His films are the most realistic/optimistic works of leftist cinema I have ever seen (unlike Godard he does not wallow in longing for a lost modernist past, though watching RWF pay off his debt to Godard while simultaneously disavowing him is fascinating). As he said:
"My films are founded in the belief that the revolution doesn't belong on the cinema screen, but outside, in the world . . . . Never mind if a film ends pessimistically; if it exposes certain mechanisms clearly enough to show people how exactly they work, then the ultimate effect is not pessimistic . . . . My goal is to reveal such mechanisms in a way that makes people realize the necessity of changing their own reality."
Gays were furious with him for the lack of poster homos in FOX and HIS FRIENDS and lesbians picketed Alice Tully Hall in 1974 when THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VAN KANT was shown. His work was (and still is) problematic in a German context. But his films remain as potent today as they ever were -- maybe more so. It is even known that persons not particularly fond of cinema as an art form are deeply affected by such RWF works as BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ.
Brian