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Steven Soderbergh claimed to have watched films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder as inspiration for his underrated Bubble (2005), but Behind the Candelabra—which is currently available at Redbox stands after premiering on HBO earlier this year—strikes me as his most Fassbinderian movie. This blackly funny (and sometimes horrific) showbiz saga, about pianist-showman Liberace’s unhealthy relationship with a much-younger man, echoes numerous works by the great German filmmaker. Veronika Voss (1982) may be the crucial point of reference, which also concerns a man’s victimization by an aging star whose concept of glamor has long since curdled into kitsch. But the central relationship also recalls Fassbinder’s gay melodramas The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) and Fox and His Friends (1975)—not to mention his Cornell Woolrich adaptation Martha (1974), possibly his most frightening film. And there’s a generally Fassbinderian vibe to the ambitious dolly shots, morbid humor, and the foreboding hush that surrounds much of the dialogue.
At the center of it all is Michael Douglas’s impressive star turn as Liberace, which would have been a shoo-in for an Academy Award nomination had Candelabra received a theatrical release in the U.S. (Then again, many people expected Douglas to be a shoo-in for his fine work in Wonder Boys and he got snubbed for that as well.) As imagined by Douglas, Liberace too is a victim of the showbiz success ethic, so drunk on his own celebrity that he doesn’t realize what a terror he’s become. Even his moments of tenderness are tainted by a desire to have more and more—in keeping with the air of Cronenbergian body horror, Douglas frequently looks as if he’s rotting away from within.
