Berlin Alexanderplatz

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s only work for television is also one of cinema’s most inspired literary adaptations; epic in its casting (including Fassbinder regulars like Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa and Gottfried John), 360° in its survey of an entire epoch, in keeping with Alfred Döblin’s sprawling 1929 source novel.

It starts with a ferocious realism and in moral outrage, as ex-con Franz Biberkopf (Gönter Lamprecht) emerges from jail and tries to go straight in a Weimar-era Germany run by criminals. It ends in a tour-de-force final episode, as we enter into Biberkopf’s apocalyptic visions of Germany’s future – of Nazism, holocaust and a Cold War-divided nation.

Although made to feature-film production values, each episode stands in its own right, and its interlaced narratives also pioneered the slow-fuse story-arcs of modern limited TV series like Heimat, The Sopranos or our own Underbelly. Newly restored by the Fassbinder Foundation, this will be one of only three Australian screenings of the complete work.

Berlin Alexanderplatz passes: $45 (no conc.) Single sessions at regular Arc prices (We regret that ‘Max’ passes are not redeemable for Berlin Alexanderplatz)

What the Critics say!

“A Mt. Everest of Modern Cinema” – Andrew Sarris