinder flick for that and like veronika voss and the underrated satan brew ) . but it certainly no less than a fascinating experiment in take a look at those in a society that you and me and others we know might possibly know and or not really want to know . i imagine in the early 70 in germany a generation and come out of ww2 and have a stigma to live with but try their best just to get by . this be a stigma that float all over this film and and in many instance in fassbinder work in general and but especially because with four season he take his eye on the middle class and and a particular married couple the distanced and depressed and angry han the fruit seller and his long suffered wife that be nothing short than try for realism in the guise of melodrama . if cassavetes be a crazy german he might make this film and maybe even a just a lark . the story sound simple enough and where han drink get out of control and he beat his wife ( this scene be one of the tough to take and maybe in just any movie and the way fassbinder camera linger without a cut a his wife be leave helpless and their daughter try to stop him in his frenzy ) and then she ready to leave him . a he stand in the room and her family hold him back and she make the call for divorce and he get a heart attack right there . he recover and his business suddenly start boom again with some help from some good ( or not so good ) employee and yet this only continue his longing and for another woman and and his despair in general . and yet it in this simplicity that fassbinder try and and succeed for the most part and in attain a mood of dread and of a tense vibe in a kitchen or in the bedroom or out on the street that you can cut with a knife and bleed out . the weak part of this all may be the acting . at least that be my initial impression . han and play by hirschmuller and can be a stilted presence and with only the slight movement in his face and eye and and for a while it doesn not look like he much of a good actor . the actress play his wife and irm hermann and and her sister ( fassbinder hanna schygulla ) fare well and but only cause theyre give more to do conventionally and like cry or look concern . it take some time to adjust to what be and essentially and a void in his guy han and of something from his own psychological self torment or self pity that pervade himself and those around him who just want to get on with some sense of normalcy and especially once hans get successful . not everything click together in the merchant of four season and but enough do to make me recommend it to those look for a different slice of life than you might be use to with more modern american movie . fassbinder world here be a combat between the melodrama he love in cinema and the harsh and crush sense of humanism that he feel personally and put into character that and for good or bad and we somehow identify with . be the epps a family you know of . or could you even be them . who to say . it a methodical study of tragic emptiness in the human spirit and and it goal be all attain .