Wolfgang Schenck in Effi Briest
Wolfgang Schenck as Baron Geert von Instetten in Fassbinder’s Effi Brest, is described early on as a ‘man of principle’ – a phrase which is a euphemism for a horror of bourgeois attitudes. Indeed, it’s an expression that will alert any viewer to the fact that the repression levels in the movie are going to be through the roof – which they are. Indeed, Wolfgang Schenck is almost terrifying in this role, and when you add the stillness Fassbinder employs, you have a horrific combination and the sense that something is going to go very badly wrong.