Fox and His Friends

Infobox Film
name = Fox and His Friends
(Faustrecht der Freiheit)


caption =
director = Rainer Werner Fassbinder
producer = Christian Hohoff
(Tango Film)
writer = Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Christian Hohoff
starring = Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Peter Chatel
Karlheinz Böhm
Kurt Raab
El Hedi ben Salem
music = Peer Raben
cinematography = Michael Ballhaus
editing = Thea Eymèsz
distributor =
released = 1974
runtime = 123 min.
country = flagcountry|Germany
language = German
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:18377
imdb_id = 0072976

"Fox and His Friends", ( _de. Faustrecht der Freiheit) is a 1974 West German film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder himself and Peter Chatel, Karlheinz Böhm, Rudolf Lenz, Karl Schedyt, Hans Zander and Kurt Raab.

Plot introduction

Frantz, a.k.a. Fox (Rainer Werner Fassbinder), a working-class young man, meets a bourgeois homosexual and mingles with that milieu after winning the lottery.

Plot summary

At a fair, a man running a striptease stand gets arrested; he kisses his assistant, Fox. Now jobless, Fox visits his sister (seemingly a prostitute) and says he wants to play the lottery to win money. He meets an older man (Karlheinz Böhm) and, once inside the car, they discuss having sex. Still wanting to buy lottery tickets but having no money, Fox stops the car and goes to a florist's; Fox threatens to expose the man as a homosexual and extorts ten marks from him. He then buys lottery tickets as the newsagent's is closing.

Later, Fox is at the home of friends of the older man's, and he has won half a million marks in the lottery. The flat is very plush, the men all bourgeois and gay. He spends the night at the flat of Eugen (Peter Chatel), a man already in a relationship with another man; the next morning the boyfriend finds them out. Eugen then takes over his father's printing company, and hires only other homosexuals. Later, Fox and Eugen go to a working-class gay bar and then to a posh restaurant, where they meet Eugen's two other friends. Eugen then takes Fox round his new factory. Later, Fox goes to a gay spa and talks to the older man, who suggests investing in Eugen's company. Fox then takes out 100,000 marks and gives them to Eugen; they go to the factory to tell Eugen's father.

Eugen gets evicted from his flat for moral reasons (two men living together); he suggests that Fox should buy his own flat. They visit one and Fox buys it, then buys furniture from the older man for 80,000 marks. They go clothes-shopping at Eugen's ex-boyfriend, and again Fox pays for it all. Later, they have lunch at Eugen's parents' and Fox has no table manners. He then signs a contract for the 100,000 loan, which he barely understands. Fox and Eugen go to the gay bar, and find that the man from the fair has been released from prison; Fox lends him 30,000 marks, and Eugen is jealous. At the flat, they throw a party, during which the ex-boyfriend whispers to the older man that he might be living there later; Fox's sister makes a fuss as she is drunk. To iron out the argument, they decide to go on holiday. At the travel agent, Eugen decides on Marrakech, Morocco; Fox pays for it again. There, they pick up a local male prostitute (El Hedi ben Salem), and go to a restaurant with him; he is not let into the hotel because he is an Arab. The hotel assistant says, however, that they have male escorts specially for the hotel.

Back from the holiday, the company is bankrupt; the workers cannot be paid. Fox suggests giving his flat to Eugen, so the bank lets him take a loan to pay them. Eugen goes to the opera with the older man, leaving Fox alone; Fox goes to the gay bar, throws a fit, gives 500 marks to the florist and runs off. The next day at the factory, Fox makes a mistake with some imprints; Eugen's father tells him off. Later, they all have dinner together and again, Fox has no table manners or "savoir-vivre". Fox goes to a pub and propositions two American soldiers, but nothing happens, they just leave. He drives to the gay bar, the florist hits on him and Fox slaps him; Fox has a short heart attack. Back at the flat, he tells Eugen about the attack but the lover doesn't seem to care. The next day, he goes to a doctor's, who gives him sedative pills.

Fox breaks up with Eugen, who says he is taking the flat to make up for the bungled imprints (costing 150,000 marks). At the factory the next day, he is told that the 100,000 marks from the contract was paid back in his monthly salary, he didn't have to work. Later he goes to the flat and he is not let in; Eugen's ex-boyfriend is there. He then goes to his sister's, they have an argument and he goes to sleep in his car. The next day he sells his new car for only 8000 marks. Later in the gay bar, Fox sees the American soldiers and they ask him how much he pays; he starts sobbing.

Finally, he is lying on the floor in the underground; he has killed himself with the pills. Two young boys steal his money and golden watch from him. The older man and the man from the fair see him; they leave when they see he is dead, as they do not want to be involved in his death.

External links

*imdb title|id=0072976|title=Faustrecht der Freiheit
* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?_r=1&title1=Fox%20and%20His%20Friends%20%28Fist%2dRight%20of%20Freedom%29%20%28Faustrecht%20der%20Freiheit%29%20%28Movie%29&title2=&reviewer=RICHARD%20EDER&pdate=19750927&v_id=18377&oref=slogin New York Times review]