Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy (The Marriage of Maria Braun / Veronika Voss / Lola)

Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy (The Marriage of Maria Braun / Veronika Voss / Lola) - Criterion Collection | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Fassbinder's remarkable women: the BRD Trilogy.

DVDs:

Fassbinder's BRD T...

	Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy (The Marriage of Maria Braun / Veronika Voss / Lola) - Criterion Collection Rainer Werner Fassbinder Criterion, 2003 average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Three films tracing the history of post-war Germany through the lives of three women.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER'S TRILOGY
Title: RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER'S TRILOGY
Street Release Date: 09/30/2003

Germany deconstructed

With the BRD trilogy Fassbinder, possibly the most prolific director of the New German cinema, shows much more than just a trilogy of German history.
He goes much further, than most directors would have dared, when he brings to surface constellations, which are mostly not talked about or best forgotten.

The trilogy starts with his most famous and popular film ?The Marriage of Maria Braun? a subtle attack on the German ?economical miracle? this film shows Maria Braun, a young woman that got married in Berlin during the Second World War mid attack who has to adapt to her new found post war situation which seemingly made her a widow. She starts to work at an American bar, where she soon gets together with a black GI, which she is dating more for economic than for personal reasons.
Surprisingly her husband comes back and she kills the GI when and argument between the two starts. Her husband takes the blame and goes to prison, as she continues her rise to economic success at a time where a lack of feelings within a nation was overcome by continuous hard- work. She is torn between two worlds, having the pre-war mentality of staying faithful to her husband but being fully adapt to a world where apart from gaining power working hard and re-creating the economy hardly anything matters, having reached all what more is there to gain for her?
The Marriage of Maria Braun is considered Fassbinder?s best film by many, and though it was his most successful work, which shows brilliance in both style, camera and plot, I personally regard Part 2, Veronika Voss the highest.

Veronika Voss, Part 2, is set in Munich in the 50s and shot in very high contrasted black and white this film truly is one of Fassbinder's most approachable and one of my personal favourites. The story is more involving than in most of his other films and though a certain distance between the film and the viewer is created, it only helps to create space to put its main issue of cold-heartedness across.
Veronika Voss is a fading star with ties to the Nazi regime, and has clearly forfeited popularity in Germany after the war. She is mostly not even recognized in public anymore but still makes a scene wherever she happens to be. Soon the sports reporter Robert Krohn, who she has met on a rainy night and has started a ill-fated affair with, realizes that she has become a morphine addict, relying on the mysterious Dr. Marianne Katz, even living in her flat. Though Robert Krohn plays a major part in the film, and is at times even more present than Veronika Voss herself, he serves as a character rather as a guide through the film and the different aspects portrayed within it.
Dr. Marianne Katz, who counts even concentration camp survivors amongst her morphine-addicted clients is exploiting them by issuing out the expensive drug in exchange for their belongings. The addictive poison she is issuing out, the morphine takes on a symbolic role describing a state within German society. A Germany that is also more and more co-dependent, as a country(symbolised with the U.S. soldier) and its inhabitants, too.
A Key term of the film remains the UfA(whose style is clearly shown by the way the film is shot, composed and edited), and Veronika Voss? preference under the old regime, which has now brought her into her inescapable victim role, being incapable of adapting, and to live on. Fassbinder?s hatred is quite obviously directed at the power cartel, that is issuing ?drugs? to people, that they may not really be in need of. Krohn, who takes on the detective role throughout the film, has no chance in winning against this conspiracy.
It is also important to note that the actual title of the film in German was:
?Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss?:
?Sehnsucht? means ?longing?, but the word ?Sucht? on its own ?addiction?
So the title really says it all: ?The longing-addiction of Veronika Voss?

Lola, the final Part of the trilogy, shows how building Instructor von Bohm arrives in the small Bavarian town Coburg. At first he is an outsider in the ?one-hand-washes-the-other? society, that the town is. He wants to bring honesty and dignity in a town that is plagued with Nepotism, and mostly under the control of building giant Schuckert, who owns amongst many other institutions in the town a brothel too.
The film adapts its main story line from the 1930, Josef von Sternberg-directed, Heinrich Mann written and Marlene Dietrich starring classic ?The blue angel?.
Similar here, the building inspector von Bohm is falling for the nightclub/ brothel/ cabaret performer Lola and has to compromise with Schuckert.
Unlike in Maria Braun, the role and importance of the woman is already different in German society at this point in time, she obeys the men in bed, but at the actual power struggles she is not involved anymore. She merely becomes the reward of the winner, and is given the brothel in order to make things work for the men, who are now leading the country again. Fassbinder cleverly points out how the new power cartel was created within the post-war Adenauer years, where profit became the only standard of making politics. Protests as they happen in the film from more liberal, critical people are invain, the general adaptation to the rules set out by an ultra-capitalistic society cannot be stopped.
Lola is shot in almost kitsch tone, with high emphasis on colours.

All films star women as the main character, partially because they can easier break out of laid out rules from society as men, and hence become more interesting as characters. But certainly also to demonstrate the position of power and its subsequent loss post World War 2.

Fassbinder is often regarded as rather pessimist, I however feel that he is rather realistic.
All films are great within their own way and work incredible as a series, showing the dark sides of Germany at a given point in time, with the focus on human exploitation, both, emotionally and economically.

for more information click here

Fassbinder's remarkable women: the BRD Trilogy.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a genius. In his BRD (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) Trilogy, his objective was to chronicle the history of postwar Germany in a series of films told through the eyes of three truly memorable women. Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, and Lola earned him the worldwide acclaim he deserved for his artistic genius in film.

1. The Marriage of Maria Braun (BRD 1) (1979).
The Marriage of Maria Braun (Die Ehe der Maria Braun) is the first in Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy. It is perhaps his best-known film, arguably Fassbinder's greatest masterpiece, and one of the finest movies ever made. Fassbinder made the film near the end of his dazzling career. It opens with a close-up camera shot of Hitler's picture being blown off of a wall during the Allied bombing of Berlin in the last days of World War II. In the ensuing chaos and falling bombs, Maria (Hanna Schygull, who starred in 20 Fassbinder films) marries Hermann Braun (Klaus Löwitsch) in a rushed wedding ceremony. The couple spend only a "half a day and a whole night" together before Hermann returns to the war. After she is later told that Hermann has been killed, Maria begins working in a bar patrronized by American soldiers, where she becomes the lover of a black soldier she calls "Mr. Bill" (George Byrd). When Hermann unexpectedly returns home, he finds Maria and the soldier naked in bed. Maria hits the soldier over the head with a bottle, killing him. Hermann takes the blame for the crime and is sentenced to prison. Maria then meets a French businessman, Karl Oswald (Ivan Desny), and becomes his lover. Unbeknownst to Maria, Oswald visits Hermann in prison and promises to leave him his company upon his death if Hermann agrees to stay away from Maria upon his release from prison. What happens to Maria and her husband in the final scene continues to be the subject of endless discussion. The Marriage of Maria Braun is a remarkable portrait of an ambitious woman who uses her sexuality as a means of achieving success. Hanna Schygulla's performance as Maria is radiant.

There should have been another Maria Braun in Fassbinder's career, but he died three years after making this film, alone in a room, naked on a mattress, watching "20,000 Years in Sing Sing" on television, consuming alcohol and cocaine.

2. Veronika Voss (BRD 2) (1982).
This was Fassbinder's next-to-last film before ending his life. (He died June 10, 1982 in Munich of a fatal overdose of drugs and alcohol.) Filmed in black and white, Veronika Voss (Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss, which means The Longing of Veronika Voss) is the second in Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy. Set in 1955 Munich, and loosely based on the career of actress Sybille Schmitz, the film tells the story of beautiful Veronika Voss (Rosel Zech), a once-popular, 1940s UFA film star (think of Marlene Dietrich) who is now a morphine addict struggling to get work. Though she dreams of returning to stardom, her life is a nightmare. She begins a love affair with a sports reporter named Robert Krohn (Hilmar Thate). He discovers that she is enslaved to a corrupt svengali-like neurologist named Dr. Marianne Katz (Annemarie Düringer). Katz is a sadist who keeps Veronika addicted to opiates. Krohn attempts to expose Dr. Katz by sending her a patient (Cornelia Froboess) pretending to be rich and in need of psychiatric care. Katz kills that woman. The film ends on a bleak, cheerless note. Ironically, Veronika's final act in the film becomes the director's final act in life.

3. Lola (BRD 3) (1981).
Maria Braun is about the ascent to success. Veronika Voss is about the descent into drugs and suicide. Fassbinder's last film, Lola, returns to the ascent to success storyline. Shot in vibrant colors, Lola is the third in his BRD Trilogy. Set in 1955 post-World War II West Germany, the film tells the story of a beautiful and seductive seductive cabaret singer-prostitute woman named Lola (Barbara Sukowa), who like Maria Braun, finds prosperity through her sexual gifts. Shuckert (Mario Adorf), a corrupt, local construction businessman is one of her many clients. By contrast, Von Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a new building commissioner with traditional "family values" falls in love with Lola, hoping to marry her, unaware that she is a prostitute. Shukert and Lola have a young daughter Marie, whom Shuckert supports, but refuses to recognize as his child. Because Lola is ambitious to become part of the respectable upper-middle-class, wanting only money, property, and love, she schemes to seduce Von Bohm into marrying her so that she and Marie can live happily ever after.

The Criterion edition of the BRD Trilogy is rich in extras, featuring new high-definition digital transfers of all three films; "I Don't Just Want You to Love Me," a feature-length documentary of Fassbinder's life and career; "Life Stories: A conversation with R.W. Fassbinder," a rare 45-minute interview with the director; a video interview with Fassbinder cinematographer Xaver Schwarzenberger; a video conversation between Fassbinder scholar Laurence Kardish and editor Juliane Lorenz; audio commentary on The Marriage of Maria Braun by cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and filmmaker Wim Wenders; a video interview with the star of The Marriage of Maria Braun and regular Fassbinder collaborator, Hanna Schygulla; a video interview with Fassbinder scholar Eric Rentschler on The Marriage of Maria Braun; audio commentary on Veronika Voss by Fassbinder scholar Tony Rayns; a new video conversation with Veronika Voss star Rosel Zech and editor Juliane Lorenz; "Dance with Death" (Tanz mit dem Tod), a one-hour portrait of UFA Studios star Sybille Schmitz, Fassbinder's inspiration for the character Veronika Voss; audio commentary on Lola by Fassbinder documentarian, biographer, and friend Christian Braad Thomsen; a new video interview with Lola star Barbara Sukowa; a new video interview with Fassbinder co-screenwriter Peter Märthesheimer; and new and improved English subtitle translations for all three films.

A highly-recommended Rainer Werner Fassbinder film experience. The BRD Trilogy and the 16-hour film Berlin Alexanderplatz are quintessential Fassbinder.

G. Merritt

for more information click here

Maria Braun: "I don't know a thing about business, but I do know what German women want..."

"Maria and Her Men"

Sensual and tough Maria Braun (Hanna Schygula) marries a soldier in the middle of World War II and spends a half of day and the whole night with him. That's how long her marriage lasts before she loses him to the war and then to prison. She carries on with her life, becomes a successful businesswoman being not only sensual but intelligent, ambitious, and willing to use sex whenever or wherever necessary: "I don't know a thing about business, but I do know what German women want. You might even say I'm an expert on it". While climbing up to the success she always remembers her husband, Hermann (her man) and convinces herself that whatever she does - is for him, for their future happy life together. "Maria Braun"'s style reminds much of melodramas by Fassbinder's favorite Hollywood director, Douglas Sirk and offers a glimpse of the loss and survival in postwar Germany. Hanna Schygula literally shines in every scene of the movie and she is fantastic.
4/5

"Lorelei and the Man Who Understood and Admired Her"

"Lola" (1981), the second chapter of Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy is an update and a remake (in a way) of "The Blue Angel"(1930) directed by Josef von Sternberg with magnificent Marlene Dietrich as a singer Lola Lola but Fassbinder's film is marvelous by itself. Like "Marriage of Maria Braun" (1979) and "Veronica Voss" (1982) "Lola" tells the story of a strong and beautiful woman and her survival and search for love, success and happiness in postwar Germany. It's superb and dazzling and I kept smiling all time while I was watching it. It's an old story (and what is new in this world? Carmen had been dead and Lola Lola is old) but the style, the approach, the times, the place, his use of colors that seem to sing, to smile, to scream and to touch you gently are unique. Did he sell his soul to the Devil for these colors? The dresses, the songs, Barbara's voice, her legs that grow from the ears, her hair, oh my God, her and Hanna's (in "Marriage of Maria Braun) golden hair, these witching Loreleis, the walking sensuality - Fassbinder understood and admired women and I admire him for that.

"Lola" is a combination of many genres- satire, drama, comedy, and musical. It mixes glamor with very serious themes. Striking Barbara Sukowa is a singer-whore Lola who sets up to seduce the incorruptible local building commissioner, unbelievably blue-eyed Armin Mueller-Stahl. Lola went through many losses, humiliations, and disappointments during the war and right after it and she wants to be an independent business woman for which she decided to win over the man everyone kept telling was not for her.

As Barbara Sukowa recalls, Fassbinder told the critical stories but he did not make them dry or theoretical. He did not use the intellectual or academic approach to his stories. He hated gray "kitchen" naturalism and he was mixing Hollywood glamor with specific German realities creating his own style that was sexy and appealing. While many German film makers of his generation were influenced by the American directors like Martin Scorsese and John Cassavetes, Fassbinder was very impressed by Douglas Sirk and his style.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder died at the age of 37 just as he was completing his last movie, "Querell". He had made over 30 films during 12 years. He began directing in 1969 revealing in his work New Germany, often heartless and materialistic. Fassbinder's talent and the quantity and quality of his output are incredible. It is like he knew he would die young and he was obsessed by finishing as many films as it was physically possible, majority of which (including "Lola") was way ahead of their time.
5/5

"Dances with Death"

A famous German actress, Veronika Voss (Rozel Zech) in her forties tries to revive her career while struggling with alcohol and drugs in the final chapter to Fassbinder's trilogy about collapse of the West German postwar dream. The film was inspired by the tragic life of famous UFA actress, Sybille Schmitz (1909-1955). She began her career in the films by the giants such Georg Wilhelm Pabst and Carl Theodor Dreyer and soon became one of Germany's beloved actress. Everything changed during the WWII and especially after its end.

Fassbinder's film which was shot in black and white visually is very impressive. "Light and shadows are two cinema's best secrets" says Veronika in the movie and light and shadows make the film a joy to behold. I like it but I think it is the weakest part of the trilogy perhaps because "Lola" and "Maria Braun" are so strong. I found the documentary about Sybille Schmitz, "Dances with Death" which is included on Criterion DVD much more compelling.

Veronika - 3.5/5
Dances with Death 4/5

for more information click here

A bit uneven; Veronika Voss is a standout

Of the three, Veronika Voss is the only one I very much wanted to see again. The week I rented it, I watched it upwards of three times, and ended up bringing it back late. The plot has great momentum, the mood is well-sustained and echoes that of Sunset Boulevard, the lead actress is very charismatic, and there's just a lot going on all the time to keep you interested: fun patter in the dialogue between the hero and his girlfriend; a beautiful, expressionist set for the office of the evil, morphine-dealing psychiatrist; a pretty, melancholy soundtrack; and so on.

Lola, by contrast, made me fall asleep towards the end. There's at least one great set piece, and the male lead is well-drawn and provides a strong critique of the Adenauer period, but mostly this film is populated by caricatures and is very dry, academic/didactic, and boring.

I'd say Maria Braun is somewhere in between the two. I haven't seen it in a while, and I had less of a basis for making judgements because I knew much less at the time about Germany and especially about Fassbinder. However, I remember the plot and characters keeping me mostly interested, but some of the scenes coming off a bit mannered in a way that was jarring.

for more information click here

It Wasn't Me

There is a very good lesson in The Marriage of Maria Braun. Don't leave the gas on. When you are done with the gas, on top of the stove, please remember to shut it off. Otherwise the whole movie will end, and the whole place will explode.

Maria Braun is about the economic miracle of when Germany lost the war, then received tons of charity from America and ended up back on its feet. It is represented here in this film, but somehow they forgot to mention America's role in the economic miracle of Germany, and seemed to chalk it up to the power and brilliance of the German people, who are, as we all know, great at beer brewing, and make cars proving Aryan Supremacy.

Maria Braun is a sort of a whore businesswoman. The movie doesn't exactly say so, but then again it does. You have some problems with the union? Let me sleep with the union leader and your problems will end. Leave it to me. You couldn't sleep with the union leader, could you? Then I'll do it. Somebody's got to do it.

Take a chance, my business partners. Buy a whole bunch of whatever it is that we're buying. Take the risk. It will make us all rich. Good advice, I'm sure. Buy a whole bunch of them. Go into hock up to your silly noggin. Then we'll all be rich.

Maria marries a soldier at the beginning of the film. Then he is off to war. Then she learns that he has died. Then she makes it with a black American soldier. Then the husband shows up. Oops. Then she smiles at her husband. Very nice smile. Reminds me of The Honeymooners. Hommina hommina hommina. Reminds me of the song "It wasn't me". Deny deny deny. So you see me in bed with this big black guy, kissing him, stripping with him. It wasn't me.

No, she doesn't deny. She just makes it clear whose side she's on, and who it is that she really loves. She conks the black guy over the head. So much for German-American relations.

She devotes her life to her jailed husband, only to learn that she really doesn't know him. Neither do I. Then she smokes a cigarette.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

products you might be interested in