411 Berlin Alexanderplatz

[alfons416]

Berlin Alexanderplatz will be shown on Swedish public television SVT, in the new restored version in March, for all the Swedes here. I will watch it no doubt.

[skuhn8]

Well, according to the most recent blog, Becker and the Gang headed to the Berlinale and caught this whole thing in one swoop. Anyone going to try and sit through this in one go? O to have 15 undisturbed hours! Luxury.

[der_Artur]

Anyone going to try and sit through this in one go?

I did that once when I still was in school. It is really an amazing experience.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I'd recommend one sitting. Just get a good night's sleep, grab a pizza, and make a day of it with RWF!

[tavernier]

At MoMA in New York in April, as part of a Fassbinder retro:

[quote]April 9: Fassbinder's 'Berlin Alexanderplatz': Notes on the Restoration. 2007. Germany. Directed by Juliane Lorenz. About the procedures and techniques used in 2006 to restore and “remasterâ€

[mrschroeder1982]

Probably a stupid question, but this seems like the right place to put it.

I've been excited for Berlin Alexanderplatz ever since Criterion "officially" announced it in their newsletter. I remember the first time I even heard about it was in an episode of the animated show "The Critic."

Jay: Son, how would you feel about renting the 15-1/2 hour version of "Berlin Alexanderplatz?"
Marty: Again?

Anyway, my point is this: what exactly is the plot of the movie? I've looked on IMDb and other sites trying to get an idea of just what the movie is about, but I can't seem to get much in the way of a plot. All I can seem to tell is that the movie is about a man as he grows up in Germany. Not that I'm complaining, but a friend of mine is getting a little whiny about just what the movie is "about."

[Highway 61]

Tell your friend it's like Carlito's Way but at the onset of Nazi Germany.

[zedz]

Tell your friend it's like Carlito's Way but at the onset of Nazi Germany.

Nicely put. Don't worry about this being a plotless mood piece: it's a plot-heavy mood piece. Franz comes out of prison (he was not a nice man) determined to live a decent life. Things don't work out, to put it mildly. The film gets darker and deeper as it proceeds (about as dark and as deep as movies get), but concludes in an extended dream sequence (though it's RWF's dream, not Franz's) faintly reminiscent of the 'Circe' chapter of Ulysses.

[toiletduck!]

The film gets darker and deeper as it proceeds (about as dark and as deep as movies get), but concludes in an extended dream sequence.

Just out of curiosity, what does 'extended' mean in Alexanderplatz terms? Are we talking something like three hours here?

-Toilet Dcuk

[HerrSchreck]

You hafta admit he's got a point there.

[Cinesimilitude]

I'm going to definitely do this in one sitting. Although I didn't really care for Carlito's Way, never a dull moment do Nazi's make.

[der_Artur]

The film gets darker and deeper as it proceeds (about as dark and as deep as movies get), but concludes in an extended dream sequence.

The dream sequence is also known as the epilogue and that makes it 111 Minutes long. But it is not simply RWF's dream, but his dream of Franz Bieberkopf's dream.

And SncDthMnky, if you expect much Nazis, you might be disappointed. As far as I remember Franz is selling the "Völkische Beobachter" (or some other early paper of the NSDAP). But he also visits a meeting of a communist party, so the entertainment derives from the Nazis as well as the communists.

[Cinesimilitude]

The Nazi comment was tongue in cheek. I know I've got the patience to make it through this, regardless of the content.

[Eric]

Dissenting review.

[ltfontaine]

Dissenting review.

Yet the experience of watching this intentionally incongruous coda is excruciating, and to no defensible effect beyond a shrug of the shoulders and an acknowledgement that literalizing the metaphysical is not Fassbinder's forte.

The epilogue unleashes Fassbinder's id, playing havoc with most of what the director has so meticulously crafted in the previous episodes of the film. If you prefer to preserve an experience of Berlin Alexanderplatz as merely the post-war cinema's greatest dramatic serial, skip the epilogue.

But if you reach the end of the first thirteen hours hungry to engage Fassbinder's fevered imagination careening at full throttle, the epilogue is where it's at. "Sugar and dirt."

[nycmagus]

There is also the difficulty of watching BA in one or two sittings. Even MoMA's four-nights/four-hours-each approach is pushing it. Are there repetitions? Sure. But it was designed to be seen over time so the repetitions serve as memory triggers (which become redundant in marathon screenings).

The best viewing I ever had was in installments. The longeurs disappear since you have had time to absorb the previous episode and the epilogue serves to deepen, critique and extend what came before.

Brian

[ltfontaine]

But it was designed to be seen over time so the repetitions serve as memory triggers (which become redundant in marathon screenings).

Excellent point. This is especially true with regard to the film's treatment of Franz's women, and the arc of his relationship with each one. These interwoven stories, the fates of the respective women, and the cumulative effect on both Franz and the viewer, play out in a way that may benefit from episodic viewings over a period of time, echoing the natural rhythms of successive relationships in real life.

The worst way to approach Berlin Alexanderplatz is as "the Mount Everest of modern cinema," as Andrew Sarris famously named it, a daunting task to be conquered through force of will. For Franz, "the punishment continues," but for the viewer, this need not be the case.

[Tribe]

From the 4-8-07 NY Times:

[quote]Wandering in Weimar Purgatory
By A. O. SCOTT

THE first episode of “Berlin Alexanderplatz,â€

[pro-bassoonist]

It is also, like so much European art from the interwar decades, a story unaware of its own ending.

I would love to take a quick jab at this pretentious mish-mash but then I think it is better I leave it as it is. Writing indeed could be a form of art...for some!

The history of Germany in the 20th century is a wound in perpetual need of airing, and perhaps also of reopening....

This side of the Atlantic certainly is!! There is an ongoing NEED for some to keep bringing up a sense of guilt...for Germany and Germans should always be attached to it. Would have been marvelous if every German film from the 20th century opened with an excuse!

Thank's for posting the article. It was great fun!!

[nycmagus]

Scott also misses the boat on Fassbinder's technique:

[quote]The episodes of “Berlin Alexanderplatzâ€

[Mental Mike]

I think some of you are taking Fassbinder's films too seriously. Part of his art is humour mixed in with the tragic and sublime. We can only tolerate so much of the sublime before we lose interest or become dissapointed...for this film that is 15 and a half hours, there better be some hilarity - there is nothing worse than a film that takes itself (as art) too seriously...Effi Breist did...his other stuff, like Fox and His Friends is a joy to watch as there's some jocular dialogue rather than pure stuffiness..

[nycmagus]

My recollection is that while there is little hilarity in BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, there is the rich, dry irony that characterizes Fassbinder's work. While Fassbinder's films are always serious, they never take themselves seriously, even FONTANE EFFI BRIEST.

Fassbinder never plays the anointed aesthete promulgating pronouncements from on high. He always inserts/implicates himself in his work and invites his audience to join him. No matter how serious the content, there is always the joy of engaging in the deconstructing/reconstructing of identity which creates a current of electricity between Fassbinder and his viewers which I find to be never less than invigorating.

[Barmy]

There is little hilarity in B.A.

Unfortunately, the new 35mm restoration makes the film look like it was shot on video. I guess that's not surprising since the 16mm was transferred to video, "corrected", and then transferred to 35mm. That probably won't matter to DVD viewers. I've always thought this film was overrated. People seem to equate length with quality. Good Fassbinder, but not his best.

[Matt]

From the "Criterion Collection Newsletter Eclipse Trivia Contest Reminder" e-mail dated April 10, 2007:

On the Criterion side of things, our upcoming weekend is sure to be eclipsed by a mammoth marathon screening of Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz (all fifteen-and-a-half hours) at the Museum of Modern Art. All day Saturday and Sunday. If only we could pack lunches!

So, does the "on the Criterion side of things" mean it's confirmed as a Criterion release, or does "sure to be eclipsed" hint at an Eclipse release?

[justeleblanc]

Confirmed Criterion.