I Only Want You to Love Me

This incisive 1976 German television film from Rainer Werner Fassbinder follows a soft-spoken newlywed (Vitus Zeplichal) who moves to Munich and quickly falls into debt. Working at the height of his powers, Fassbinder adapted the story from the actual case of a man driven to economic and emotional ruin. The writer-director is no stranger to caustic critiques (in this case, of the unrealistic desires fostered by the postwar “economic miracle”), yet his compassion for every character, even the most corrupt, has rarely felt so potent. Consider this unmissable.