RW Fassbinder: C/D, S/D, Y/DA-Y/DA

Fassbinder's Top 10 Pop Musicians

1. Elvis Presley
2. Bob Dylan
3. Rolling Stones
4. Leonard Cohen
5. The Platters
6. Kraftwerk
7. Roxy Music
8. The Beatles
9. Velvet Underground
10. Comedian Harmonists

You think we don't know who The Comedian Harmonists are?

Well I don't!

Must a German/US thing

No, they are not that well known here either. For some reason I was under the impression that you spoke German and might be more familiar with them. There was a movie about them in the late 90s I think.

and at least one CD compilation too

in case you need to pick up some vegetables at the Merchant of the Four Seasons'

http://filmsociety.myshopify.com/collections/shop/products/fassbinder-limited-edition-tote-bag

I was going to revive today: I'm on Episode Seven of Berlin Alexanderplatz

skip to the coda

^smart aleck

http://www.criterion.com/films/27953-the-bitter-tears-of-petra-von-kant

so it's Baal

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/baal

The restauration of World on a Wire will be shown in Copenhagen on sunday. It will be my first Fassbender.

i am surprised! well worth seeing, not "major."

it is an anomaly in his cv but man does it look great

Bitter Tears... getting the Criterion treatment too early next year

Sooo many Fassbender films, overwhelming to start with. But if I like it, I'll probably check out the major ones as well.

Frederick, the best way is to dip in. Watch whatever's available. I went on a huge spree ten summers ago as the movies became available on DVD.

actually i found WoaW to be not much of an anomaly! He is his own genre: SF dreamworld, Genetian dreamworld, miserabilist postwar opiumworld, etc.

And see on a big screen whenever possible, esp w/ Ballhaus as DP.

one approach (tho we have more stuff available now than when Canby wrote, such as TV work like WoaW):

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/03/movies/film-view-a-beginner-s-baedeker-to-the-genius-of-fassbinder.html

I'd rate Fear of Fear and Ali higher but, yeah, judicious.

Well, there doesn't seem to be a single region 2 english-language blu-ray of a Fassbinder-film, but there is the 'commemorative collection' dvd-box, which is amazingly cheap (vol 1 is nine films for 12 £ on amazon). Reviews say video quality is variable, but apparantly the most well-known look good. Anyone who has them and can vouch for them?

actually i found WoaW to be not much of an anomaly! He is his own genre:

can't really argue w that, and I'm sure you're more of an expert than I. I've only seen Berlin Alexanderplantz, WoaW and Fear Eats the Soul. In general I prefer Herzog.

Werner Schroeter is the only director I'd compare Fassbinder to, working in Germany at that time.

1st stop Fassbinder is Ali, as wonderful as that is it feels like a stop for Year in 13 Moons.. and Bitter Tears... WoaW could work if you don't like him. If you do its not essential but its something you'll want to get around someday.

Not much to be gained from comparing them, they don't really have anything in common that I can see. (xp)

WoaW is an anomaly in that it's the only Fassbinder to bore me.

Aha. Haven't seen it.

I've seen ones that aren't very good but I wouldn't say they bored me... "Rio Das Mortes" is pretty dull, mind you.

I don't think Herzog and Fassbinder are similar, they were just contemporaries, New German Cinema etc.

xp

haha, I just noticed that the Lincoln Center series has that next month and i'd never heard of it. xp

Welllllll, it's no classic... though the opening scene might lead you to think otherwise

... and the closing scene, now I come to think of it... it's all the scenes in between that are the problem.

well, that sounds like enough. plus Schygulla and G Kauffman.

World on a Wire was quite good. Definitely had a very peculiar feel to it. If it hadn't been so obviously competently made, it could have been on one of those shows where shadow cutouts joke at all the jumping and explosions and weird sets with people diving into indoor pools or beautiful people dancing around topless. But there were many many great shots, and the use of mirrors was especially well done.

a highlight, sort of, from Rio das Mortes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcsvqGAGj-c

Yes, I forgot that scene!

Effi Briest is the first outright bore I've seen: a garrulous movie, talk talk talk talk.

Kamikaze '89 -- worth paying $8 to see?

The American Soldier, part of the Eclipse series and not memorable: an abstracted gangster film punctuated by histrionic death scenes.

I don't know, I think it's memorable, I prefer "Gods of the Plague" though. Am obsessed with "Why Does Herr R Run Amok?" at present.

oh, there are some pretty memorable parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hEHJVpcI_M

and the whole thing is memorably ugly -- in an admirable way.

sometimes i think herr r. is his finest achievement! but it's not for the weak-willed, i suppose.

anyone seen newish doc?

Director Christian Braad Thomsen had many opportunities to interview Fassbinder over the years, and using these never-before-seen discussions, plus interviews with members of Fassbinder’s company, Thomsen crafts a complex and brilliant analysis of the queer auteur’s controversial, all-too-brief life. “An epic yet intimate look at the German provocateur.” Indiewire

http://newfest.org/film/fassbinder-love-without-demands/

Do I actually want to go to a screening of KAMIKAZE '89 tonight?
Did you end up seeing it, Morbs?

nope

Despair is one of his failures.

I think the use of sound in Despair was the best thing about it

OTM. I lost patience with Dirk Bogarde's smooth rotter routine, which he's done to better effect in other films (casting Bogarde in a Fassbinder film is too on the nose); blame the accent.

There's a lot of competition for most annoying performance in that film. Fassbinder himself liked it even if not many other people did. Oh and I was only just reading about how it cost as much to make "Despair" as his first 15 films put together.

Never bothered to try to see it, but enjoying reading y'all's posts about it.

He was a fan, no surprise there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13SfznMBgE8

Of Leonard? Haven't clicked yet