The restored version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder‘s 13-part (plus epilogue), 15 1/2 hour marathon, “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” begins its North American premiere tonight at the Modern Museum of Art. Only New Yorkers, brave souls, insomniacs, the unemployed and these OCD obsessives are going to be able to catch all or even some of this epic, however, the filmsnobs at Criterion will be putting out the entire box later in 2007. “Berlin” was named one of the top 100 films of all time by Time Magazine in 2005.
A key player in the German new wave movement of the ’70s, one major note about Fassbinder was his exhaustive productivity; he made 43 films in the span of 14 years (he died of an cocaine and sleeping pills concoction overdose in 1982 at the age of 37). I’m not going to front like I’ve seen “Berlin” (why bother, nobody really has), but much like Kieslowski’s 10-part masterpiece, “The Dekalogue,” Fassbinder’s extensive film was made for TV, so you shouldn’t feel too bad for missing it in theaters. And as the excellent NYTimes piece notes, it’s arguably the more “authentic viewing experience.”
I tried to post some mp3s of Fassbinders music collaborator of choice, Peer Raben, but I was unfortunately unsuccessful.
In lieu i found a performance of “Alles Aus Leder,” a song written by Raben (with German lyrics from Fassbinder).
Download: Mark Eitzel “I Am Fassbinder” (mp3)