German Directors - Rainer Fassbinder

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German Directors - Rainer Fassbinder

Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy: The Marriage of Maria Braun/Veronika Voss/Lola Rainer W. Fassbinder In 1978, Rainer Werner Fassbinder began a series of films that would trace the history of postwar Germany through the eyes of three women. Called the BRD (Bundesrepublick Deutschland) Trilogy, these three remarkable films would cement the young director's place in international cinema. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978, 120 mins.) stars Hanna Schygulla as Maria, who marries Hermann Braunn in the last days of WWII only to have him disappear during the war. She then uses her beauty and ambition to rise in postwar Germany. Veronika Voss (1982, 104 mins.) tells the story of a Third Reich era starlet (Rosel Zech) who lives in obscurity in postwar Munich where she is haunted by her past life. Lola (1981, 113 mins.) sees a seductive cabaret singer/prostitute (Barbara Sukowa) use her power over men to elevate herself in Germany society in the late 1950's. The set also contains an additional disc of supplemental materials, including the documentary on Fassbinder's life, I Don't Just Want You to Love Me; a rare 45-minute interview with Fassbinder from German television; and interviews with cinematographer Xaver Schwarzenberger, scholar Laurence Kardish and editor Juliane Lorenz. This is a Criterion Collection edition that comes in a four-DVD boxed set, and is letterboxed; and also includes commentaries by Michael Ballhaus and Wim Wenders (on The Marriage of Maria Braun), Tony Ryans (on Veronika Voss), and Christian Braad Thomsen (on Lola); interviews with actors Hanna Schygulla, Rosel Zech and Barbara Sukowa, scholars Eric Rentschler, editor Juliane Lorenz, and co-screenwriter Peter Marthesheimer; the featurette, Dance with Death, about Sybile Schmitz - Fassbinder's inspiration for Veronika Voss; and more. All three films in German with English subtitles. Germany, 1978-82, 337 mins. DVD $99.95

The Fassbinder Collection I: Whity/Pioneers in Ingolstadt Rainer W. Fassbinder Two films from the daring, often brilliant Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Whity (1970, 102 mins.): This early feature is one of the prolific director's most unjustly overlooked works - a provocative, compelling film about the illegitimate, mulatto son of a wealthy white man, who acts as servant, confidant, nanny and whipping boy to his father's decadent family. This was the first collaboration between Fassbinder and acclaimed cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Gunther Kaufman, Hanna Schygulla and Ulli Lommel star. Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1971, 87 mins.): Although based on a play by Marieluise Fleisser, this film is often cited as Fassbinder's homage to Bertolt Brecht. The "pioneers" of the title are workers in a government-backed project similar to America's W.P.A., who break up the boredom of their routine with heavy drinking and random sexual escapades with prostitutes and other local women. With Fassbinder regular Hanna Schygulla. This edition is letterboxed, 16x9 widescreen on Whity; full-frame (original aspect ratio) on Pioneers in Ingolstadt; with audio commentary by Michael Ballhaus and Ulli Lommel on Whity. Both films in German with English subtitles. DVD $54.95

The Fassbinder Collection II: In a Year with 13 Moons/Martha Rainer W. Fassbinder Two dark comic melodramas by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the indefatigable auteur at the heart of the New German Cinema movement. Included are In A Year With 13 Moons, starring Volker Spengler as a jilted transsexual whose attempts at happiness are interrupted at every turn. Martha (photographed by long-time collaborator Michael Ballhaus) tells the story of a selfish and neurotic woman who becomes the victim of her husband's psychological torture. Both works are quintessential Fassbinder - jet-black films that mix their comic elements with emotional devastation. Deluxe 2-DVD boxed set includes video introduction by Richard Linklater, audio commentary by editor Juliane Lorenz, interviews with Werner Schroeter and Juliane Lorenz, liner notes by Robert Kolker and Jonathan Rosenbaum, Fassbinder in Hollywood feature-length documentary, and more. West Germany, 1973/1978, 239 mins. DVD $59.95

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul Rainer W. Fassbinder Fassbinder's Ali is the outrageous, touching story of the bumpy love affair between a sixtyish German floor washer and an inarticulate Arab mechanic barely half her age. A moving romance, a perverse social comedy, a biting drama of racial prejudice, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is all these things, although in Fassbinder's freewheeling vision it is not always easy to tell where one leaves off and another begins. Based on Douglas Sirk's classic melodrama, All That Heaven Allows. Winner of the International Critics Prize, Cannes Film Festival. The DVD is a Criterion Collection edition and includes an introduction by director Todd Haynes, interviews, the original theatrical trailer, the short film, Fear is the Soul (2002), the 35-minute BBC documentary, Signs of a Vigorous Life: New German Cinema and more. In German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1974, 94 mins. DVD $59.95

The American Soldier Rainer W. Fassbinder Fassbinder's homage to Hollywood gangster films is updated for the seventies. Murder is still for sale, but crime is organized by the state, not by the mob. Ricky - hired first by the U.S. to fight in Vietnam, and now by the German police - follows orders to kill: kill soldiers, kill strangers, kill even his girlfriend. Although Ricky wears a soft fedora (as well as a white double-breasted suit), it is Fassbinder who tips his hat, with secondary characters named Walsh and Fuller. Starring Karl Scheydt, Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta and Kurt Raab. In German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1970, 80 mins. DVD $44.95

Berlin Alexanderplatz Rainer W. Fassbinder Rainer Fassbinder's epic, 15-hour-plus adaptation of Alfred Doblin's novel is a sweeping German television production that follows a man (Gunter Lamprecht), fresh out of prison, as he navigates Berlin and its temptations in the years between the two wars. Stars Fassbinder regular Hanna Schygulla and Franz Buchrieser, Gottfried John, Barbara Sukowa, and many more. 7-DVD Criterion Collection set. New hi-def digital transfer from the 2006 restoration by the Fassbinder Foundation and Bavaria Media, approved by director of photography Xaver Schwarzenberger . Includes Phil Jutzi's 1931, ninety-minute film of Alfred Doblin's novel, from a screenplay co-written by Doblin himself, two new documentaries by Fassbinder Foundation president Juliane Lorenz detailing the cast and crew and the restoration, Hans-Dieter Hartl's 1980 documentary Notes on the Making of Berlin Alexanderplatz, new video interview with Peter Jelavich, author of Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture, and new and improved English subtitle translation. In German with English subtitles. West Germany/Italy, 1980, 940 mins. DVD $145

The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant Rainer W. Fassbinder Film critic Molly Haskell called this pivotal Fassbinder film, "A tragi-comic love story disguised as a lesbian slumber party in high-camp drag." The film makes us a witness to the struggles for domination among three lesbians: a successful and "liberated" fashion designer, her contented and silent slave girl, and a sultry but cruel model who ends up making the master her slave. The dynamics of their interrelationships are played out in this claustrophobic, self-contained little world, accompanied only by the music of The Platters and Giuseppe Verdi. A riveting chamber drama of style. With Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, Eva Mattes and Irm Hermann. In German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1972, 124 mins. DVD $44.95

Fear of Fear Rainer W. Fassbinder Produced for television, this melodrama is one of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's lesser known films. A middle-class housewife begins to experience inexplicable fear after the birth of her second child. With a husband and family who ignore her pleas for help, she turns to drugs and alcohol to ease the pain. Fassbinder's depiction of the nightmare of depression and modern life are powerful. The DVD includes filmographies, weblinks and optional English subtitles, and more. In German with English subtitles. Germany, 1975, 88 mins. DVD $44.95

Fox and His Friends Rainer W. Fassbinder A lower-class carnival entertainer professionally known as Fox the Talking Head strikes it rich, after a life of hard knocks, by winning the lottery. His new-found wealth attracts an elegant bourgeois lover, who proceeds to vamp Fox as thoroughly and unthinkingly as Lola Lola or Theda Bara. This ill-fated romance between "the capitalist and the lottery queen" makes for one of Fassbinder's most skillfully wrought films, expertly evoking a brittle, upper-class gay milieu where, as one character puts it, "God's dressed up like Marlene Dietrich, holding his nose." German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1975, 123 mins. DVD $37.95

Gods of the Plague Rainer W. Fassbinder Fassbinder's third feature, about a petty criminal who plans to rob a supermarket, only to be betrayed by the two women who love him. "Fassbinder's gangster film doesn't happen on the level of black limousines, bursts of machine-gun fire, blinking blondes and detective brilliance; it uses more lower-class people and shoplifters; 'little' girls who do all that for love of the great glamour" (Goethe Institute). With Hanna Schygulla, Harry Baer and Margarethe von Trotta. German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1969, 92 mins. DVD $44.95

In a Year with 13 Moons Rainer W. Fassbinder One of Fassbinder's most unusual and daring films, In a Year with 13 Moons stars Erwin Spengler as a man desperately in love with his business partner. He decides to have a sex change operation, becomes Elvira, but this fails to attract the love of his beloved. Instead, the new "she" finds a series of damaging relationships and betrayals. Fassbinder uses harsh color, asymmetrical sets, a dissonant sound track and alternating narrative techniques to evoke the pain of Erwin/Elvira in a film that stretches the boundaries of conventional storytelling. The DVD is letterboxed, and includes an introduction by director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused); a commentary track by Fassbinder collaborator Juliane Lorenz; a conversation with Volker Spengler and Werner Schroeter; and liner notes by Robert Kolker. In German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1978, 124 mins. DVD $37.95

Martha Rainer W. Fassbinder Fassbinder paints a portrait of a hollow, loveless German bourgeois in this extravagantly baroque look at a self-centered, wealthy woman, Martha (Margit Carstensen), who is slowly destroyed psychologically by her sadistic new husband, Helmut (Karlheinz Bohm). Fassbinder masterfully charts Helmut's abuse and Martha's ambivalence through shrewd and bold visual touches and superb direction. "...a treasure amongst treasures: the most pure, most exaltant of Fassbinder's melodramas." (Eithne O'Neill, Positif). The DVD includes the documentary, Fassbinder in Hollywood, featuring interviews with Hanna Schygulla, Ulli Lommel, Michael Ballhaus and Wim Wenders; it also includes liner notes by Jonathan Rosenbaum. In German with optional English subtitles. Germany, 1973, 115 mins. DVD $37.95

The Merchant of Four Seasons Rainer W. Fassbinder A highlight in the prolific career of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The story of a fruit peddler who watches his unexceptional life disintegrate in alcohol and violence sounds like a slice-of-life melodrama gone slightly amok, but the treatment is everything. A virtuoso balance of soap opera, social comedy, irony, politics, farce and brilliant ensemble acting. "Maybe the most exquisite achievement to reach these shores from Germany since the golden age of Murnau, Lang, Pabst, et al..." (Andrew Sarris, The Village Voice). Hans Hirschmuller, Irm Hermann and Hanna Schygulla star. The DVD includes commentary by Wim Wenders and two documentaries: Life, Love & Celluloid (Juliane Lorenz, Germany, 1998) and The Many Women of Fassbinder (Rosa von Praunheim, Germany, 2000). German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1972, 88 mins. DVD $44.95

Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven Rainer W. Fassbinder A major Fassbinder film. Mother Kusters finds herself suddenly widowed. Her husband was a factory worker who one day goes berserk, killing the boss' son and throwing himself into the machinery. Her daughter, a would-be chanteuse, moves in with a muckraking journalist to further her career. Soon the dead man's life is distorted throughout pages of a cheap tabloid. Fassbinder paints a world where the honest and the good fall prey to a system of corrupt media and politics, a world where only small kindnesses carry relief to overwhelming suffering. German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1975, 108 mins. DVD $44.95

Pioneers in Ingolstadt Rainer W. Fassbinder Although based on a play by Marieluise Fleisser, this film is often cited as Fassbinder's homage to Bertolt Brecht. The "pioneers" of the title were workers in a government-backed project similar to America's W.P.A. in the 1930s. Working on the construction of a bridge in the town of Ingolstadt, they try to disrupt the boredom of their routine with heavy drinking and random sexual escapades with prostitutes and other local women. The unfulfilled desire for love and a low place on the ladder of society keep the characters on the edge of personal surrender. The cast includes Fassbinder regular Hanna Schygulla (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Marriage of Maria Braun). Made for German television. The DVD includes a complete Fassbinder filmography. In German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1971, 87 mins. DVD $44.95

Querelle Rainer W. Fassbinder Brad Davis, Jeanne Moreau and Franco Nero star in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's final film, adapted from Jean Genet's great novel, Querelle de Brest. The film focuses on a beautiful but callous and tough young French sailor whose beauty and heartlessness both attract and repel all who meet him. "More a dream than a dramatization of Genet's novel...a lurid hymn to teenybop nihilism" (John Gill, Time Out Film Guide). The DVD is a German language version, and is letterboxed, closed-captioned, with optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles. West Germany/France, 1982, 106 mins. DVD $44.95

The Stationmaster's Wife Rainer W. Fassbinder Elisabeth Trissenaar is the bored wife whose flamboyant affairs epitomize the fake bourgeois morality and buried social and political resentments within German society. Her pleasant, attentive husband (Kurt Raab) is no match for the succession of oppressive lovers she falls prey to. Fassbinder dramatizes this through a Sirkian deployment of bold, ironic colors, brisk melodrama and tight framing. With Bernard Helfrich, Karl Heinz-von Hassel and Udo Kier. In German with English subtitles. West Germany 1977 113 mins. Videocassette $37.95

The Third Generation Rainer W. Fassbinder A controversial late-career masterpiece from Rainer Werner Fassbinder, this astute political farce follows a band of bourgeois German radicals as they plot to kidnap the director of a multinational corporation. Even as their plan crumbles under government scrutiny, the inheritors of the Baader-Meinhof mantle steadfastly stick to their guns. Vehemently attacked from both sides of the political spectrum, Fassbinder described his triumph as "a comedy in six parts, about party games, full of suspense, excitement and logic, horror and madness..." With Harry Baer, Hark Bohm, Margit Carstensen, Eddie Constantine, and Bulle Ogier. In German with English subtitles. Germany, 1979, 130 mins. DVD $44.95

Whity Rainer W. Fassbinder This early Fassbinder feature is one of the prolific director's most unjustly overlooked works - a provocative, compelling film in which he fully embraces the unique style of melodrama that would mark many of his best-known movies. The story concerns the illegitimate, mulatto son of a wealthy white man, who acts as servant, confidant, nanny and whipping boy to his father's decadent family. As the situation becomes unbearable, murder is offered as one possible escape. This film marked the first collaboration between Fassbinder and acclaimed cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Gunther Kaufman, Hanna Schygulla and Ulli Lommel star. The DVD is letterboxed, and includes an audio commentary by Ulli Lommel and Michael Ballhaus. In German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1970, 102 mins. DVD $44.95

Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? Rainer W. Fassbinder/Michael Fengler Herr R., a likable office worker with a family, calmly picks up an ornate lamp one evening and bludgeons to death his wife, child and neighbor. One of Fassbinder's most notorious films, full of brilliant insights into the loneliness of existence, the terrors and anxieties of middle-class life. With Kurt Raab, Lilith Ungerer, Amadeus Fengler, Franz Maron and Hanna Schygulla. In German with English subtitles. West Germany, 1970, 87 mins. DVD $37.95