Die dritte Generation (1979)

A mogul merrily funds terrorists to boost his computer sales, by panicking West German government and industry c. 1980, as the third generation of Western European left-wing activists forms, after crippling of the violent Red Army Faction.

From memory memory: Stylish and dark satire clearly has the director's signature, but the attempt to ridicule both the RAF terrorists as spoilt brats and its victims as manipulative profiteers annihilates any political sting.

Halliwell (no star): "Realistic melodrama, curiously muted in its satire and its anger, watchable more as an entertainment than as a polemic."

Maltin***1/2: "Pitch-black comedy...Superb ensemble cast in one of Fassbinder's best films."

Freak Orlando (1981)

In the form of a "small theater of the world", a history of the world from its beginnings to our day, including the errors, the incompetence, the thirst for power, the fear, the madness, the cruelty and the commonplace, in a story of five episodes.

From memory: Colorful, wildly surreal and macabre tour de force drama; has a cult following for its celebration of queer culture.