Editing Rainer Werner Fassbinder (section)

====''Pioneers in Ingolstadt'' (1971)====
''[[Pioneers in Ingolstadt]]'' ''(Pioniere in Ingolstadt)'' was adapted from an [[Pioneers in Ingolstadt|eponymous]] play by [[Marieluise Fleißer]] written in 1927.<ref name="Sandford 74">{{harv|Sandford|1982|p=74}}</ref> It follows two young women whose lives are transformed when army engineers (the pioneers of the title) arrive to their town to build a bridge. One of the women flirts from soldier to soldier, but her friend falls in love only to be abandoned.<ref name="Thomsen 97">{{harv|Thomsen|2004|p=97}}</ref>

Shot in November 1970, ''Pioneers in Ingolstaldt'' was commissioned for television. Fassbinder wanted to bring the plot from the 1920s to contemporary Germany, but the producers, fearing to offend the German army, refused. A compromise did not satisfy any of the parties, and midway through the project Fassbinder lost interest in it.<ref name="Sandford 74"/> The film suffered as a consequence, and it ranks among Fassbinder's weakest films.<ref name="Watson 88"/><ref name="Sandford 75">{{harv|Sandford|1982|p=75}}</ref><ref name="Thomsen 95">{{harv|Thomsen|2004|p=95}}</ref>

The tensions and bitterness that had surrounded the making of ''Whity'' led Fassbinder to dismantle the collective project of the Anti-Theater as a production company. Instead, he founded his own production company: Tango films.<ref name="Sandford 75"/> ''Pioneers in Ingolstadt'', although broadcast before the theatrical release of ''Beware of a Holy Whore'', was the last film made by Fassbinder during his formative period. In the following year, 1971, Fassbinder shot only one film: ''The Merchant of Four Seasons''.<ref name="Sandford 75"/><ref>{{harv|Hayman|1984|p=IX}}</ref><ref>{{harv|Lorenz|Schmid|Gehr|1997|p=326}}</ref><ref>{{harv|Thomsen|2004|p=326}}</ref>