Product Description

Rainer Werner Fassbinder s wildly controversial fifteen-hour-plus Berlin Alexanderplatz, based on Alfred Döblin s great modernist novel, was the crowning achievement of a prolific director who, at age thirty-four, had already made forty films. Fassbinder s immersive epic, restored in 2006 and available on DVD in this country for the first time, follows the hulking, violent, yet strangely childlike ex-convict Franz Biberkopf (Günter Lamprecht) as he attempts to become an honest soul amidst the corrosive urban landscape of Weimar-era Germany. With equal parts cynicism and humanity, Fassbinder details a mammoth portrait of a common man struggling to survive in a viciously uncommon time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29090 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2007-11-13
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: German
• Subtitled in: German
• Number of discs: 7
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 941 minutes

Amazon.com
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s epic adaptation of Alfred Döblin’s German novel, written (and set) between two world wars in the 20th century, is still every bit the towering achievement it appeared to be upon the episodic, 15-hour film’s 1983 theatrical release in America. The story of a hapless lug buffeted by forces of discontent and disastrous change in Germany--following the country’s defeat at Versailles and during the rise of the Third Reich--Berlin Alexanderplatz is a roaming, hulking nightmare about people with no control over their destinies. The film opens with central character Franz Biberkopf (Gunter Lamprecht) struggling to reintegrate into the world after a four-year incarceration for murdering his girlfriend. Half-mad with guilt, sensory overload, sexual starvation and general disorientation, Franz goes in search of a plan for survival but finds the ground constantly shifting beneath his feet. Hooking up with the docile Lina (Elisabeth Trissenaar), Franz vows to straighten out his life and avoid his old tendencies toward petty thievery and pimping. But the alternatives are typically eclipsed by bad luck, unstoppable impulses, temptation and violent opposition between crime and order, Communists and fascists, dreamers and scoundrels. Over time, Franz becomes everything from shoelace salesman to Nazi sympathizer to pawn of a crime boss to victim of his fate. Along the way, he falls apart repeatedly, then picks himself up to see what might come next. Unfortunately, what comes next is generally another peek into the social and economic chaos of his time. Fassbinder, who died at age 36 before Berlin Alexanderplatz was released theatrically in America, found in Döblin’s story something akin to the running theme of despair in his own, prolific output of 40 movies. Among his several masterpieces, Berlin Alexanderplatz is in a league of its own, not to be missed. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Fassbinder's symphony in film: Berlin Alexanderplatz.
To convey the actual film experience of Berlin Alexanderplatz is no easy task. Words fall short, other than to say, I cannot recommend this film more highly. This is the most important DVD release of 2007. With a running time of 15½ hours, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1980 Berlin Alexanderplatz is as much of a film experience as Krzystof Kieslowski's 10-hour Decalogue or Bergman's 312-minute version of Fanny and Alexander. (All three films were originally televised as a miniseries.) Based on Alfred Döblin's 1928 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story Of Franz Biberkopf, Fassbinder's epic masterpiece drew a cult following upon its U.S. theatrical release in 1983. The film was later televised on PBS, but has since been impossible to find in the United States until the Criterion Collection released it earlier this week on DVD, a release that has been long overdue. Many (including me) consider it to be one of the best films ever made.

Set during the rise of Nazism, Berlin Alexanderplatz tells the profound story of Franz Biberkopf (Günter Lamprecht), a deeply flawed man, and a proletariat ex-convict determined to lead a good life following his release from a four-year prison term, despite the social and economic frustrations he encounters in Berlin. Upon his release from prison, Franz plugs his ears and contorts his mouth into a silent scream as his "Torment Begins." In fact, each of the 14 episode titles reveal much about Fassbinder's brilliant character study of Franz:

1. "The punishment begins."
2. "How is one to live if he doesn't want to die."
3. "A hammer on the head can injure the soul."
4. "A handful of people in the depths of silence."
5. "A mower with the violence of the dear Lord."
6. "Love has its price."
7. "Remember: an oath can be amputated."
8. "The sun warms the skin, but burns it sometimes too."
9. "About the Eternities between the many and the few."
10. "Loneliness tears cracks of madness even in walls."
11. "Knowledge is power and the early bird catches the worm."
12. "The serpent in the soul of the serpent."
13. "The Outside and the Inside, and the Secret of Fear of the Secret."
14. "My dream from the dream of Franz Biberkopf von Alfred Doeblin: An Epilogue."

And of course there are the memorable Fassbinder women, many of whom are simply Biberkopf's hedonistic objects of desire, and others relate in some way to the woman he murdered (resulting in his prison sentence). Berlin Alexanderplatz reveals Fassbinder's true artistic genius as a filmmaker. Recurring themes in the film include impotence, philosophy, rape, necrophilia, race relations, and ultimately madness. After spending nearly 16 hours immersed in this film, when it was over, I actually missed the world and characters Fassbinder had created. Criterion's seven disc set of his 940-minute film includes a new, high-definition digital transfer from the 2006 restoration by the Fassbinder Foundation; two new documentaries by Fassbinder Foundation president Juliane Lorenz: one featuring interviews with the cast and crew, the other on the restoration; Hans-Dieter Hartl's 1980 documentary Notes on the Making of "Berlin Alexanderplatz;" Phil Jutzi's 1931, ninety-minute film of Alfred Döblin's novel, from a screenplay co-written by Döblin himself; a new video interview with Peter Jelavich, author of Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture; and new English subtitle translation. A highly recommended experience in film, well worth the price of admission.

G. Merritt

New German Cinema's Mega Movie
Twenty-six years after its creation Berlin Alexanderplatz is finally given the restoration it so desperately deserved.Fassbinder's monumental fifteen plus hour epic has been completely restored and remastered so that the story of the hapless Franz Biberkopf can finally be experienced in all its glory.

The film (presented in 13 episodes and an epilogue) follows the daily life of Franz Biberkopf (Gunter Lamprecht) from his release from prison for the murder of his girlfriend as he tries to lead a decent life in post World War I Berlin. Along the way he becomes among other things a seller of shoestrings, a newspaper salesman, a pimp and a petty thief.

Fassbinder's world is populated with a panoply of ordinary people and lowlifes. The key is that the viewer begins to care about these people as if he knew them. One reviewer described the Biberkopf character as an uncle that the German people invited into their homes each week.

The film looks like it never looked before. Director of Photography, Xaver Schwarzenberger says that the image is now able to be seen as it was intended. Originally shot on 16mm the film has been completely restored and the color regraded. The result, while not perfect is as good as it has ever been. The film has a sort of brownish gold glow that suits it quite well.

The package by Criterion presents the film in a windowboxed version that runs for 941 minutes. This is about 4% longer than the original due to a NTSC slow down of the original Pal 25 frame per second master. The sound is mono but holds up quite well and the subtitling is clear and easy to read.

The bonus features are quite good and feature two shorts by film editor Juliane Lorenz on the making of the film and its restoration, a contemporary documentary on Fassbinder's working methods and a discussion of the original novel by historian Peter Jelavich. Perhaps the most significant extra is the complete 1931 film version by Phil Jutzi.

This is a highly recommended set for any fan of serious cinema.

One of the 5 Greatest Achievements in Cinema History
Long one of the most sought after video bootlegs in the world, Fassbinders' 931 minute tele-film adaptation of the Alfred Doblin novel "Berlin Alexanderplatz" is one of the all time great accomplishments in cinema. It was originally filmed in 16 millimeter as a German television series; shown in the USA in both a two day 7+ hour a day festival type event, and in shortened versions... Having the full version, restored (hopefully lovingly and successfully), is something very long in the waiting. For any true student of the art of cinema this is a must have. There is decidedly too much to say, or risk giving away, by giving a plot review of this nearly 16 hour masterpiece. For 27 years I have told people that "the last 3 hours of this film is possibly the greatest achievement in film art history." Why? Fassbinder directs like a master conductor artfully emulating the styles of a pantheon of the great cinema maestro's to that date - at the same time proving both their genius -- and his own. Stock the house with German fare and bier, wait for a long rainy weekend, get together with a literate friend or two - and enter into one of the most rewarding, fascinating, and awe inspiring examples of filmic story telling ever created. It is not always a happy story to be sure -- but it is indeed one of the most astounding viewing experiences a spectator can ever have.