With the release of Berlin Alexanderplatz I, like many others, have the chance to see Rainer Werner Fassbinder's magnum opus for the first time. While the talk of incorrect color correction by Juliane Lorenz and the Fassbinder Foundation has me skeptical about the authenticity of the release, it in no way mars the film as a whole. I can't wait to start getting into this 15 hour+ work. Fassbinder made this film (he has always declared it a 15 hour film and not a mini-series) for Bavarian Tv at the height of his powers. The entire production was shot a break neck pace with Fassbinder rarely giving his actors more than one take. Made only two years before his death, the film is a melding of his German Hollywood films (Lola, Veronika Voss), and his earlier melodramas (Fear Eats the Soul, Martha).
What I am going to do with this blog post is simple. As I watch Berlin Alexanderplatz I'm going to post my thoughts on each hour of the drama. Hopefully I'll be able to put it into the perspective of Fassbinder's entire body of work, as well as it's relation to post Nazi Germany's reestablishment of its culture. This film not only bridges the gulf between Fassbinder's Sirkian melodrama phase and his German Hollywood cinema, but also across the gulf of Weimar and West Germany. The exploration of this time period (the second Reich) was instrumental in Germany coming to terms with its past. Because of this, Berlin Alexanderplatz is uniquely important to film culture, as it was to Fassbinder himself.