The 51st Best Director of All-Time: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

What do you think of Rosel zech in Veronica voss ? Is she one of the year’s best ? I thought she was great.

I apologize, not all of these were watched in order and it shows (I even addressed it a few times)

The Merchant of Four Seasons:

Kicking everything off with a strong closeup of Hirschmüller as he is turning in circles

Right afterward we get that high angle shot of him and Hermann looking up at… I believe that is Ingrid Caven, Fassbinder’s wife (I almost wonder if I should put that in quotations knowing Fassbinder)

A somewhat striking image at 4 minutes as Caven closes the door as Hirschmüller delivers her pears; he is surrounded by black everything; clearly shows ability but I’ve seen a few of his later films by now and he does it better in those

One of Hermann through a net and surrounded by some flowers at 5 minutes; can be found on Drake’s 1972 page

One of Hermann and their daughter sitting at the dinner table at 7 minutes

Fassbinder moves the camera over a table of Hirschmüller and some of his friends drinking beer at 8 minutes

The film had gotten a bit weaker and I considered leaving it behind when this wonderful composition of Hermann next to two mannequins came on screen at 14 minutes; there’s a shot like this on Edward Yang’s page of The Terrorizers, a film I’m eager to see

Fassbinder is notable for the zoom; one from Hirschmüller’s face to the entirety of his bedroom as he realizes Hermann has left him (at least for the time being) after he came home drunk and beat her

One in a long, narrow bathroom with two doors on the sides of the frame at 18 minutes

The symmetricality began early for Fassbinder; one of Hanna Schygulla (as Hirschmüller’s sister) cradling Hermann’s daughter surrounded by red drapes

Schygulla’s POV watching Hirschmüller pull up to his family’s house

Low angle of the entire family composed around the frame after Hirschmüller collapses at the house (liver failure maybe?)

Hermann goes and meets a man who had catcalled her earlier in the film (she is divorcing Hirschmüller); there is a good frame inside the car with the backs of their heads blocking the sides of the frame

A shot looking up a hospital stairway at 34 minutes; there’s one just like this in La Dolce Vita on Fellini’s page; I’d be very surprised if it didn’t influence Fassbinder here

I don’t even know what to do with the film’s narrative structure; it’s a misfire; there are parts in the modern day where he is a pear salesman and in the past before he joined the French Foreign Legion prior to the film’s events and there’s nothing that indicates which time period he is in at one time

Hirschmüller brings a new man into the business and it happens to be the man Hermann had been having sex with earlier; some good cinema in this scene where they see eachother again

An overhead shot of Hirschmüller’s and Hermann’s legs as they are having sex; great use of the ruffled bedsheets around them as mise-en-scene

A funny bit as Hirschmüller is watching Scheydt (his new assistant) as he takes on the business of selling fruit; the film makes us think Hirschmüller is onto him for his affair with Hermann but at the end Fassbinder surprises us as we fins out he is just watching him to see the way he interacts with customers, as Hermann had made up some story about Scheydt “looking like a criminal” in order to convince Hirschmüller to fire him so she could hide their affair

Recurring bit about Hermann being tall and Hirschmüller being short when most relationships at the other way around

Hermann convinces Scheydt to charge more for fruit than Hirschmüller instructs him to in order to keep the balance for himself; this leads into a great rolling shot as we see Scheydt selling fruit when it moves to show Hirschmüller watching him; she only told him to do that knowing her husband would notice

This leads into this great dynamic with the tension between the three characters as Hirschmüller now appears to know of their affair; he throws Scheydt out before a we see a flashback of him attempting to court Ingrid Caven; I didn’t notice this previously but you can tell the flashbacks by the slightly grainier film stock used and I think the saturation is higher as well

Klaus Löwitsch, the star of World on a Wire, works at a restaurant Hirschmüller is at, and Fassbinder makes a cameo as a guy Hirschmüller is eating with; Löwitsch has, like Hirschmüller, recently left the Légion Étrangère

One of those camera movements from a mirror into the real world like in World on a Wire (felt like there were 100 of these in his 1973 film); here it goes back to the mirror again in a really nice shot

One of those held silences like in Tarkovsky where there’s a repeating noise in the background (here, a clock ticking); really strong here; there are a lot of films that misfire on this actually and this is not one of them

8 months have passed and Hirschmüller goes to see Ingrid Caven again; she presents herself naked in front of him and asks him to lie on her bed with her but he, who has become more loyal to his wife over time, declines

This spectacular one of Caven naked on the bed with yellow set design all around her; her bed is yellow and so are the drapes at the window behind her

An excellent shot of Schygulla, in closeup at the right, and Hirschmüller, who has gone to visit her as well, in the background at the left; one of the film’s finest

Another incredible composition with the characters in the same positions within the frame at a different angle; this time they are facing away from eachother, but both in a downward direction; this is Antonioni

The two of them have a quiet conversation about their lives as he makes tea; I love the sound of the kettle boiling in the background

Wow; excellent shot of Hirschmüller leaving her apartment through a frosted glass door (which blurs his silhouette) at 71 minutes as Schygulla watches him leave; she is the only person to have shown him any sympathy over the course of the film

I will note that the great shots are A) greater and B) coming more often at this point in the film

Strong zoom into Hirschmüller staring out the window of his apartment (which he does often) as Löwitsch is helping the daughter do her homework (something she asked Hirschmüller to do in the past); he starts to feel irrelevant as Löwitsch runs the business better than he ever could and, because of his heart attack (not liver failure) earlier in the film, he cannot run it himself

Symmetrical frame of the whole family dressed in black at 75 minutes

A great rolling shot through their faces at dinner; a lot like the one in Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract or in Fassbinder’s own Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

While they are at dinner, Schygulla admonishes the entire family for the way they have treated Hirschmüller as a drunken idiot in the past while receiving him as a friend now; great camera movement between their faces in this scene

Schygulla is not in much of the film but she probably gives the best performance on a per-minute basis, though the acting is all around great

Oh my god! This wonderful but shortly-held image of Hermann in close left, the child in the center, and Hirschmüller in background right as they look down, somewhat despondently, at their dinner plates; this shot has been done by Bergman, by Scorsese, by Woody Allen (there’s a shot like this one I think from Interiors on the 1978 page of the characters from that film looking out the window); this shot is just excellent

Hirschmüller is back at the bar with the boys; Hermann is there too actually; he pours down countless shots as Hermann tells him he will die

The camera pans between his buddies as he pours down his shots which he dedicates to a number of people such as his asshole brother-in-law, Ingrid Caven, the police, who he once worked for, and the Foreign Legion

A cut to a flashback of Hirschmüller being whipped by El Hedi Ben Salem from Ali in Morocco during his time with the Legion; some of his Legion brothers are searching for him; what the fuck is happening right now? This film has taken such a wild turn to the right and I don’t want it to stop

I’m sorry but there’s no way you can say this scene of Hirschmüller being tied to a tree and whipped by Salem isn’t straight out of one of Fassbinder’s wet dreams

Hirschmüller asks Salem to just kill him right there but his Legion friends shoot Salem first; immediately afterward the film cuts to Hirschmüller dropping dead at the bar

Hermann and Löwitsch are at the funeral and Löwitsch notices Caven is there; we watch the two walking arm and arm away from the camera

A great final shot of Hermann, with her daughter, and Löwitsch in a car as Hermann asks Löwitsch to marry her and take over the business since he knows how to work it, is good with the daughter, and because Hermann finds him attractive; the two are divided by a beam splitting the windshield in this shot, and they don’t look at eachother, just straight forward

The first hour is actually a very good film but the best auteur cinema comes in the last 20 minutes

The title is interesting; contains “four seasons” and the film does indeed take place over the course of a year

I like to think of his method of turning in a circle as he yells the prices of his fruit to the people around him as him screaming at the world for being the hell he lives in; the poster certainly gives that image for me

Recommend/Highly Recommend; might be willing to go to a full HR with some thought

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant:

A very nice frame-within-a-frame at 4 minutes

Closeup of Carstensen on the phone at 5 minutes

There’s an erotic painting in Carstensen’s room; I wonder if Fassbinder was influenced by Fellini Satyricon at all; the painting has some of its imagery

A 180-degree camera movement in Carstensen’s room; leads into this brilliant frame with two layers of depth of Carstensen close to the camera and Irm Hermann further away; then we edit to the reverse shot; really good

Carstensen has Hermann – her secretary who she’s in a sexual relationship with – write a letter out of nowhere to Joseph Mankiewicz

They dance together to The Platters’ “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”

Katrin Schaake comes in to meet Carstensen, who then ignores Hermann for the rest of the scene in the apartment

Carstensen owns a few mannequins for sexual purposes in her apartment; there’s a great frame composing their heads that Fassbinder holds for a little while at 18 minutes

Wonderful closeup of Schaake at 21 minutes followed by a closeup of Carstensen in a mirror that zooms outward; really strong

A drawn out zoom into Hermann’s face than then refocuses and goes to a closeup of Carstensen; wower at 29 minutes

I like the juxtaposition of Carstensen and Schaake against her painting right afterward

34 minutes before Hanna Schygulla finally enters the film

Great one using the side of Hermann’s head blocking half of the frame at 36 minutes

Fade to black to end the scene just short of the 39 minute mark

Hermann getting Carstensen ready to go out with Schygulla; it’s shot at leg height; makes Fassbinder appear self-taught

Low angle of Schygulla looking at herself in the mirror at 41 minutes; great stuff

We then edit right afterwards to a shot of Schygulla in the mirror with Carstensen standing behind her; the camera turns and we get a closeup of Schygulla

Another shot of the mirror at 42 minutes and Fassbinder does the exact same camera movement, but this time with the characters in the reverse positions

Carstensen and Schygulla are only 3 years apart in age? More like 20, wow

Hermann starts typing loudly to drown out the sound of Carstensen and Schygulla’s flirting

Schygulla against the painting from a low angle at 48 minutes; great one

One with half the screen blocked of Hermann typing at 54 minutes; followed by one of those Antonioni shots of Carstensen and Schygulla juxtaposed against eachother in depth not looking at eachother; there’s a great one of these (stronger than the one here) in Bunuel’s masterpiece Belle de Jour

I once posted a shot in Andrei Rublev exactly like this one of Carstensen and Schygulla at 56 minutes; a beautiful composition

This becomes a long take as Schygulla describes traumatic events from her past that affected her; Carstensen did the same thing actually in the first scene

An hour into the film and we have not left Carstensen’s apartment

Love the scene of Schygulla dancing as Carstensen is talking to her

Long, drawn out camera movement across the entire room leading into Hermann’s distraught face as Carstensen confesses her love for Schygulla

Fassbinder’s main influence here is clearly Bergman with all the emotional confessions, female perspective and even the general visual style of the film is a lot like Bergman’s own 1972 entry, Cries and Whispers; I can’t talk about Fassbinder’s descent from Sirk as I haven’t seen any of his films yet

The second scene again ends with a fade to black

Nice frame of the room showing Carstensen and Schygulla in particular shot at different layers of depth

A wonderfully filled frame; especially note the corners; at 69 minutes

We witness a punishing breakdown in the relationship between Carstensen and Schygulla as Schygulla refuses to kiss Carstensen; this scene particularly is shot in closeup so we’re right there with the emotions of the characters

Harsh scene as we witness Carstensen breaking down; the titular Bitter Tears; she seems to put down others to hide her own decline into irrelevance

One should note the changes in costume; particularly in relation to Carstensen; throughout the episodes

Incredible frame showing Carstensen and Schygulla separated by a wooden beam in the apartment as Schygulla is going to meet her husband; another Antonioni trademark here

Schygulla says goodbye, and the scene fades to black

Carstensen, now in an extremely noteworthy blonde wig and a real dress, sitting in the middle of her barren room, not even a bed, just a drink and a telephone waiting for Schygulla to call; this is the film’s greatest shot

While Carstensen’s daughter is visiting, Schaake visits again and gives Carstensen a baby doll that strongly resembles Schygulla

At one point Carstensen believes Schygulla is coming into her apartment and the camera slow pans over to the door only to show Carstensen’s mother coming in

Great low angle of Carstensen throwing back some alcohol at 109 minutes

Great low angle with Carstensen at the phone again as her mother stands taking up the right third of the screen and Hermann, Schaake and Eva Mattes (the daughter) standing elsewhere in the frame at 112 minutes

Fassbinder holds this shot for several minutes; when the opera comes on it takes it to another level

One should notice Hermann standing in the background, unacknowledged, of so many frames in the film

In the end, Carstensen promises Hermann she will treat her better and they will have a true relationship, but Hermann knows better

Brilliant ending scene where Hermann packs up all of her stuff walking on and off the frame as Carstensen watches

A Must-See film after one viewing; possibly a Masterpiece with a second

World on a Wire:

I have seen it; I’d say it’s a Must-See after one viewing, but I think I want to watch it again before I talk about it here.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul:

As I think I’ve mentioned a few times, I watched Ali a few months before all of these, and have not yet found time to watch it again. It is Fassbinder’s best film and a masterpiece.

Fox and His Friends:

Tracking crane shot over the circus Fassbinder works at to start the film

Stars Karlheinz Böhm who some may remember from Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom; a film I’ve been eager to get back to after a few years

Great zoom out shot of some men in a car; focuses originally on one of their hands on the wheel; framing the circus ringleader

Fassbinder actually looks a lot like Russell Crowe

The circus closes since the owner gets arrested for tax fraud

Fassbinder framed by the legs of two men at 7 minutes; seems to be one of his trademark shots

Great one moving up a clock tower at 10 minutes

Flowers in the set design as Fassbinder walks into a florist’s store at 13 minutes; a few great uses of blocking actually in this scene

Fassbinder’s jacket has “Fox” studded on the background; somehow I feel he used this name cause it sounds like “fucks”

The women who runs the store Fassbinder turns in his lottery ticket at is the lead actress from Ali

Nice one of Böhm standing behind a curtain at 18 minutes

Fassbinder clearly loves shots with blocking as the camera shoots over a character’s shoulder; many of those in his body of work

A shot through 2 doorways at 23 minutes

Peephole shot at 27 minutes; like Polanski; awesome

2 shot of Chatel and Bär at 29 minutes; Chatel in a yellow bathrobe

Great one of Chatel arguing with his father in his workplace as their employees watch from afar at 30 minutes

Over-the-shoulder shot at 31 minutes followed up by Fassbinder framed between two beer bottles

Chatel takes Fassbinder away from the low-class bar he was at and to a high-end restaurant where he orders in French as Fassbinder tries to follow along

Nice shot of Chatel, Fassbinder and Hoven (Chatel’s father) shot through a window at 39 minutes

Lots of penises around in this scene set in a gay bathhouse

Great shot tracking across a series of mirrors leading into a closeup of Böhm sitting down a few inches from a man’s cock (I’m so sorry for writing that…)

Fassbinder withdraws 100k Deutsch Marks from the bank and immediately gives them to Chatel as a donation to the business; leads into a great shot of the two walking out of the bank as the door blocks the camera

Chatel and Fassbinder walk through an apartment they are planning to buy as Chatel plans the layout with Fassbinder not understanding just about anything he is saying; so unused to a high-class life

Wonderful mirror shot showing Chatel and Bär walking towards eachother (though it appears they’re are walking in the same direction) at 54 minutes; Fassbinder is at Bär’s clothing store getting refitted

Framing of a scene of Chatel’s family and Fassbinder at dinner at 59 minutes

A few shots where Fassbinder (as director) pans the camera over some of the characters faces very slowly; strong technique here; there’s an extremely strong one in Ali when Brigitte Mira reveals her relationship with Salem to her children

Fassbinder is back at the bar with Chatel and reveals he won the lottery to some of his low-class friends and the contract for the loan he just gave to Chatel; the guys in the bar know Chatel is scamming Fassbinder but say nothing

I’m reminded of Sandler’s office on Punch-Drunk Love whenever they’re in Chatel’s father’s business

Chatel makes Fassbinder pay for a trip to Morocco they are taking

Nice tracking shot over the literal word “Marokko” (the German spelling) before we cut to their vacation

Usage of a Venetian blind-like roof at 17 minutes

We get the Letterboxd poster for this film of Fassbinder smoking around this time

They meet El Hedi ben Salem, the male lead of Ali, for a sexual tryst in Morocco

Framing the trio in an outside restaurant at 80 minutes; there’s a shot just like this one in Ali

Wow camera movement between two rooms in the business at 85 minutes

Major controversy as the business is in financial trouble, which Chatel uses to swindle Fassbinder out of even more of his money

The great Bresson shot using the bars of stairs to divide the frame at 87 minutes

A great shot in their apartment as they are serving dinner to Chatel’s parents using a lamp on the left side of the screen for blocking

I have heard about a possible autistic reading of this film; earlier, while they’re at the bank, Fassbinder starts counting off numbers for no reason to the annoyance of Chatel, and now while they at dinner Fassbinder does some weird game involving a match and Chatel’s mother’s finger; I don’t think it adds anything to the film as an artistic work and I feel these scenes were included more to show Fox’s lack of understanding of the upper class life but it is a bit interesting to think about

I really wonder why Fassbinder stays with Chatel with how much he insults him? He must be really blind

A stunning camera pan in a bar at 96 minutes

Mirror shot while Fassbinder is at the doctor’s at 102 minutes

Great one of Fassbinder and Chatel walking in a… restaurant maybe? Then it refocuses to a medium-close shot of Böhm, who they are meeting there

Wow; high angle of the 3 posed on the stairs together at 107 minutes; might be the best frame in the film

A slightly similar high angle of Fassbinder shot from a staircase at 110 minutes

There was a line earlier about “drawing the short stick” that I considered mentioning earlier that comes back now

Watching this after Petra, it is honestly painfully clear noticing the vast difference in the strength of the compositions; there’s nothing like that shot of Carstensen and Schygulla in Petra that Drake has above the “Best Performance Male” segment on the 1972 page (also on Fassbinder’s TSPDT page)

Wonderful one of Fassbinder either passed out or dead; leaning the latter from a shot of his Valium bottle; from a long distance in a subway; he gets robbed of the remainder of his wealth by some kids

I’m going to say the above shot is the best in the film, ahead of the one on the stairs

Böhm and Bär happen to be in the subway and come upon him dead; this is the only time in the film they appear to show any genuine concern for his well-being

The film then goes to the kids robbing as much off of Fassbinder as they can

It says on TSPDT that 2 of Fassbinder’s favorite films were The Damned and Salò and at times (the gay bathhouse scene in particular) it shows)

Highly Recommend/Must-See with some reflection

In a Year of 13 Moons:

Great long shot of Spengler being beaten by some men who find out he is not a he

Wonderful shot through several doorways using the rule of thirds of Spengler as he (I’m referring to the actor not the character) arrives home

Great one of Scheydt at a low angle throwing his stuff in a suitcase

Honestly Fassbinder’s evolution as a director is so clear here; the great moments of cinema just are more common and faster-coming than in his previous films

Wow; a bathroom with mirrors all around the walls; extremely unique set design; the mirrors are staggered with black squares

Tracking shot in a slaughterhouse at 18 minutes followed by a montage as cows are being killed; really great stuff; love the composition of the workers as they go about their job

Very aggressive delivery of a monologue from Spengler with the cow massacre on screen

The slaughterhouse is used here as a metaphor for Spengler cutting off his own penis

Spengler notably does not really sound like a woman at all; he has the voice of a man; this is clearly intentional from Fassbinder of course

I love the tracking shots through the slaughterhouse as the camera observes the dead cows; excellent work; you wouldn’t see cinema this strong in Fassbinder’s earlier films (excepting Ali)

Great shots using doorways and hallways as blocking of the frame as Spengler returns home trying to find Scheydt, who has left him; you feel Spengler’s claustrophobia as his world is closing around him

Wonderful mirror shot of Spengler on his bed at 26 minutes; an angled shot

Keyhole shot of the same subject at 27 minutes

Many excellent shots using doorways to close off half the screen or more; one at 30 minutes as Spengler and Trissenaar, his ex-wife before the transition, are arguing

An obstructed frame at 33 minutes of Spengler walking into a bar; the camera then pans upwards and displays the reflection above; amazing work

More mirrors; Spengler talks to some of the people in the bar and is promptly ignored; Spengler can be seen in the frame and is talking to people whose reflections can be seen in the miror

Another shot emphasizing the claustrophobia at 35 minutes; very many of these heavily obstructed frames with Spengler in the corner

Colored lighting in this bar scene as well

Montage between various objects at a location (I think a druggie hangout) called “Soul Frieda” at 38 minutes

It ends with a long take with a few characters including Spengler and Caven as they discuss various topics – each is doing something different within the frame – really great

One of the characters is lifting weights and there’s a shot where his dumbbells periodically cover the face of one of the other characters

A shot of Pempeit – playing a nun Spengler is supposed to meet – framed by a gate at 45 minutes; I think he was raised by her?

Low angle closeup of Pempeit as Spengler explains who he is, despite the clothing he is wearing that would indicate otherwise

Voiceover from Pempeit describing Spengler’s childhood at the orphanage as we watch Caven walk with a distraught expression; Pempeit then walks back on screen and the camera tracks her and then finds Spengler and it tracks him; seriously jaw-dropping; it’s exhilarating watching Fassbinder grow as an artist

A short cut away before we go back to the camera tracking back to Pempeit and then back to Caven, who it revolves around for a moment before following Pempeit again from a different angle

You know the shot from Casino where Scorsese tracks between Pesci’s gang and then the shot goes to a closeup of Pesci? That basically happens here with Pempeit and Caven

We return to Spengler for a short second to see him collapsed on the ground

Caven looking at herself in a mirror at 58 minutes

They are in his apartment; a lamp at her bedside table has a shade that produces a Venetian blinds effect around it

One of Caven and Spengler with their faces pressed together as she monologues to him

An interesting, but not unwelcome turn of events as Caven watched a television program about General Pinochet which she changes channel to an interview with the famed German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder; wait…

Great one of Caven dancing in the dark (cinephile pun not intended) through a doorway at 64 minutes

The TV eventually goes back to Pinochet and we get a lengthy voiceover of his speech played over the interactions of the characters and a dissolve montage of some architecture shots

Von Sternberg obstruction with a Bush at 67 minutes

Spengler is talking to a man about John, Spengler’s ex-lover; the man is looking up at an apartment John lives in and is in focus and Spengler is right behind him and out of focus, pacing around a lot

Clearly Fassbinder is a fan of the monologue; feels like every scene has one

The guy repeats thrice to Spengler that John’s name in-film is spelled uncustomarily in the German language

Shadows on the walls in a segment in a staircase like Nosferatu

Some genuine wower frames as Spengler walks about the apartment below John’s; it is under construction; brilliant set design

Spengler witnessed a spontaneous gun battle happening outside through a window; I think it was the police practicing for a real scenario

Repeating red light in the apartment as Spengler is found by a suicidal entering

Love the frame with that repeating light as the man hangs a noose in the apartment as Spengler’s legs can be seen dangling into the frame

Great camera movement between the faces of Spengler, laying on the ground, and the man, who is standing up

Long shot of the two blocked by some wooden beams in the construction as the man sits by his noose

Spengler tells him “I think you should do it now” as in commit suicide, and he obliges; great frame of him hanging with his shadow behind him and another of Spengler watching, giving us the Letterboxd backdrop for this film

Love these shots in the office in which John works; one of these is the brilliant five-door shot that Drake has screenshotted on Fassbinder’s page

I love the tracking shot of Spengler and Kauffman walking about the office; there’s a segment where the camera just tracks the architecture outside as they speak in there background

Kauffman is very good here; he doesn’t feel forced at all, very charismatic

Wow; the doorway shot arrives at 90 minutes; fantastic

Composition of John and his 3 subordinates watching TV as Spengler and Kauffman observe them

Spengler finally gets to meet John, who fails to recognize the former

Interesting scene where they all hold a random celebration for John who parades around the room like a small child; all of them start gallivanting around the room like a bunch of wackos, watching and mimicking the dance moves shown on the TV in front of them

A strong composition of the six as John realizes who Spengler is; Spengler off-screen blocking the left and the others staggered throughout the frame at various depths in front of the camera

They go back to Spengler’s apartment and there’s a great shot of Spengler and John framed through a doorway at 100 minutes

There’s a strange obsession with Morocco in Fassbinder’s work; Hirschmüller served in the Foreign Legion in Morocco in Merchant, Fassbinder and Chatel vacation in Morocco in Fox, and Spengler went to Morocco to get a sex change by chopping his penis off here; it’s definitely because of Salem

Wonderful tracking shot into a disheartened Spengler seeing John and Caven beginning to make love at 103 minutes

Spengler cuts his hair a bit before dressing up as a man, and then goes out to see his wife and daughter (who we have not seen yet)

A Yang-like frame of them eating outside with some kites hanging from the tree above them

Masterful Antonioni-like frame – none of them looking at eachother – as Spengler describes his dissatisfaction with his gender transition in a belated attempt to get his wife back; she says she will always love him but does not take him back and he runs away

Spengler had done an interview with a German magazine that is important to the plot of the film; at 117 minutes the interviewer’s wife listens to the interview with him after Spengler had gone up to see them.

This interview plays as a voiceover as the interviewer, his wife, and Spengler’s daughter go to Spengler’s apartment, which is guarded by Kauffman because John is there, and they find Spengler is dead

Freeze-frame of the staircase to his apartment to end the film

Notably Fassbinder worked as his own cinematographer here; this is some of his best work visually actually

I feel like there’s something here that doesn’t grab me as much as Fassbinder’s other films, but the further I get removed from the viewing and reflect on how the film’s images connect to eachother, the more that feeling fades into the distance and I think the film gets stronger

Must-See/Masterpiece

The Marriage of Maria Braun:

The film is off to an explosive start (literally) as we start off with a shot of a portrait of Hitler that is destroyed in an Allied bombing as the camera immediately zooms into Schygulla and Löwitsch getting married. The next scene is one of everybody in the vicinity trying to escape the Allied bombing. Easily one of the best opening scenes probably in all of cinema.

I love the credits where they just fill in everybody’s names across the entire screen and occasionally switch them out for other names

A blocked frame of Uhlen at 4 minutes; this new scene has such amazing set design, mise-en-scene legend

Schygulla is at the train station looking for Löwitsch returning from the war; a great shot tracking her across a wooden fence followed by some handheld cinematography of some Allied soldiers getting off the train; such a hectic scene

360-degree shot at 7 minutes

There it is; the Letterboxd header for this film

Wonderful composition of the Allied soldiers in a mess hall followed by a low angle showing them blocked by the legs of chairs; the same shot appears in World on a Wire

Schygulla has this cardboard sign on her back with her husband’s picture and his name; it looks kind of funny and I feel that’s intentional

Another blocked frame of Uhlen that moves to a close up of another man, and then back to Uhlen standing somewhere else at 10 minutes; I see a bit of Thelma Ritter (particularly from Rear Window) in her here

Ha! Back to the blocked shot again! The blocking is done with a hole in the wall. This is awesome

Schygulla and her friend walk through war torn Germany at 14 minutes; a great low angle shot to end the scene

Wow; the friend in 2 mirrors and Schygulla in the frame at 15 minutes

She and a salesman discuss the works of Heinrich von Kleist; oh, not to read it, but to burn it. Great stuff here

Amazing shot of Schygulla sitting on a beam, looking back at the camera at 19 minutes; natural light coming in through a window

She’s applying to be a prostitute and her boss mentions not to bring her wedding ring to work; the camera zooms into the ring and refocuses on it

She goes back to the train station; this time she just gives up on finding Löwitsch and throws her cardboard sign under the train wheels

Lots of shots using pulled-back curtains for blocking

Rolling tracking shot in the bar where Schygulla works at 24 minutes

Pun where Schygulla attacks the attention of Allied soldier Byrd, who is black; “better Black than Brown” referring to her own surname, Braun

Amazing composition at 28 minutes; 3 levels of depth, one an extreme closeup of a man’s hands, as none of the characters are looking at eachother; the man is Gottfried John, who returns to inform the family, and, when she comes back, Schygulla, that Löwitsch is dead (had to milk out all the commas there)

Brilliant; John, Trissenaar (his wife) and Uhlen all standing together, almost appearing as one single body, with Schygulla standing nearby at 31 minutes

She heads to the bar to be held by Byrd and as they hold eachother close, their bodies are covered up by the dancing crowd as the camera pulls back

Composition of the family and Byrd at a picnic behind their house at 32 minutes

Montage of Schygulla and Byrd – both naked – raking their hands across each other’s bodies at 34 minutes; there’s a split-screen scene quite like this early on in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream

Schygulla is pregnant now with Byrd’s child

Schygulla and Byrd begin to undress to have sex as a man who suspiciously resembles Löwitsch (yes, we find out it is him) watches them in the doorsill unseen

What a bizarre scene that ensues; Löwitsch punches Schygulla hard in the face and knocks her down, then sits in a chair and begins smoking a cigarette, then breaks down and begins tearing apart his bedsheets, angry that they have been used by another man, then tries to assault Byrd who, being a giant, overpowers him, however Schygulla then gets up and in a strange turn of events, breaks a bottle over Byrd’s head, knocking him out, and she and Löwitsch just look at eachother.

It turns out she had actually just killed Byrd and now is on trial; Löwitsch, John, is also at the trial; there’s a great shot where the camera tracks Löwitsch walking and then transition into a medium shot of him on the left side of the screen.

Her friends and family are also at the trial; a nice shot where the camera switches between their faces

Löwitsch is troubled as we finally see him resolve to confess to murdering Byrd in place of Schygulla despite not having done so

Wonderful overhead shot of the two speaking in prison visitation at 43 minutes; repeats a few times over the scene

It turns out Schygulla’s child with Byrd has miscarried; it is not spoken whether this was an accident or if it occurred through… more intentional means

I love the chaotic scenes in the film with Schygulla surrounded by a loud crowd

Wow; Uhlen in a doorway on the left side of the screen at 54 minutes

The Bresson prison bars shot at 56 minutes; Löwitsch is standing by the bars and Schygulla is further away being framed by them

Doorway shot of Schygulla, Desny (her new boss) and Bohm at dinner at 60 minutes

A subtlely-beautiful shot of Schygulla and Desny facing away from the camera at 63 minutes

“Is that his things are between people outside now? So cold?” Löwitsch’s reaction to Schygulla telling him about her affair with Desny

Great shot of the prison guard watching them clinking his keys

John, Bohm, and Schygulla are present at a company meeting; they are shot through a glass window at 72 minutes

Brilliant Sternbergian obstruction of Schygulla and Desny at 74 minutes; they’re in the prison negotiating the possibility of getting Löwitsch out; obstructing the frame at countless levels of depth

Lamps galore in the frame as Schygulla and Desny are making love at 76 minutes

The camera movement in this scene where Schygulla is trying to find John is awesome; great pans between faces

An excellent end to a scene of everybody dancing; Trissenaar is complaining about how John doesn’t love her anymore and putting down Uhlen’s new lover, and after they talk, Schygulla walks through everybody else dancing to go dance with Desny; after this, the camera pans back through everybody ending with Trissenaar unable to face them

Closeup of a telephone at 93 minutes

So many great compositions in an expensive restaurant where Schygulla and Desny are eating at 100 minutes; the tables, the waiters, the columns, etc.

A scene where John and Schygulla are exploring old locations they knew that were destroyed in the war; there are some great shots there including one below some beams they are walking on

Earlier, Löwitsch had gotten out of prison and promised to send Schygulla a rose every month after leaving to find wealth in Canada or Australia (funny; this reminds me of Lola; the Demy one). She gets home, sees a rose at her doorstep, and goes to find a vase full of many roses

A great shot of Schygulla again in the restaurant; Desny has died and she gets up from her chair before vomiting

Love these doorway shots of Schygulla having drunk herself out of lucidity in her home. She hears the door ring, and opens it to find Löwitsch, looking much richer.

This is the first time the two of them have actually been husband and wife (living together and the like) since their marriage at the beginning of the movie

Schygulla gives the best performance of her career at least until I see Berlin Alexanderplatz; Löwitsch is very good in what parts of the movie he is in as well.

Gorgeous tracking long shot of the two in their house; the camera slowly tracks to the left over a long period as they discuss their relationship whilst a sports game plays over the radio (or television); some objects periodically block the frame as the camera moves

A wonderful refocus at 114 minutes

Löwitsch’s face upside down (Schygulla’s POV); a great shot

Bohm arrives at the house to have Desny’s will read to Schygulla and Löwitsch; he leaves a sizeable amount of money to Löwitsch, his “friend, though we loved the same woman,” rather than to Schygulla. Löwitsch wills the money to Schygulla anyway.

A great shot of Löwitsch in a mirror, looking up as his name is read on the will.

The film ends as Schygulla accidentally blows up the house in a gas explosion, killing them both, to the horror of Bohm and his French escort who have just left the house; this is a bookend to their marriage in the Allied bombing at the beginning

The film ends with a montage of inverted black-and-white photographs of German Chancellors Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, and Willy Brandt; Brandt’s photo, the first Chancellor of the Social Democratic Party, inverts back once again to normality. This series of images is another bookend to the shot of Hitler that opens the film.

Somehow, despite being a significant hit internationally in 1979 and Fassbinder’s most recognized film perhaps beaten only by Ali, this ends up at only #627 on TSPDT.

A masterpiece

Berlin Alexanderplatz:

Not yet seen! I hope to watch it over the next few weeks or so.

Lola:

I will start by noting that I am referring, as you all should expect, to the 1981 RW Fassbinder film, not the 1961 Jacques Demy ensemble melodrama which is an incredible film and, after some reflection this month after seeing it first in June, I think a masterpiece. Both are notably inspired by The Blue Angel, which I hope to watch in the future.

Multicolored credits; red, green, pink and purple are Fassbinder’s colors

The opening shot is a stroke of genius; that zoom out from Sukowa starting in a closeup; the red lighting covering the frame

A nice shot at a bathroom sink with a mirror (and 2 faces in it) in bottom right, a flashing light periodically illuminating the frame, and restroom graffiti decorating the walls

The lighting cannot be praised enough; Fassbinder at an entirely new level compared to his previous work visually; clearly he had more money to make this

A gorgeous blocked frame at 11 minutes; as the take holds it also includes 2 refocuses

Foreground/background work here; there’s a house and there are pets there, such as rabbits, which we watch move around

Not unlike the Demy Lola, both films are named after their female leads (Anouk Aimée and Barbara Sukowa) but the lead characters are really the males (Marc Michel, whose performance is actually pretty underrated imo, and here is Armin Müller-Stahl, who some may know from Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises).

Wonderful green lighting in a frame of Müller-Stahl in his new office at 13 minutes; low angle

One of those 360 shots around a table; this appears at varying speeds in other great films like Hour of the Wolf and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Fassbinder often used avant-garde furniture styles in his films; some great frames involving these

Great use of dissolves here, generally involving a refocus first; actually not particularly common in Fassbinder’s filmography

I love the costume design, particularly for Sukowa’s outfits; great white and black polka dot sleeveless dress she’s wearing in a scene with Müller-Stahl in a church

A particularly immaculate dissolve at 53 minutes; they are about to kiss, but are interrupted by a passing vehicle and the scene cuts to Müller-Stahl at the violin

Another wonderful dissolve; he is buying her a ring and the camera pans downward towards the ring before dissolving to the two at the church again; she is stringing him along

An incredible doorway shot at 63 minutes; love the color contrast in it; the shot almost appears as if computer-generated

The compositions within the club are just wonderful; one notable one at 67 minutes; they’re particularly special because of the lighting

A wonderful shot of Müller-Stahl and Fuchs at work in the former’s office at 70 minutes; he has some objects hanging from the ceiling that block the frame

It’s a particularly great effect when Fassbinder turns the camera rapidly and takes us through a wide variety of colors

Müller-Stahl has gone the entire film up to 81 minutes in thinking Sukowa is just an innocent girl and it’s quite something watching the scene where he realizes she is a whore for the first time

Sukowa really goes crazy in her cabaret routine here; what a sight as she traipses around the entire club

The same 360 shot returns at 89 minutes

Recurring bit about how Fuchs is an anarcho-communist and fan of the work of Mikhail Bakunin

There’s definite consistency here in the dissolve technique Fassbinder uses

Müller-Stahl and another man use the phrase “The Rules of the Game” a few times in a conversation.

It’s notable how many of Fassbinder’s films take place in immediate postwar Germany: this, Maria Braun, Merchant, I’m sure there are a few others

There’s a statue being built in the town to honor dead German soldiers of WW2 that is continuously being picketed by anti-war protests

Müller-Stahl has real presence here in these scenes showing his stability declining; he’s a husk of a man; Sukowa tries to take hold of him and he just brushes her off

A Must-See film

Veronika Voss:

Clearly Fassbinder’s most brazen film stylistically from the get-go; the editing in the black-and-white film sequence Zech and Fassbinder are watching followed up by the amazing star-shaped lights all across the screen; think about it: blocking via lighting; that is genius right there

One of those Joe Pesci Casino shots in a rainstorm at 4 minutes

Beautiful shot showing the full length of a window in a train at 6 minutes

For a director most famous for his usage of color, I think I’ll take Fassbinder in black and white; I mean holy shit this is beautiful

A Dutch angle inside the train; wow

Noteworthy usage of wipe edits

A wonderful shot of Zech and Thate at a restaurant from across another balcony at the place; also some low angles of both of them as they talk; very strong

Tracking Zech from above as she walks through the restaurant; her shadow very apparently following behind her

Zech gives unquestionably one of the greatest performances in a Fassbinder film; so overly intense on screen; she completely inhabits the drug-addled Veronika Voss

Fassbinder clearly evolving as an editor here; first Lola a year earlier and now this; I can’t say I think his evolution was totally complete by his death in 1982 but his technique is strong regardless

Stunning foreground/background work showcasing the work environment in Thate’s office; I really love the ceiling fan that changes the lighting moderately a few times a second

The edits you see in this film… I’m not sure you could ever find them anywhere else; there’s one that somewhat resembles a hammer crashing down on an anvil

Thate goes into the doctor’s place to inquire about Zech and it’s just a completely white place; his jacket is about all the black you will see; stunning set design

I wonder how Fassbinder managed to get that look with the lighting; Zech’s jewelry genuinely shimmers

A stunner of Zech and another man standing amongst some statues at 28 minutes

A stunning high angle through a barred window at 31 minutes; a shot for a noir

Staggering mise-en-scene across the entire frame at every level of depth possible at 35 minutes

Smooth transition to a flashback; Zech’s life during the war with Armin Müller-Stahl; it can be noted by the dark lighting in the futur contrasted by the lights being turned on in the past

Another Dutch angle at 42 minutes as Thate looks at Zech in the doctor’s office; immaculate; Fassbinder has never previously used this technique to my knowledge

There are many shots through car windows; often frosted over by rain to obstruct the frame

More shots in that white clinic; feels like we’re in Alphaville or something

I love this running gag with Günther Kaufmann always playing an American soldier in Germany in like all of Fassbinder’s late period work; he’s appeared in this capacity in all of the last few Fassbinder films I’ve seen; I’m just curious as to why he doesn’t change it up

Watching Thate in the clinic at breakfast with Düringer and Kaufmann through a window at 48 minutes

The film is a noir; Zech as the femme fatale and Thate as the man she ropes into uncovering her life, the visual style, the struggle against a greater enemy in the clinic operators

A star edit at 56 minutes

Really, this is the one time Fassbinder had an overlap with like Lang or Murnau in the 20s; he is very informed by German Expressionism here in his use of high-contrast black-and-white

We’re on the set of Zech’s film finally, and the shot begins showing the film camera on a dolly about to get moved in; our camera, from our POV, literally moves with the camera in the film forward; that’s awesome

God’s-eye shot of Zech writhing on the ground over her drugs on the film set

Foreground/background work in a bar where Müller-Stahl and Thate (who met on the film set) are discussing their shared relationship with Zech; in the background there is a prostitute picking up men at the bar

As many as 5 levels of depth at one time in a shot in a hallway in the clinic; one of the people in the shot is just shown on the right edge of the screen

One of those camera movements into a mirror that is about every other shot in World on a Wire at 78 minutes

A masterful camera movement from Thate in bed to a picture he owns of Zech at 82 minutes

Düringer and Froböss are discussing the subject of loneliness as a radio broadcast on West Germany’s joining the European Economic Community (later European Union) is heard

There’s a disco ball in the clinic; in the scenes involving it it spins around creating a nice repeating lighting pattern

Fassbinder cutting back on the wipes at 98 minutes

An immaculate composition at 99 minutes

Zech is locked in her room, tearing it apart; she starts going down the Deneuve route in Repulsion

Her death does not appear on screen; it is shown to us in a newspaper

Must-See/Masterpiece; leaning Masterpiece