Fassbinder purportedly stated that Alfred Doblin's "Berlin Alexanderplatz" saved his life as a youth. Fassbinder revered the novel, and had planned for years to film it. Like so much of the director's work, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" is a deeply personal project for Fassbinder. In many respects, this film is as much about Fassbinder as it is about Doblin's novel, with the director's conflicted sexuality, as well as his lifelong exposure to the seedier fringe of German society, unfolding nakedly on screen. This is a story about the impossibility of moral idealism in a broken society. It is a story about the price of love and redemption, as well as a parable of Post WWI Germany. It is the deepest, most complex love story I've seen, and the acting is impeccable. I will never forget the characters in this film, and watching them develop over the picture's 15 1/2 hour running time was a treasure. Franz Biberkopf (the main character) is as fundamental as Faust, The Tramp, or Charles Foster Kane. He is a part of everyone. Although a daunting untertaking, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" is totally worth it. This is Fassbinder's Magnum Opus; one of the towering monuments of German Cinema, as well as one of the most immaculate literary adaptations ever completed. It is a bold, strange, and confident work from the heart; a enduring footprint of Fassbinder's genius and the high water mark of the German New Wave. This film was aired in 1980. Two years later, Fassbinder would be dead. Had he survived, even to middle age....The possibilities challenge imagination. ---|--- Reviews by Flak Magnet
Review of Berlin Alexanderplatz
