Berlin Alexanderplatz (TV adaptation)
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Berlin Alexanderplatz |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) |
| original language | German |
| year | 1980 |
| Production company |
West German radio |
| length | 58-112 minutes |
| Episodes | 14 in 1 season ( list ) |
| Director | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| idea | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| script | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| production |
Peter Märthesheimer , Günter Rohrbach , Gunther Witte |
| music | Peer ravens |
| camera | Xaver Schwarzenberger |
| First broadcast | October 12, 1980 (D) on Westdeutscher Rundfunk |
| occupation | |
| |
Berlin Alexanderplatz is a 14-part German miniseries by Rainer Werner Fassbinder , which was broadcast on WDR from October 12 to December 29, 1980 . The series is a film adaptation of the 1929 novel of the same name by Alfred Döblin .
action
After four years in prison for manslaughter of his former girlfriend Ida, Franz Biberkopf was released from Berlin Tegel prison in 1928 . He gets his initial potency problems under control after an attempted rape . So he enters into a relationship with the Polish woman Lina.
Endeavoring to start an honest life, Franz tries different activities. Eventually, his good nature is exploited by Lina's "uncle" (a friend of her family), with whom he works, to blackmail a widow. After this makes Franz jointly responsible for the act, he withdraws hurt and begins to indulge in alcohol consumption.
Back in life, Franz made the acquaintance of the petty crook Reinhold. Since he cannot stay long with the same woman, Franz takes on this problem. First through relationships with women - then, in the third, through the attempt to dissuade Reinhold from his method.
Franz is unintentionally involved in a theft and after the crime he is in a car with Reinhold. He throws Franz out of the vehicle, being run over and losing his right arm. His former girlfriend Eva and her partner and pimp Herbert then nurse him to health.
Hardly back in normal life, Franz gets to know a criminal again - Willy. He now works for him and thus earns a small fortune.
Eva brings him together with a girl - called "Mieze" by Franz - who becomes his new great love. Initially without his knowledge, she goes on the street to relieve him financially, which he accepts with divided feelings when he learns about it. Nevertheless, after his struggles with himself and the social circumstances, he found happiness with Mieze.
Reinhold, who constantly suspects that Franz wants to take revenge on him (which he doesn't even intend to do), is increasingly jealous of Franz's luck and begins to chase Kitty. With the help of Franz's former best friend, Meck, he lures her to a meeting where he tries in vain to relax Franz. Angry with disappointment, he feels provoked by Mieze's rejection and strangles her.
Franz waits for weeks for Mieze to return and falls into depression because he assumes that she has left him. Meck gets a remorse and finally informs the police about the murder. When Franz learns of Mieze's murder (and that he himself is suspected of being an accomplice), he lapses into an insanely euphoric joy that Mieze has not left him and is finally admitted to a psychiatric clinic . In psychiatric treatment, Franz experiences dreams, fantasies and hallucinations. They show him his life in the last few years and thereby possible but missed twists and turns in life, thoughts, assumptions, wishes, fears and pains; there are also discussions with death and with angels.
When he is finally released as cured after a long time, he is both accused and witness in the following trial. Reinhold is sentenced to ten years in prison for manslaughter, which pleases him, but Eva is still indignant in the courtroom. Meck is acquitted of the allegation of aid. Franz is also acquitted, but with a so-called "hunting license" because of insanity.
Franz accepts a job as an assistant porter in a factory and there is “nothing more to report about his life”.
Episode list
| No. | Original title | First broadcast (DE) | Director | script | Length in min | Events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The punishment begins | October 12, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 82 |
|
| 2 | How should you live if you don't want to die? | October 13, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 59 |
|
| 3 | A hammer on the head can hurt the soul | 20th October 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 59 |
|
| 4th | A handful of people in the depths of silence | October 27, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 59 |
|
| 5 | A reaper with the power of God | 3rd November 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 59 |
|
| 6th | Love always costs a lot | November 10, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 58 |
|
| 7th | Note: You can amputate an oath | 17th November 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 58 |
|
| 8th | The sun warms the skin, which it sometimes burns | November 24, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 58 |
|
| 9 | Of the ages between the many and the few | 1st December 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 59 |
|
| 10 | Loneliness also tears cracks of madness in walls | December 8, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 59 |
|
| 11 | Knowledge is power and the morning hour has gold in its mouth | December 15, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 59 |
|
| 12 | The serpent in the serpent's soul | December 22, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 59 |
|
| 13 | The outside and the inside and the mystery of fear of the mystery | December 29, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 58 |
|
| 14th | My dream of the dream of Franz Biberkopf by Alfred Döblin - An epilogue | December 29, 1980 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 112 |
|
music
The score was composed by Peer Raben . There are also some pieces from the 1920s played within the series. For example, in episode 8, Franz Biberkopf buys a gramophone including a record with the song Liebe Kleine Nachtigall by Richard Tauber , which is often played in his apartment over the course of the series. Other titles that are used include a. Friends, life is worth living by Franz Lehár as theme music, Always (in the German version Heimweh ) by Irving Berlin , excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss as well as title and a. by Walter Kollo and Will Meisel .
In the epilogue of Berlin Alexanderplatz , in contrast to the other episodes, more modern music is played, including a. Candy Says from The Velvet Underground , Me and Bobby McGee from Janis Joplin , Kraftwerk Radioactivity and Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel Nr. 2 . You can also hear operetta songs such as the Wolgalied or Santa Lucia in the version of Elvis Presley and Silent Night , interpreted by Dean Martin .
reception
Reviews
After the television broadcast began, the German tabloids condemned the film from various angles, as Juliane Lorenz, Xaver Schwarzenberger and Günter Rohrbach recall in the documentary Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered , which was created for the 2007 DVD edition over the course of six years of restoration. Above all, the film was condemned as technically too dark and also morally reprehensible, which was reflected in headlines such as “Bild-Moloch födlicher Emotions”, “Millions bankruptcy”, “Brutal / Dirty”.
Lorenz is convinced that these unexpected and violent reactions were responsible for the often negative image of the film in the German public for many years and that this prejudice was reflected even in people who would have never seen the series. Schwarzenberger explained that the intention was to test the content of the limits of German television at that time, but that the type of reactions were "ridiculous" and that they would probably hardly be designed any differently "today". Rohrbach confirms that the high-contrast image design was "too dark in many places" for the television technology of the time, and that this "dominated reception for a while in such a way that the matter itself suffered."
“In his extensive television adaptation of the eloquent novel by Alfred Döblin (1878–1957), Fassbinder collages a fascinating, extremely visually powerful vision of the city and its people, a gloomy journey through the“ dark night of the soul ”that is close to the original without to follow her slavishly. With an extremely differentiated dramaturgy that is detached from the novel and yet retains its structure and atmosphere, it does justice to the work and its diverse language levels. The style and tone of the staging change frequently, numerous pictorial symbols refer to the underlying passion story. "
The film is on the ALL-TIME 100 Movies list of American Time magazine .
Awards
Günter Lamprecht received the German Actor Award in 1982 for his portrayal of Franz Biberkopf .
Günter Rohrbach and Peter Märthesheimer received honorable recognition at the Adolf Grimme Prize in 1981 .
Berlin Alexanderplatz was selected in 2005 in the Time selection of the best 100 films from 1923 to 2005 .
publication
It premiered at the Venice Film Festival outside of the competition. The film material was restored by the Rainer-Werner-Fassbinder-Foundation for DVD publication and shown at the Berlinale 2007 in a 15-hour version. The DVD collection was released on February 10, 2007.
literature
- Alfred Döblin : Berlin Alexanderplatz. The story of Franz Biberkopf . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-518-39933-0 .
- Klaus Biesenbach (ed.), Rainer Werner Fassbinder : Fassbinder: Berlin Alexanderplatz. On the occasion of the exhibition Fassbinder: Berlin Alexanderplatz - an exhibition, KW Institute for Contemporary Art , Berlin, March 18 - May 13, 2007. Schirmer Mosel, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8296-0253-2 .
- Achim Haag: "Nobody can satisfy your longing". Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz. Self-image reflection and ego dissolution. Trickster, Munich 1992, ISBN 978-3923804665 .
- Manfred Hermes: Germany is hysterical. Fassbinder, Alexanderplatz. b_books Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-933557-75-9
- Dominique Pleimling: Film as reading. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's adaptation of Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz. Meidenbauer, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-89975-197-0 .
- Kaja Silverman: Male Subjectivity at the Margins. Routledge Chapman & Hall, New York 1992, ISBN 978-0415904186 .
Web links
- Berlin Alexanderplatz in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Berlin Alexanderplatz at filmportal.de
- Berlin Alexanderplatz ( Memento from 7 July 2013 in the Internet Archive ), film and background information, Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation, Berlin
- Essay on Fassbinder's 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' as a literary film adaptation
- Berlin Alexanderplatz in the Lexicon of International Film
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered - Observations during the Restoration , RWFF 2006, in: DVD Edition 2007
- ^ Berlin Alexanderplatz. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ ALL-TIME 100 Movies Website of Time magazine. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
- ↑ Berlin Alexanderplatz ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 90 kB)
- ↑ World premiere in the series Berlinale Special: Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered ( Memento from September 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )