A Man Like Eva is, essentially, a biography of controversial film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It is, therefore bizarre, depressing and difficult to understand.

In the words of his ex-wife, “Rainer was a homosexual who also needed a woman. It’s that simple and that complex.”

It’s certainly the complex bit that comes across in the film.

The eponymous Eva is played by female actor Eva Mattes – but wearing a beard just to make it clear that, for the purposes of this exercise, she is a ‘he’. He lives in a large house along with the crew that he’s shooting a film with.

As well as directing them as members of his crew, Eva also directs them in their personal lives too. He tells the female actors who they can and can’t sleep with and blatantly tries to seduce a handsome straight actor. At the same time, he treats his existing boyfriend like dirt, and, in so doing, drives him to suicide.

Clearly this is not a light-hearted comedy. Probably even more depressing is the fact that it does reflect Fassbinder’s real life. Amongst others things, he lost two lovers to suicide, was a drug addict and had a failed marriage.

He died in 1982, shortly after completing the movie Querelle,  having taken a combination of sleeping pills and cocaine. Fun guy, huh?