• Menu of all films in Series
• Selections from Amazon.com
• Click here to read Stuart Klawans' article from The New York Times
• Click here to read Andrew Sarris' article from the New York Observer

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN

(1978) Die Ehe der Maria Braun. In Fassbinder’s most famous film, Hanna Schygulla (Best Actress, Berlin Film Festival) builds a financial empire in parallel with Germany’s post-war “economic miracle,” partly thanks to her affair with moneybags Ivan Desny — but also dallying with a black GI — while living in hope for the return of her missing-in-action husband Klaus Löwitsch. “At once Fassbinder’s most conventional and elusive film.” – Tony Rayns, Time Out (London). “Schygulla raises screen acting to a new level of sexual knowingness.” – David Denby, New York Magazine. “Mr. Fassbinder’s most perfectly realized comedy to date... Hanna Schygulla’s performance is sweet, tough, brilliantly complex... splendid and mysterious.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times.
2:00, 4:30, 7:00*, 9:30*
*Hanna Schygulla, star of MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, will appear in person
following the 7:00 PM and before the 9:30 PM show on Saturday, February 15

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THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS

(1971) Der Händler der vier Jahreszeiten. Fruit peddler Hans Hirschmüller watches his unexceptional life disintegrate — a slice-of-life melodrama gone slightly amok — as Fassbinder balances soap opera, social comedy, irony, politics, farce and brilliant ensemble acting. With Hanna Schygulla. “May be the most exquisite achievement in cinema to reach these shores from Germany since the Golden Age of Murnau, Lang, Pabst et al... manages to break the heart without betraying the mind.” – Andrew Sarris, Village Voice.
1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10

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BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE

(1971) Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte. Fassbinder’s own 81/2, set in a luxurious seaside hotel, where a movie cast and crew — including stars Hanna Schygulla and Eddie Constantine (Alphaville), director Lou Castel, and production manager RWF — spend their time assaulting each other verbally, emotionally and sexually. “Fassbinder’s comic, self-consciously absurd, slightly dizzy Contempt, Day For Night and The Last Tycoon, made in the manner of the post-Eat, pre-Trash Andy Warhol.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times.
1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:40, 9:45

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FOX AND HIS FRIENDS

(1975) Faustrecht der Freiheit. When lower-class carnival entertainer Fox the Talking Head (Fassbinder) strikes it rich by winning the lottery, his new-found wealth attracts elegant bourgeois lover Peter Chatel, but he finds it's class against class in gay culture, too. “Fassbinder’s precision, assured sense of milieu, and cool but human compassion for his characters make it a work of brilliant intelligence. And the director himself is superb as the none-too-intelligent hero.” – Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London).
2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

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FEAR OF FEAR

(1975) Angst vor der Angst. Toward the end of her second pregnancy, happily married housewife Margit Carstensen finds her fear of madness — her “fear of fear” — becoming overwhelming, leading, after the birth of a son, to alcohol and drugs. “Fassbinder’s most intense and compelling scrutiny of the human condition.” – Richard Roud. “A distillation of reality — a dream in which everything counts.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times.
1:00, 2:45, 4:30, 6:15, 8:00, 9:45

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CHINESE ROULETTE

(1976) Chinesisches Roulette. Country weekend from hell, as crippled Andrea Schober separately invites estranged parents Margit Carstensen and Alexander Allerson, who arrive with (surprise!) lovers Ulli Lommel and Anna Karina (Band of Outsiders, Alphaville) in tow. And then they decide to play the “truth game” (Fassbinder’s own favorite) after dinner — big mistake! “Mr. Fassbinder is exploring new methods of cinema narrative that are more original and daring than anything I’ve yet to see by filmmakers who call themselves avant-garde... A mysterious comedy of deliberate elegance... Camp lyricism of such density it becomes a lethal weapon.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times.
1:00, 2:45, 4:30, 6:15, 8:00, 9:45

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THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT

(1973) Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant. Imprisoned in a room dominated by fleshy nudes and ghastly white mannequins, three women — successful fashion designer Margit Carstensen, her contented assistant/lover Irm Hermann, and sultry model Hanna Schygulla — act out a supercharged melodrama of sadomasochistic passion and camp hysterics, accompanied by the music of Verdi and The Platters. Fassbinder’s camera prowls incessantly, in what might be considered his own No Exit. “A tragi-comic love story disguised as a lesbian slumber party in high-camp drag.” – Molly Haskell. “He films in long, elegant takes, completely at the service of his all-female cast, who are uniformly sensational.” – Time Out (London).
1:45, 4:20, 7:00, 9:35

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SATAN’S BREW

(1976) Satansbraten. Arguably setting kinkiness records even for Fassbinder, as self-styled “revolutionary” poet Walter Kranz (Kurt Raab) scrambles for love, money and inspiration. With Margit Carstensen. “The sadomasochism hangs right out in this one. If you want to know where Fassbinder’s head is at, this is the film to see.” – Richard Roud, Film Comment.
1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:40, 9:50

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MOTHER KÜSTERS GOES TO HEAVEN

Plus unseen alternate European ending!
(1975) Mutter Küsters Fahrt zum Himmel. Brigitte Mira, widow of the notorious “factory murderer,” takes a Swiftian trek through the internal regions of modern journalism, show-biz, and left-wing politics before finally finding Heaven and Earth, in one of Fassbinder’s funniest and most — yes — upbeat films. We will be showing both Fassbinder’s original European ending and the more hopeful one that he shot for the U.S. release. “A witty, spare, beautifully performed comedy.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times. “A pungent political comedy.” – Penelope Gilliatt, The New Yorker.
2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

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ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL

(1974) Angst essen Seele auf. Inspired by Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life, the bumpy love affair between sixtyish German floorwasher Brigitte Mira and half-her-age, inarticulate Arab mechanic El Hedi Ben Salem: a moving romance, a perverse social comedy, a biting drama of racial prejudice — in Fassbinderland, not always easy to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. Winner, International Critics’ Award, Cannes Film Festival. “The most beautiful film of 1974.” – Rolling Stone. “The cinematic equivalent of pop art...The film’s real concerns are the many disguises of love...courageous.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times. “A strangely stylized parable of love and loneliness...the ending is pure poetry.” – Andrew Sarris Village Voice.
1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10

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VERONIKA VOSS

(1982) Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss. In the 50s, former Third Reich star Veronika Voss (played by Rosel Zech, and based on the real-life Sybille Schmitz) lives on, to be befriended by sportswriter Hilmar Thate, but unable to escape her drug-addicted entrapment by her lesbian physician. One of Fassbinder’s most stylish works, with Armin Mueller-Stahl (Lola, Shine, Avalon) and the director in an eerie cameo as a moviegoer. “A chilly, tough wicked satire disguised as a schmaltzy, black & white 1950s melodrama.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times. “If Sirk’s colorful melodramas were once Fassbinder’s models, this is closer to Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard.” – Time Out (London).
1:15, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:45

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KATZELMACHER

(1969) A Teutonic I Vitelloni, as a group of idle twenty-somethings, going-nowhere-fast in a gray Munich backwater, pass the time screwing, boozing, kicking ass, playing cards, and finding common cause in their contempt for a befuddled Greek immigrant (played by Fassbinder), whom they derisively mock as a katzelmacher — Bavarian slang for “cat f****r.” With Hanna Schygulla. “Hypnotic... simultaneously funny and tough, sympathetic and caustic. An early glimpse of Fassbinder’s dazzling talent.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times. Plus Fassbinder’s short The Little Chaos (1966).
1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:35, 9:50

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LOLA

(1982) As kickbacks, graft, and boodle proliferate in a small town amid Germany’s Economic Miracle of the 50s, straight arrow new building commisonner Armin Mueller-Stahl (in his Western star-remaking role after fleeing the East) moves into town, but the local wire-pullers unleash Dietrichesque shady lady Barbara Sukowa. Will naive Virtue fall to Vice? Or is there a sardonic other way? “A wonderfully upfront narrative rendered in garish primary colors...The prostitution metaphors come undiluted from early Godard, the poster art visuals from the magnificent melodramas of Sirk and Minnelli; the provocations are all Fassbinder’s own.” – Time Out (London).
1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:35, 9:50

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EFFI BRIEST

(1974) Fontane Effi Briest. As the eponymous heroine of Theodor Fontane’s Dickensian 19th century classic, Hanna Schygulla’s Effi — a vivacious mixture of youthful high spirits and bourgeois mediocrity — marries a much older Prussian baron, but then drifts into a seaside affair with Ulli Lommel, with mortal results ensuing. “A beautiful, ironic, intentionally literary-sounding film. It’s an achievement of several kinds.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times. “Fassbinder’s masterpiece... a fiercely philosophical picture. This magnificent, inquiring film, though it is an epic in its way, is no spectacle; it is, above all, a spyglass on our consciousnesses.”— Penelope Gilliatt, The New Yorker.
Sun/Mon 1:10, 3:50, 6:30, 9:20
Tue 1:10

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DESPAIR

(1979) Despair—Eine Reise ins Licht. In 1930’s Berlin, alienated chocolatier Dirk Bogarde, finding wife Andréa Ferréol dallying with her ne’er-do-well cousin Volker Spengler, decides to opt out completely by murdering his own doppelgänger for the insurance money — only trouble is, his “double” bears him no resemblance. Adapted by Tom Stoppard from the Vladimir Nabokov novel, this was one of Fassbinder’s three favorites among his works, and “nearly perfect... totally involving... the work of a major artist.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times.
4:30, 7:00, 9:30

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THE AMERICAN SOLDIER

(1970) Der amerikanische Soldat. Despite being wanted by the police, small-time gangster/Vietnam vet Ricky (Karl Scheydt) returns to his hometown of Munich, where, resplendent in snap-brim hat, white suit and bulging shoulder holster, he visits childhood haunts with pal RWF, dallies with chambermaid Margarethe von Trotta, and finds work as a hired killer. “It was larded with quotes from American and French gangster films, and above all from the films of Raoul Walsh and John Huston.” – RWF. Plus Fassbinder’s short The City Tramp (1966).
1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10

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LILI MARLEEN

(1981) With that legendary title song as her signature, Hanna Schygulla rises to the top of the Third Reich entertainment world, despite Göebbels’ hatred for the tune and her romance with Jewish pianist Giancarlo Giannini (star of Swept Away, the original version). Fassbinder’s lavish, big-budget recreation of the era created scandal on first release with its cynical depiction of a supposed Jewish underground railway to Swiss freedom, casting himself as its Berlin chief in a typically outrageous touch. “A movie with a fantastic plot and very rich and energetic mise-en-scène.” – Andrew Sarris.
2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

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THE STATIONMASTER’S WIFE

(1977) Bolwieser. Demanding wife Elisabeth Trissenaar sexually enslaves Kurt Raab’s stationmaster Bolwieser while enjoying a series of affairs herself, even as the self-deluded Raab power-dives into sullen gloom. Creepily perverse rendition of a 1920s German perennial favorite: marital despair. “An electrifying rendering of a woman of uncontrollable passion... an uncanny demonstration of cinematic sorcery.” – Andrew Sarris, Village Voice. “A misanthropic fairy tale so lushly designed and photographed it seems to have been conceived in a fever dream... Fassbinder again demonstrates a gift for cinematic stylization that none of his contemporaries has ever come close to.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times.
1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, 9:40

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GODS OF THE PLAGUE

(1969) Götter der Pest. Fresh out of prison, sleazy hood Harry Baer resumes his relationships with girlfriend Hanna Schygulla — among others — and crony “Gorilla” (Günther Kauffman), the two planning a big knock-off of a supermarket for a tour-de-force climax. “A witty, stylish meditation on American Film Noir, filtered through the decidedly dark and morbid sensibility of its director.” – Time Out (London). “The quintessential American gangster film, if the quintessential American gangster film had been adapted and updated to accommodate a bunch of small-time Munich hoods for whom the holdup of a rather ordinary suburban supermarket is ‘the big job.’” – Vincent Canby, New York Times.
1:15, 3:15, 5:15, 7:15, 9:15

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LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH

(1969) Liebe ist kälter als der Tod. Small-time pimp Franz (played by 24-year-old RWF) has a meal ticket in no less a doll than Hanna Schygulla, but it’s cold-blooded gangster Ulli Lommel he loves. Fassbinder dedicated his first feature to “Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Marie Straub, Linio and Cuncho.” (The last two were characters in an obscure Italian movie.) “Both an assured ‘revolutionary’ critique of genre, and at the same time a constantly searching experiment in style and treatment.” – Time Out (London).
1:00, 2:45, 4:30, 6:15, 8:00, 9:45

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