Fear of Fear

Fear of Fear is the fifth film Rainer Werner Fassbinder made for the WDR within four years, in cooperation with editor Peter Märthesheimer.

The film was shot in 25 days total and cost about 375,000 DM.

The original story on which the film is based, 'Langsame Tage', was written by Asta Scheib, a 35-year-old housewife and mother of two who had only occasionally written for a local newspaper and a women's magazine before, and it was her first film script; she sent it to Fassbinder because she admired his films.

Fassbinder used Asta Scheib's story almost unchanged as the basis for his screenplay.

Fassbinder stated that the film is not really about mental illness but about the 'normal' human condition, showing how someone who leads a life alienated from their true self is inevitably shattered.

The cast includes several regular members of Fassbinder's troupe, such as Margit Carstensen, Brigitte Mira, Irm Hermann, Kurt Raab and Ingrid Caven, as well as Fassbinder's own mother Lilo Pempeit, credited under her stage name, in the role of Frau Schall.

Reviewers noted Fassbinder's visual technique of using blurred images to depict Margot's mental state, along with recurring shots of her framed behind half-open doors and reflected in mirrors hung throughout the apartment.