Showing: Rainer Werner Fassbinder  
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

The wildly prolific German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder paid homage to his cinematic hero Douglas Sirk with this update of that filmmaker’s 1955 All That Heaven Allows.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1974
35 mm, Blu-ray, DVD

The American Soldier

Fassbinder’s experimental noir is a subversive, self-reflexive gangster movie full of unexpected asides and stylistic flourishes, and features an audaciously bonkers final shot and memorable turns from many of the director’s rotating gallery of players.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1970
35 mm, DVD

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Fassbinder’s immersive epic follows the hulking, childlike ex-convict Franz Biberkopf (Günter Lamprecht) as he attempts to “become an honest soul” amid the corrosive urban landscape of Weimar-era Germany.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1980
Blu-ray, DVD

Beware of a Holy Whore

In Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s brazen depiction of the alternating currents of lethargy and mayhem inherent in moviemaking, a film crew deals with an aloof star (Eddie Constantine), an abusive director (Lou Castel), and a financially troubled production.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1970
35 mm, DVD

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

One of the first and best-loved films of this period in his career is The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, which balances a realistic depiction of tormented romance with staging that remains true to the director’s roots in experimental theater.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1972
DCP, 35 mm, Blu-ray, DVD

Chinese Roulette

A husband and wife lie to each other about their weekend travel plans, only to both show up at the family's country house with their lovers.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1976
35 mm

Effi Briest

A young woman is married to a much older man and begins a flirtation with one of his close friends that leads to dire consequences.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1974
35 mm, DVD

Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day

Commissioned to make a working-class family drama, up-and-coming director Rainer Werner Fassbinder took the assignment and ran, upending expectations by depicting social realities in West Germany from a critical—yet far from cynical—perspective.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1972
DCP, Blu-ray, DVD

Fear of Fear

A woman in a stable-but-passionless marriage suddenly begins to lose her mind when she becomes pregnant with her second child.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1975
35 mm, DVD

Fox and His Friends

A lottery win leads not to financial and emotional freedom but to social captivity, in this wildly cynical classic about love and exploitation by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1975
DCP, 35 mm, Blu-ray, DVD

Gods of the Plague

Harry Baer plays a newly released ex-convict who slowly but surely finds his way back into the Munich criminal underworld.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1969
35 mm, DVD

Lola

In Fassbinder’s satiric tribute to capitalism, Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute, launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1981
35 mm, DVD

Love Is Colder Than Death

For his feature debut, Rainer Werner Fassbinder fashioned an acerbic, unorthodox crime drama about a love triangle involving the small-time pimp Franz (Fassbinder), his prostitute girlfriend, Joanna (future Fassbinder mainstay Hanna Schygulla), and his gangster friend Bruno (Ulli Lommel).

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1969
35 mm, DVD

The Marriage of Maria Braun

After her husband disappears in the last days of World War II, Maria uses her beauty and ambition to prosper in 1950s Germany. The first part of Fassbinder’s “postwar trilogy” is a heartbreaking character study as well as a pointed metaphorical attack on a society determined to forget its past.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1979
35 mm, DVD

The Merchant of Four Seasons

In this anguished yet mordantly funny film, Fassbinder charts the decline of a self-destructive former policeman and war veteran struggling to make ends meet for his family by working as a fruit vendor.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1971
DCP, 35 mm, Blu-ray, DVD

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven

After her husband kills his boss and himself, Mother Kusters becomes drawn into the activities of the German Communist party and then a group of anarchists.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1975
35 mm

Querelle

Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final film is a deliriously stylized tale of hothouse lust and simmering violence.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1982
DCP

Satan's Brew

A famous poet who hasn't written a word in two years unconsciously plagarizes the work of Stefan George, he comes to believe he is the reincarnation of the dead writer.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1976
35 mm

The Third Generation

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s follow-up to his international breakthrough THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is a wildly anarchic satire of guerrilla terrorism in which a band of leftist radicals inadvertently become puppets of the West German government, which uses them to justify its authoritarian policies.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1979
DCP

Veronika Voss

Once-beloved Third Reich–era starlet Veronika Voss lives in obscurity in postwar Munich. She meets a sportswriter, and the two develop an unlikely relationship. Based on the true story of a World War II UFA star, _Veronika Voss_ is wicked satire disguised as 1950s melodrama.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder West Germany, 1982
35 mm

World on a Wire

Originally made for German television, this recently rediscovered, three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the world of tomorrow from one of cinema’s kinkiest geniuses.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Germany, 1973
35 mm, Blu-ray, DVD