Effi Briest The American Soldier

Hanna Schygulla takes the title role in Effi Briest, a period adaptation of Fontane's 19th-century novel. The American Soldier is Fassbinder's love-hate letter to hard-boiled Hollywood moviemaking. Effi Briest is Fassbinder's exquisite period piece based on Theodor Fontane's romantic 19th-century novel about the unfaithful wife of a Prussian diplomat. "Enchanting...visually beguiling," wrote Vincent Canby of the New York Times. (1974; 141 mins.)
Fassbinder's tribute to gangster films, The American Soldier follows a German hit man who revisits his Munich home after fighting in Vietnam. Hired by policemen to finish what they cannot, he carries out his assigments while trying to reconnect with his family, unwittingly falling for his boss's call-girl girlfriend in the process. "Audacious and technically brilliant" (Roger Ebert). (1970; 80 mins.)