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

What's your favorite? Mine (of the ones I've seen) is probably In a Year With 13 Moons

mine is 'ali: fear eats the soul', tho ive only seen 5 or 6

will buckle down & watch alexanderplaz sometime in near future prob

13 Moons up there along w/ Fox and His Friends, Lola, Fear Eats the Soul and Alexanderplatz. Closely followed by Merchant of the Four Seasons, Petra von Kant and a few i'm forgetting.

btw his secretary-heir-wife says he preferred that ppl watch Alexanderplatz in 2 big chunks.

that's how i did it!

yah i read that, im going to try!

ooh, forgot about Martha. That might be tied with 13 Moons.

In fact, back in the day I would tape Twin Peaks every week, then watch 5 or 6 hours at a time. xp

Still never seen "Martha" :(

Never really been able to get into "Merchant otFS" tbh

My favourite is Lola followed by Fox & His Friends. Despair is very much in the vein of his later films, just really well crafted with amazing cinematography and use of sound. I haven't seen it for a few years so can't really back up my comment properly, but I generally prefer the later Fassbinder films (around 1977/78 onwards) rather than the stuff before - Merchant of the Four Seasons bored me to tears, so that might explain why I enjoy it more than others.

Been watching In a Year With 13 Moons: devastating - cert top 5.

I think the use of sound in Despair was the best thing about it, and the English-Germanic accent he gets his actors is kinda fun and novel. But for me he is so much better at dealing with that irreparable loss of identity through love - and he sets it up as something that people can't give, or a thing which doesn't simply exist in two people at the same time and for one another: which is why Ali, Petra Von Kant, In a Year.. really do it for me. The amazing thing is he can also introduce something from outside of that world in a v convincing manner (immigration, Germany's past) to all these chamber melodramas, and even better that they are not there to provide any kind of relief either, but it does tilt the balance between suffocation and exhiliration, maybe?

Haven't seen Lola or Fox... yet, so Third Generation and Veronika Voss are my other faves.

so this recently DVD-ized sci-fi film of his, how is it

cuz the youtube trailer looks pretty awesome, just on a visual level.

link?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URq7m3-SOtA

it is very good tho i'm not sure i'd rank it among his best

LORD I kneel and offer you
myyyy WORD on a WIRE

I'm coming at it more from the "fan of this particular era of sci-fi" and less a "fan of Fassbinder" angle. Cuz I couldn't bear the majority of Berlin Alexanderplantz.

World on a Wire was REALLY good, absolutely gorgeous visually and quite fun in its campy paranoia. kinda unnecessarily drawn out with an irrelevant subplot and maybe a few too many pointless conversations but in general very enjoyable.

WOAW is very, very talky.

Have you seen The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant?

WOAW has good Corvette porn amongst the chat.

I have and enjoyed it

xpost

i always get that mixed up with capra's 'bitter tea of general yen.'

still unavailable on DVD alas!

Going to see WOAW at the New Beverly tonight.

RIP Günther Kaufmann, muse-lover who acted in 14 RWF films

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15945872,00.html

That whole thing about him falsely confessing to killing the accountant is pretty crazy.

aw, r.i.p.

wow @ the false confession!!

yeah, didn't know anything about that, whoa.

I forgot to wish RWF a happy birthday ;_;

Hoberman on the limbo of RWF's American fate:

http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/the-single-antidote-to-thoughts-of-20120628

watching Berlin Alexanderplatz.

fuck, it's good.
the alination vs. the pathetic search for (distorded) warmth and tenderness is shown brilliantly by Fassbinder.
oh, and the use of lightning and space.
oh, and the acting.

great Hoberman piece, thanks for the link

The anti-auteurist Pauline Kael, whose reign as America’s most influential film commentator roughly coincided with Fassbinder’s career

oh irony, further compounded by one of his 70s champions being Vincent Canby who was widely derided as a fuddy-duddy a few years later

From the piece above:

Kluge appeared to be a more pedantic Godard, Straub seemed a lighter Bresson.

I hope Hoberman has changed his mind on this: Kluge is quite an original, and there is nothing remotely light (Bressonian or not) about Straub-Huillet.

so RWF starred in a Volker Schlondorff TV film of Brecht's Baal, and we're going to see it.

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-baal-is-back

reactions on Baal

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-berlinale-2104-diary-2

the Houellebecq film looks interesting.

Like to think Baal will get a week's release at the cinemas over here.

http://lightbox.time.com/2014/01/21/filmmaker-as-photographer-still-life-with-rainer-werner-fassbinder/

Has anyone ordered the catalogue?

http://www.shop-filmmuseum.de/epages/61390111.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61390111/Products/b_308_engl

I am very tempted to do so..

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