The All Purpose Rainer Werner Fassbinder thread

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Solaris, Jul 2, 2018.

  1. Jamsterdammer

    Jamsterdammer The Great CD in the Sky

    Location:
    Málaga, Spain
    Absolutely. Also Effi Briest, World on a Wire, etc.
     
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  2. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    The amount of quality films he managed to get out in such a short period of time is staggering.
    We were watching an old Criterion Collection of All That Heaven Allows for the extras, and one of the extras was a written essay (yep you had to read it while it was on screen)by Fassbinder on about 6 of the Sirk films. The man was very astute as a film critic and also very funny.
     
  3. Jamsterdammer

    Jamsterdammer The Great CD in the Sky

    Location:
    Málaga, Spain
    He was a remarkable person, brilliant and flawed at the same time. He just burnt himself up with his unrelenting schedule, conflict-prone relationships and substance abuses. I spent part of my childhood in Germany and so was blessed with knowing fluent German since I was little. I started watching his films when I was 15 years old or so (including in school, were a progressive German teacher thought it was a great idea to show us Fassbinder films!). His death in 1982 came as a big shock to me. Imagine what he could have accomplished had he lived longer. But then again, maybe not. Maybe the self-destructive live he led was the price to pay for leaving us with such an incredible oeuvre.
     
  4. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    :eek::D
    Now that's a good teacher.
    There was a revival house in Greenwich Village that had a summer long Fassbinder film festival in the 80's. Saw so many of his films I actually got to the point where I picked up a small bit of German.:laugh:
     
  5. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Now I'm a bit jealous :D I'd love to see some Fassbinder on the big screen as well.

    Also, I started watching Eight Hours Don't Make A Day yesterday. Two episodes in, I'm floored by Fassbinder's human vision, and the care that everyone involved put into depicting working class life, where little things can truly make a difference.

    So far, my favorite characters are Grandma and Gregor, they're just such a joy to watch. Also, I'm looking forward to episode 4, which centers around Monika and Harald. Glad to finally watch this gem!
     
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  6. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Finished "Eight Hours Don't Make A Day" last night and loved it. These everyday stories interwoven with political utopia and stunningly beautiful cinematography really had me hooked. A shame there are only 5 episodes.
     
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  7. Graham

    Graham Senior Member

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    You know there were due to be more episodes? Not sure what edition you have, but the Arrow release details this in the extras and booklet.
     
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  8. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Yes, I got the Arrow as well, as it has the far superior packaging to the german StudioCanal/Arthaus release. Definitely wouldn't mind to be able to see more episodes of this wonderful series.
     
  9. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    For all you New German Cinema nuts, I was able to obtain this beauty today:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The "Filmverlag der Autoren Edition" on 50 DVDs plus an extensive hardcover book detailing every film included and providing extensive essays, plus wonderful photos and a foreword by Wim Wenders. As Fassbinder was part of the collective for a few years, some of his work is included as well:

    - The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
    - Ali: Fear Eats The Soul
    - Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?
    - Germany In Autumn

    About 30 of the included films haven't been released on blu ray anywhere, some are still exclusive to this set. So I feel like these 100 bucks were very well spent :goodie:
     
  10. geetar_await

    geetar_await I heart Linux.

    Location:
    USA
    I too recently watched World on a Wire, which I think was my first Criterion. 3 hours worth, but I was hooked early, and normally I'm distracted by all the looking up and down the screen keeping up with the language translations, but it was all smooth and enjoyable this time around. Some really interesting acting; the ending was great. The film was made in 1973 I believe, but also screamed late 60s.
     
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  11. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    That furniture in particular :uhhuh: great you enjoyed it, it's really great in my book.
     
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  12. geetar_await

    geetar_await I heart Linux.

    Location:
    USA
    it was the furniture!
     
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  13. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    I knew it! From the first scenes onwards, where we see this space-age couch in the lobby, the interior just SCREAMS "60s and early 70s" :D
     
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  14. blivet

    blivet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    It just made the whole thing even better IMO.
     
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  15. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Great movie. Top ten Fassbinder for me.
     
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  16. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Absolutely!
     
  17. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Today, I finally watched Beware of a Holy Whore after kind of avoiding it for a few years. I'm glad I finally popped the blu ray into the player, as I massively enjoyed this chaotic, aggressive mess of a film. A bold statement on the fall of the antiteater and a far cry from the somewhat romanticizing films about film making such as Truffaut's equally fantastic Day for Night.
     
  18. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Watched Fox and His Friends today. I was not prepared for this. And now I feel torn apart. A very powerful, angry and, ultimately, sad, hopeless film.
     
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  19. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    That said, don't wonder about my slow tempo in catching up on his filmography. I see each of Fassbinder's films as an event, so I try to get the most out of every single one.
     
  20. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Felt the same first time I saw it. He never, ever, blinked when it came to digging at truths most people would like to ignore. Fox... is top ten Fassbinder for me.
     
  21. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Yes. In that sense, he still seems to have been one of the most uncomprimising directors to ever shoot movies. Of his german peers, I feel that only Werner Herzog could come close to that level of brutally digging at said truths. I'm very much looking forward to seeing In A Year With 13 Moons, sometimes said to be his most personal work.
     
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  22. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Also fairly brutal but damn, what a mind bending performance by Volker Spengler. Fassbinder began filming a few weeks after his lover committed suicide and the self recrimination and wounds are everywhere.
     
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  23. TwentySmallCigars

    TwentySmallCigars Forum Resident

    A filmmaker that I knew by reputation but I hadn't seen any of his work until I picked up the Second Sight edition of Berlin Alexanderplatz, which I liked immensely.

    So when Arrow released their two box sets last year, I picked them up immediately, intending to watch everything in chronological order. However, before the second volume shipped to me, I saw that there was a third set in the works that seemed to fill in a lot of gaps in the first two volumes, so I decided to postpone the private film festival until this set came out.

    In the meantime, I also picked up Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (Arrow), World on a Wire (Second Sight), The BRD Trilogy (Criterion) and the stand-alone releases of Despair (Olive) and Querelle (Artificial Eye).

    Volume 3 showed up on Monday so I'm finally good to go and I've started in on the early b&w stuff and am planning to while away this weekend (and a few more) with the big marathon.

    So, as a relative noob to all of this, is there anything else I should be looking for? Anything that is a superior version to what I have or an inferior version to avoid? Essential documentaries? I can't seem to locate a decent copy of Lili Marleen, did this ever come out?

    Any comments and advice most welcome!
     
  24. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    First of all, welcome to the world of Fassbinder!

    Regarding Lili Marleen, it's a bit frustrating. The only transfer in circulation seems to be the one used for the old german Arthaus DVD from 2001. Last Monday, german-french public TV station Arte apparently broadcast the "world premiere" of a newly restored version of the film. I watched that, and while some colors looked a little off to me, it's definitely an improvement over the old version. So hopefully this will find its way to blu ray, and not just here in the german-speaking countries.
     
  25. TwentySmallCigars

    TwentySmallCigars Forum Resident

    I'm region free so any version is OK with me.
     
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