Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson on R. W. Fassbinder: “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul: the marriage between a 60-year-old charwoman, the widow of a Nazi, and a splendid Moroccan column of muscle is endangered because Emmi won't make couscous for Ali. Given all the possible problems that such a marital miss-match could incur, it shows Fassbinder's perversity that he drives them apart with a cracked wheat stew. Emmi, becoming chauvinistic and complacent, tells this catch of the century to go get his couscous elsewhere. The circular structure evolves back and forth between the Asphalt Pub, a hangout for Moroccan pals, their bosomy gals; and Emmi's cozy flat, subjecting the pair to endless prejudice bouts with the grocer, maitre d', that bitch who patrols the hallway, her gross beer-drinking lay-about son-in-law (played by the snarling camp-elion himself: Rainer Werner F.). This endless series of trivia gates overlorded by bigoted high priests causes Ali's stomach to rip....” (in Film Comment, Nov.-Dec. 1975)