Alexanderplatz

Berlin, Alexanderplatz
$16.18

Soundtrack
$20.99
Soundtrack for the 15 1/2 hour documentary filmed by legendary& controversial director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Berlin Alexanderplatz
$175.00
According to Criterion's website, Berlin Alexanderplatz will be released on DVD in November 2007 - shouldn't Amazon already have a pre-order option?

Specs are as follows:

- New high-definition digital transfer, from the 2006 restoration by the Fassbinder Foundation and Bavaria Media, and supervised and approved by director of photography Xaver Schwarzenberger

- 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 The Making of "Berlin Alexanderplatz"

- Phil Jutzi's 1931, ninety-minute film of Alfred Doblin's novel, from a screenplay cowritten by Doblin himself

- New video interview with Peter Jelavich, author of Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture

- New and improved English subtitle translation

- PLUS: An essay by filmmaker Tom Tykwer, reflections from Fassbinder, an interview with Schwarzenberger, and German author Thomas Steinfeld on the novel

C'mon, Amazon - get on the ball!

Berlin Alexanderplatz - Criterion Collection
$124.95
"There is nothing to do. I have to endure it." Franz Biberkopf.

BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1980) is a fifteen and a half hour film by famed German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder that was originally made to be shown on German television. This film is based on the 1929 novel by Alfred Doblin, which was almost an obsession with Fassbinder. Eventually, in 1982 as I recall, it was shown over a two or three week period on American public television during the not so prime time hours after the nightly news and in competition with such as The Tonight Show, etc.

Given the "adult" content of BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ PBS, even at this late date, should be congratulated for showing an uncensored version even at such a late hour.
Those were the days of expensive VCRs so if you wanted to see this controversial film you had to stay awake, fighting sleep most every week night that it was shown.

The story concerns Franz Biberkopf, an ex-con just released from prison in 1927 after serving a four year manslaughter sentence for killing his live-in girlfriend during a drunken brawl between the two of them. The brawl is referred to frequently in flashback sequences throughout BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ because , of course, it is seldom out of Franz's memory.

Upon release from prison Franz vows to live a straight, honest existence, no more burglary, pimping or anything else that might bring him into the disapproving vision of the law and also because the hulking, somewhat childish Franz genuinely wants to be a good citizen.

Unfortunately, for someone without a trade, that prospect in the Germany of the late twenties is almost an impossible ideal. Franz soon returns to peddling items on the street. But the market for "tie holders,"( apparently a small device for "workers who can't tie their ties"), shoelaces and other gimcracks just isn't there so Franz goes into the newspaper selling business, unwittingly selling a paper that is an organ of the Nazi party.

After a tavern showdown with some old leftist comrades of his, Franz drops that career as well. Eventually, he starts associating with some of his older companions, all thieves, including his friend Mec and a new friend, Reinhold.

Reinhold cannot stay with one woman for long and he makes an arrangement with Franz that leads Franz into taking Reinhold's "used" live in girlfriends while Franz passes on his "used" girls to others of his acquaintance. Eventually, Franz develops a loving
relationship with Mieze and keeps her despite Reinhold's attempt to keep the conveyor belt of girlfriends moving down the line.

Franz is not earning anything at this point and Mieze starts walking the street to support their household. Franz eventually falls back into his old thieving lifestyle with his friends and that's when the downward spiral really picks up speed.

All of this is told in beautifully filmed and acted chapters but the best, in my opinion is yet to come.

Eventually, Franz's life completely falls apart, mostly due to betrayals by Reinhold.
Franz loses his girl, his right arm and eventually his sanity in a whirlwind of
misfortune for him and vitually everyone connected to him and his story.

Finally, after thirteen chapters, when things seemingly cannot get much worse, we get to Fassbinder's Epilogue on disc six, which seeks to wrap up the story on all levels
of viewers including the most literal minded like myself.

The epilogue is a surreal heavily symbolic depiction of Franz's mental and physical breakdown after all of the preceeding chapters have occurred. It is beautifully filmed, although not of what could be called entirely beautiful situations.

Still, the skill and the art involved in the epilogue is truly unique and its
use of the combination of visuals, dialogue and music are a once in a lifetime achievement that is a wonder to experience for this viewer, at least.

To sum up, the first five discs of this seven disc set contain the thirteen chapters of Franz Biberkoph's story, the sixth disc contains the epilogue and the seventh disc has among other things, the 1931 film version of BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ,probably something of an innovative film on its own,and most interesting to see especially after the tremendous experience of viewing Fassbinder's epic.

Finally, here's a quote ot two from Franz Biberkopf in 1929 Germany:

"Be alert. There is something going on in the world. All is not sweet in the world.
Be alert. Take care. Anyone who doesn't take care will be a laughingstock.
Or will be cut down."

"We know what we know. We had to pay dearly for that knowledge."