Lola

During the German reconstruction period and the miraculous economic boom of the 1950s, officials, planners, and contractors in the city of Coburg are loading their pockets through graft, chief among them a fiendish developer (Mario Adorf) who schemes to curry favor with the new, straight arrow building commisioner (Armin Mueller-Stahl) by plying him through the affections of an ambitious prostitute (Barbara Sukowa). From the same Heinrich Mann novel used to draw Sternberg's The Blue Angel, R.W. Fassbinder's Lola (the last of his BRD trilogy, the second released chronologically) depicts corruption and immorality through a beautiful, ebuillent Technicolor lens with Sukowa mesmerizing as the seductive, calculating social climber.

*** out of ****

Veronika Voss

A once prominent movie star (Rosel Zech) who earned her start under Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry becomes romantically involved with a reporter (Hilmar Thate) who suspects her neurologist (Annemarie Durringer) of keeping the faded actress under her influence through the use of morphine. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's reimagining of the tragic demise of German actress Sybille Schmitz (his death mirroring her own not long after the release of the film) is shot in brilliant black and white in a melodramatic almost campy mood yet of course with the darker undertones evoking Wilder's Sunset Blvd or even What Ever Happpened to Baby Jane. Zech and Thate are both superb.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Franz Biberkopf (Gunter Lamprecht) is released from prison in Weimar Germany after serving four years for brutally murdering his girlfriend in a blind and drunken rage. After securing desirable parole terms and acceptable living arrangements, he is lured into the criminal underworld and embarks on a tragic relationship with an adoring prostitute (Barbara Sukowa). Unusual, glum, and extremely long, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz, from a novel by Alfred Doblin, is brilliantly directed, harshly lit, and hard to watch at times with the noted final episode being a surreal and occasionally transcendent trip. Lamprechecht, Sukowa, Hanna Schygulla playing Franz old acquaintance, and Gottfried John as an imbalanced manipulative pimp are all excellent.

*** 1/2 out of ****

The Marriage of Maria Braun

With Allied bombs landing in every direction, an outwardly naive young woman (Hanna Schygulla) marries a serviceman who rushes off to the front and his presumed death just after exchanging their vows. While tirelessly trying to learn of his fate, she takes up with an American G.I. and begins to seduce a wealthy industrialist. The Marriage of Maria Braun, the first film in a Rainer Werner Fassbinder trilogy showcasing women in postwar German settings, is brazen and offbeat, brilliantly directed and unpredictable, even if it lulls in the middle before its shocking, extraordinary ending.

**** out of ****

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

A fashion designer (Margit Carstensen) mistreats her mute secretary (Irm Hermann) and becomes jealousy obsessive over one of her models (Hanna Schygulla), whom she left her husband for. Reworked from his autobiographical all male chamber drama to an all female casted film, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is methodically paced, and hard to get into at first but completely after a certain point. The set decor and photography are top of the line and Carstensen's peformance is tragic and memorable.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Ali: Fear Eats The Soul

An elderly woman walks into a bar to escape the raging storm outside. While she sits at a table, people at the bar dare an Arab man to dance with her. To their surprise, a relationship develops and the two marry, despite their age difference. From the moment the two are seen together, they must endure the racism that is so ever present, still in 1974 Germany. The film then charts how they both are affected by these racist sentiments. This filmed was directed by the controversial and central figure of the German New Wave movement Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He based his story on his idol Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (which was subsequently remade in 2002 by Todd Haynes as Far From Heaven) and all these films act as indictments of their societies through their response to a May-December romance (interracial romances in two of the films). This is the first Fassbinder film I've watched and like the only Sirk film I've viewed (Written On The Wind), there is a stark use of color used for certain emphases. This film must have been bold for its time, and I look forward to viewing Fassbinder's other assuredly controversial work.
***1/2