riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (02/12/84)
On Friday evening I saw the second installment of the marathon showing
of what may be the cinematic event of the semester at UT: Rainer
Werner Fassbinder's "Berlin Alexanderplatz". Fassbinder made the
15-hour movie to be shown in 14 episodes on West German television;
here we are seeing it over the course of five weeks in three-hour
chunks.
The story follows the experiences of Franz Biberkopf, a former pimp and
murderer who is released from prison in Berlin in the depression year
of 1928. Facing a world of rampant unemployment, crime and political
chaos -- the Petri dish in which Nazism is slowly growing -- Biberkopf
has one very improbable goal: to stay honest. The twists and turns,
ups and downs of Doeblin's plot are the stuff of melodrama; that being
the name of the game, Fassbinder takes the ball and runs with it.
The cast consists to a large part of Fassbinder's usual stable of
talented actors. Gunter Lamprecht in the role of Biberkopf is
excellent. The incomparable Hanna Schygulla plays a (so far minor)
part as a rather enigmatic figure out of Biberkopf's past; I assume
we'll see more of her in later episodes. The camera work has a fuzzy,
almost smoky quality that lends an air of mystery and keeps one from
paying more attention to the sets and costumes than to the actors, as
can sometimes happen in a "period" movie. One supporting feature of
the movie which I find very intriguing is the soundtrack. Sounding at
times like a tryout for a modern opera, the music often seems to work
at cross purposes with the events on the screen. The music alone is
sometimes enough to turn the mundane almost to the surreal; the other
night I was struck suddenly by a scene which might have been
knee-slapping comedy but not for the eerie music swelling up almost to
the point of drowning out the dialogue. The effect is so marked that
it must be intentional, but I will have to keep watching before I can
figure out exactly why.
Local critics have been calling this Fassbinder's greatest work. I
wouldn't quite go that far, myself; as far as I am concerned, that
place is reserved for "The Marriage of Maria Braun". Still, as
skeptical as I was about sitting through fifteen hours of soap opera,
even soap opera by a master like Fassbinder, I knew after the first
evening that I would be back for the rest. If you like Fassbinder,
then by all means see "Berlin Alexanderplatz" if you get the chance.
--- Prentiss Riddle
--- ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle