At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

In this film about an uncultured young gay man who wins the lottery, several themes play out, more or less concurrently: friends are easy to find when a person has money; intimate relationships between people of different social classes are not always wise; a fool and his money are soon parted; and perhaps most important of all ... one should always be true to one's self.The young man in question is "Fox" (Rainer Werner Fassbinder), a homely looking and chubby gay guy who suddenly finds himself surrounded by "friends", once they know he's got tons of money. These people are mostly gay. But they are also snobs, smug in their cultural knowledge, and convinced of their superiority to Fox. They put up with Fox, hoping they can latch on to some of his money. And Fox too often obliges them, as he is rather guileless and slow to catch on to their motives.The film's pace is slow and deliberate. The plot is a tad repetitive. And I'm not sure the story justifies a two-hour runtime. Color cinematography is rather stylized, and features vibrant colors. The film's tone alternates between whimsical and serious.I would describe "Fox And His Friends" as a German art house film. It is very low-key. Action is minimal. The emphasis is on characters, and the themes these interpersonal relationships generate. The ending is a bit heavy handed. But, as director too, Fassbinder certainly gets his message across.

Fox and His Friends, one of Fassbinder's favorites among his work, and my first experience seeing a film by the astonishingly prolific Rainer Werner Fassbinder, carries most of its appeal in the sensitive art of coalescing the out of the ordinary and the commonplace. In the world of Fox and His Friends, gay men vastly outnumber the straight people much in the same way most mainstream films have an inverted social perspective.Fassbinder himself takes the plum lead, a naive young working-class hustler who wins the lottery and in next to no time find himself, and his lottery spoils, adopted by Munich's gay social circle. He is one of only two directors of whom I know who have cast themselves in roles that incidentally bare their dangling genitals, as if the preceding crotch shot is not rousing enough. (The other is Guy Maddin.)This West German drama gives the impression of being about a relationship between Fassbinder's cool, masculine young punk and the outwardly amiable bourgeois son of a factory owner, but it slowly begins to head for a two-way street of class consciousness.The factory owner, we find out, is about to go out of business. The son hopes to save the company. One way out might be to fleece the effortlessly buttered up lottery winner out of his wealth, possibly using love as an excuse.Fassbinder is terrific in his apparently complete creative control with scenes in which dialogue beyond words, subtext is unthinkable, and direct actions are impossible. This knack blossoms in the film's most thought-provoking scenes, counting a skillfully multifaceted dinner scene. The factory owner's son brings Fassbinder home to meet his parents, and it becomes distressingly evident that the only real reason sexuality is not an issue with them is because money is, though this is not implied through their actions, but their son's.This moving piece of blatant ruthlessness, which excludes all life not within the particular intentions of its co-writer-producer-director-star, moves in and out of the now timeworn gay demiworld that has been John Rechy's atmospheric mainstay: Its bars with retro rock and roll on the jukebox and queens for barflies, its revelries, its maneuverings. And this melodrama's indications progressively grow to be sadly unmistakable, that Fox is the prey of the capitalist social order that so swiftly made him well-off, duped by "friendships" for which he doesn't even understand that he's picking up the tab.

This 1975 film by Fassbinder was considered a classic movie in the late 1970's. There were very few gay themed films that delved into the relationships of Gay people.The Director Fassbinder tells a rather daring story of the rise & fall of a relationship of 2 men from different social classes.He even takes the lead role & does well with it.When I first saw this I was very impressed & saw many of his other great films.Today however,I was not that impressed these stories now are almost common place.I did not feel any of the emotions that I felt back some 30 years ago, even at the tragic ending.It was like watching a soap opera.Non-the-less FOX AND HIS FRIENDS is still interesting & well acted & made. My original rating has gone down thoughRatings:*** out of 4 82 points out of 100 IMDb 7 out of 10

The ironically titled Fox and His Friends, Fassbinder's rather excellent study of a none-too-bright circus worker who wins a small fortune in the lottery, is a touching film that features a great performance from Fassbinder himself in the title role. A reflection on the class system and homosexual relationships of 1970's Germany, Fox and His Friends is unsentimental and guileless most of the time. Fox (Fassbinder) is one of the main attractions of a circus like festival, with his lover being arrested for tax fraud. Fox somehow knows he'll win the lottery, so when he picks up a wealthy man at the local 'pick-up toilets', Fox makes sure he reaches the store in time to lodge his ticket. Cut to Fox celebrating his 500 000 marks win, he's drinking in his usual tavern with the effete bar staff and clientele. Fox then somehow becomes involved with a somewhat arrogant and pretentious man, already in a relationship, who takes the naïve Fox for a ride, spending his money in selfish and extravagant ways. Fassbinder's melodrama is droll and poignant, with a tragically ironic ending. Oh, and you have to give extra marks to a director who inserts lengthy nude scenes of themselves in their films.