Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) [The Criterion Collection #411] [REPOST]

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 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 now available on DVD in this country for the first time, follows the hulking, childlike ex-convict Franz Biberkopf (Günter Lamprecht) as he attempts to "become an honest soul" amid 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.

The Criterion Collection



Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Günter Lamprecht, Dragomir Stanojevic-Bata Kameni, Claus Holm, Hanna Schygulla, Franz Buchrieser, Brigitte Mira, Karlheinz Braun, Roger Fritz, Gottfried John, Barbara Sukowa, Günther Kaufmann, Ivan Desny, Volker Spengler, Vitus Zeplichal, Barbara Valentin, Herbert Steinmetz, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Lilo Pempeit, Fritz Schediwy, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Annemarie Düringer, Peter Kuiper, Jan George, Karin Baal, Axel Bauer, Klaus Höhne, Peter Kollek, Harry Baer, Rolf Zacher, Werner Asam

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Berlin Alexanderplatz is epic and intimate, broad in scope and minute in detail…contradictions to be sure, but when you have fifteen hours to play around with, there’s room to maneuver.

It’s based on the novel by Alfred Doblin, a book considered by many to be the most significant in modern German literature. I’ve never read it, but given the size of the filmed version crafted by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one could only imagine the vision is as complete as one could possibly hope…or want.

Structured for German television and broken up into thirteen separate episodes with an epilogue, the story of Franz Biberkopf (Lamprecht) took time in unfolding. At the beginning, he is getting out of prison where he spent four years for manslaughter after killing his girl in a rage. He is not exactly bright, but well-intentioned, and his goal is to walk a straight and narrow path for the rest of his days.

But the tale takes place in Germany between the two World Wars, and it won’t be easy. The country was in economic and political upheaval. Inflation ran unchecked, jobs were hard to come by, and crime was always an easy avenue out. Over the course of the episodes, the unwitting Franz sells newspapers and knick knacks, flirts with both Communism and Nazism without seemingly having a clear understanding of either, romances a few different women until he meets arguably the most perfect one for him in Mieze (Sukowa), and forms a friendship with a man named Reinhold (John) that threatens to destroy all.

Reinhold is as dark a character as I’ve come across in awhile…he represents everything that Franz is trying to leave behind, so why the attraction and the loyalty? Their friendship seems to begin with Reinhold’s habit of tiring of the women in his life and passing them on to the obliging Franz, until Franz finds one he wants to stay with. Before long, Franz ends up an unwitting lookout when Reinhold’s gang commits a robbery. Franz can only laugh at the absurdity of it all in the back of the getaway vehicle. Reinhold’s response is to push him from the moving car, causing Franz to lose an arm.

Another friend, Eva (Schygulla), the sister of the woman he killed, offers a more positive path and introduces him to Mieze. It could be happy ever after, but Franz’ errant loyalty to Reinhold proves the ultimate undoing, leaving Franz with nothing, including his mind.

The epilogue, the longest segment, is one owing more to Fassbinder than to Doblin, and it’s an exercise in pure disjointed madness as Franz recuperates in a mental hospital and seems to relive his dreams and nightmares in a fit of desperation before finally coming around and bringing an end to the story. The surreal segment puts a bizarre exclamation point on what otherwise might be described as a sobering look at the human condition, as it applied both to pre-Nazi Germany and the Germany of Fassbinder’s own time.

It’s a marathon effort, but it holds together for the duration thanks largely to two factors. One is Gunter Lamprecht’s impeccably realized and heartfelt portrayal of Franz, a character trying to overcome his external circumstances and internal weaknesses without the tools to really accomplish either. This is one of the most memorable performances in film I’ve come across, and his work resonates perfectly from start to finish.

The other is Fassbinder himself, whose vision never flinches for the entire running time. The cinematography is quite astonishing, though many Germans balked at it originally. There is a soft, almost ethereal quality to the images. Some seem to have phantom-like extra exposures, as though we were watching events through a rain soaked window pane. The lights pulsate in Franz’ red light district like a heartbeat in the city. Sometimes there’s just enough light to penetrate the darkness of the settings and the story. The effect is quite striking.

The running time is daunting, but one can easily spread it out over many nights as the original television audience did. The hours I spent with the film were sometimes exhausting but always rewarding. One can only credit Fassbinder for having the audacity to attempt such a complex, complete vision, and then admire his ability to actually pull it off in creating a haunting, thought-provoking portrait of a tragic hero who wants to do good but seems trapped into doing bad.

Fifteen hours is a long time, but Fassbinder has the necessary story to make it worthwhile. Franz Biberkopf is the center of a tale not soon forgotten nor easily dismissed…there’s something in his tragedy that will strike a chord of truth in all who view it, and I’d wager very few would begrudge the time they spent with him or with this film.

List of Episodes on DVDs:
DVD 1 (7,26 Gb):
Part I: The Punishment Begins
Part II: How Is One to Live if One Doesn't Want to Die?

DVD 2 (7,64 Gb):
Part III: A Hammer Blow to the Head Can Injure the Soul
Part IV: A Handful of People in the Depths of Silence
Part V: A Reaper with the Power of Our Lord

DVD 3 (7,63 Gb):
Part VI: Love Has Its Price
Part VII: Remember- An Oath Can Be Amputated
Part VIII: The Sun Warms the Skin, But Burns It Sometimes Too

DVD 4 (7,68 Gb):
Part IX: About the Eternities Between the Many and the Few
Part X: Loneliness Tears Cracks of Madness Even in Walls
Part XI: Knowledge Is Power and the Early Bird Catches the Worm

DVD 5 (7,35 Gb):
Part XII: The Serpent in the Soul of the Serpent
Part XIII: The Outside and the Inside and the Secret of Fear of the Secret

DVD 6 (7,78 Gb):
Epilogue: Rainer Werner Fassbinder: My Dream of the Dream of Franz Biberkopf

DVD 7 - Extras (7,87 Gb)

Detailed descriptions of the episodes

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