“Part two (between The Marriage of Maria Braun and Veronika Voss) of Fassbinder's trilogy on Germany's ‘economic miracle' of the 1950s. This film is a very loose remake of The Blue Angel, with an upright building commissioner (Armin Mueller-Stahl) falling in love with a corrupt cabaret singer (Barbara Sukowa); but where the driving force in Sternberg's film is sex, in Fassbinder's it's money. Despite the cold, abstract visuals-Sirk's colors and Sternberg's clutter-the film is one of Fassbinder's warmest, with a close, affectionate direction of actors unlike anything he'd ever attempted.”