Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed this 1974 German film. It stars Brigitte Mira as a 60-year-old widow who finds herself drawn into a bar she passes every day but would normally never visit. Here, she meets Ali (El Hedi ben Salem), a much younger Arabic immigrant, who asks her to dance after some mean-spirited prodding from some of the other barflies. They dance together and instantly strike up an unlikely but easy rapport, and end up sleeping together that night.
They both realize they're lonely and that they'd be less lonely if they were together and make the pragmatic, if unorthodox, decision to get married. Of course, no one else understands this, including both characters' friends, family and co-workers.
The film is in turn touching, funny and tragic, as the innocent relationship between our two likable main characters is put to the test, not just by their surroundings, but by themselves. A lesser film would have the two main characters be saints, paragons of an enlightened age. But not here. Here, they make mistakes, buy into what other people are saying about them, and do things they regret.
Apparently this film was partially inspired by ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, which I just watched the other day, and it was nice to see them so close together. Still, ALI is the better film, if only because it allows for extremes that HEAVEN does not. For instance, in ALI the age difference is visible just by looking at the two characters. In HEAVEN, it's superficial.
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