An ambitious project, every poem in this collection is in conversation with one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films. As such, there is a good variety of form and style on display here, which I appreciated. There is a recipe poem early in the collection that lists ingredients for early Fassbinder films, for example, while other poems are more about the speaker’s own experiences as reflected through the framing of a particular film. However, even with this variety, you can still recognize Pisarra’s signature tongue-in-cheek playfulness and curiosity. For example, there is this stanza from one of my favorite poems in the collection, “The American Soldier”:

“I’m going to get drunk on Ballantine whiskey
and traffic in illegal firearms and stay
in seedy, fleabag hotels and have illicit
affairs with beautiful people already
involved with marginally attractive other people
who are corrupt and think money
solves all their problems and keep their
precious belongings in rickety lockers
located in bus stations or train stations
or athletic clubs or in safe deposit boxes
or in safes. I’m so tired of being safe.”

You might assume this poetry collection is very niche given its specific subject in an already niche genre of writing, but you don’t necessarily have to be familiar with Fassbinder to enjoy what’s on offer here (I had only previously watched the film Fox and His Friends). However, if you do happen to be familiar with Fassbinder, like with any homage or referential art, you are bound to connect more based on that prior knowledge of the artist’s preoccupations and themes. From what I’ve read of the director and his oeuvre, I think that Fassbinder himself would’ve appreciated how this collection wears its loves and influences on its sleeve. That said, I do think some of the poems were a bit too vague for my tastes and could’ve been further contextualized with more specific images or motifs emblematic of the film being explored.