Constantly controversial and consistently avant-garde, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was arguably post-war Germany’s greatest filmmaker.

“Dead by 37, openly bi-sexual, constantly controversial: Rainer Werner Fassbinder was arguably post-war Germany’s greatest filmmaker” – BFI season programmer Margaret Deriaz

Now, BFI Southbank dedicates a new two-part season to the tumultuous work of Rainer’s unflinchingly observed films.

An insatiable film addict from early childhood, Fassbinder drew inspiration from the French New Wave and, later, from the Hollywood melodramas of Douglas Sirk and others. But what emerged from his dazzling fusion of style and content was a powerful, personal vision of people imprisoned by social constraints and their own contradictory desires. Provocative, poignant, darkly witty: these are films that could change your life.

"Seeing a Fassbinder retrospective is better than drugs, liquor and sex put together. If he was alive today, I'd fall to my knees in front of him. Dead? Well, we have to pray to somebody, don't we?"

John Waters

The season enters its second half in May, with tickets on sale from 11th April for the Berlin Alexanderplatz weekender across Saturday 20th May and Sunday 21st May, Lola, The Third Generation, Despair and I Only Want You To Love Me.

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COMPETITION: Win 1x pair of tickets to attend a RW Fassbinder screening of your choice at BFI Southbank. To enter the competition, send an email to ava@run-riot.com with the correct answer in the ‘subject’ line. The winner will be randomly selected.

Q: Complete the title of the film that proved to be Fassbinder's greatest critical and commercial success: The ________ of Maria Braun

A: .1) Life .2) Trial .3) Adventures .4) Marriage