When I think of the other side of things, of melodrama, it’s all Douglas Sirk and Fassbinder. And all his films like *Ali: Fear Eats the Soul*, *Martha*, *The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant*.
I love the way Fassbinder makes films. I try to make my films in the same spirit as Fassbinder.
— Rainer Werner Fassbinder · Las Películas de Pedro Almodóvar: 1980-2007 by Agustín Lardín (cited in Nuria Vidal's 'Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Master of Melodrama')