A behind the scenes look at the making of 'Alien'
Though he never actually worked in Hollywood, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who died in 1982 at the age of 36, was influenced greatly by American studio films of the 1950s and the convention of melodrama (the link most often mentioned is Douglas Sirk).
A group of recently trained astronauts are sent into space to probe a new experiment, only to be stranded and face an eternity in space unless successful contact can be established from earth. In between flashes of the story, a court is in process determining the cause of the accident.
