Taking one step at a time, Mr. Fassbinder is exploring new methods of cinema narrative that are more original and daring than anything I've yet to see by film makers who call themselves avant-garde.

If the premise suggests Nol Coward's Private Lives with an acrid dash of Pinter, Fassbinder is nothing if not winkingly in command of this brittle theatrical idiom.

A rigorous extrapolation of deception as a survival tactic, and a vicious indictment of victimhood, martyrdom and the games people will play in order to destroy one other.

Unfortunately, [Fassbinder's] cynical detachment leaves us appalled but unmoved.