Rainer Werner Fassbinder

by Laurence Kardish (Editor)

Of all the filmmakers who created a new international cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, the young German writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) was unquestionably the most prolific and among the most gifted. In more than 40 films, from the 1969 neogangster movie Love is Colder than Death to the 1980 14-part epic Berlin Alexanderplatz, and such late masterpieces as The Marriage of Maria Braun, he produced a body of work remarkable both in its range and in its sustained focus.In this book of writings by and about Fassbinder, revealing statements by the artist himself are published in English for the first time. In addition, film historian Thomas Elsaesser and Georgia Brown, film critic for New York City's Village Voice, provide a critical framework that is at once comprehensive and illuminating; and Frankfurt film critic Wolfram Schutte examines Fassbinder's place within postwar German film history. The volume also contains an illustrated filmography and recollections by colleagues and friends, including Fassbinder's editor, Juliane Lorenz, the actresses Hanna Schygulla and Jeanne Moreau, and fellow directors Wim Wenders and Volker Schlöndorff.

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[David]

1. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
2. Martha
3. Veronika Voss
4. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
5. Whity
6. The Merchant of Four Seasons
7. Satan's Brew
8. Beware of a Holy Whore
9. Chinese Roulette
10. Berlin Alexanderplatz
11. In a Year of 13 Moons
12. Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (co-directed w/Michael Fengler)
13. Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven
14. Fox and His Friends
15. Lola
16. The Third Generation
17. Effi Briest
18. Love Is Colder Than Death
19. Gods of the Plague
20. The American Soldier
21. Fear of Fear
22. The Stationmaster's Wife
23. Katzelmacher
24. The Marriage of Maria Braun (OVERRATED!)
25. Pioneers in Ingolstadt
26. The Niklashausen Journey (co-directed w/Michael Fengler)


{All others: unseen}

[Eric Cartier]

Essential reading for anyone enthralled by Fassbinder's work. I didn't know this volume existed and am fortunate to have stumbled across it in my library's stacks. Now to find those elusive 11 of his 44 films I haven't seen!

[Robert]

I just wanted to know more about him. I read a few things, this was one of them. This one was created to go along with a film retrospective in NYC recently. The guy is interesting. A duh.

[Tom Newth]

a terrific little primer, with good essays and filmography, but most valuable for RWF's film school exam answers, and several personal reminiscences