Fassbinder: Irrelevant?

First, a note about the digitally remastered print of RW Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz, which we have been following closely since before its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, and which is to be released on DVD by Criterion in the fall. The newly restored work was recently broadcast on Finnish television, and DVD Beaver has posted this comment by one viewer who writes, "... I must say that this is the biggest disappointment of the year, I do hope Criterion can do wonders, or postpone the release and make a new restoration. I actually get a headache if I even look at the image for more than two minutes - I'm gonna drop the viewing and wait for the Criterion. If someone have the old tapes, don't throw it away yet!..." (Pepsi!, DVDBeaver ListServ)

We've talked elsewhere about the resurgence of German cinema, as evidenced by works like Fatih Akin's Gegen Die Wand (Head On), Oliver Hirschbiegel's Der Untergang (The Downfall), and most recently, the Academy Award-winning drama Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others), by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Other German films, like Run Lola, Run, Goodbye, Lenin!, and Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, while of variable merit, have nonetheless brought renewed attention to the nation's formerly overlooked film industry. Accompanying this re-emergence have been numerous retrospectives of filmmakers associated with the "New German Cinema" -- in particular the works of Fassbinder, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders. The growing presence of German films at international festivals and the re-appraisal of the works of the 70s and 80s has led us to call this revival a renaissance. But perhaps we were too hasty.

A couple of interviews with film scholars in a German newspaper calls into question the influence of three of the most recognizable names in German cinema, at least upon young German filmmakers. In one interview, Dr. Bern Kiefer of the University of Mainz talks about the diminishing influence of Fassbinder on German filmmakers. He attributes this in part to the fact that German filmmakers feel they have to live up to Fassbinder, and choose altogether different genres for that reason. The interest in Fassbinder is greater abroad, especially in the works of Pedro Almodovar, Gus van Sant and François Ozon, he said. In Germany, Christoph Schlingensief, Oskar Röhler and Fatih Akin are inspired by Fassbinder, but mostly by the latter's rebellious spirit than by his film language. He goes on to say that most German film students today do not know Fassbinder's work, nor are they interested in Wim Wenders or Werner Herzog. Fassbinder is not a film maker of the young - he has become something he never wanted to be, part of the cultural establishment.

Thomas Koebner, director of the same Film Institute at the University of Mainz, considers Fassbinder tremendously overrated. He considers his film language as "uptight and overly demonstrative". The treatment of the subject he thinks of as "overly simple, overly smoothed out and almost preachy" [something like a lesson at school]. He cites "Ali: Fear Eats The Soul" as an example. Koebner doesn't have much good to say about "The Marriage Of Maria Braun" either, criticizing its mannerism and melodrama. He thinks people are mostly impressed with how prolific Fassbinder was.

[Source]

Werner Herzog himself is no more optimistic about his legacy in his homeland; nor does he seem unduly concerned. In an interview with the director on the eve of the Munich Film Festival, he has this to say,

Q: Your latest movies are barely noticed in Germany – unlike in other countries. Do you have an explanation?
Herzog: “Grizzly Man” is an example of a film that had a good run in the cinemas – in 22 countries. Except in Germany. It is available here on DVD, but that has been put together in a very unloving way, sloppily and incompetently. At the New York Tribeca Film Festival, where I have a retrospective, the hardcore fans are camping out in front of the cinema. I don’t see that that is going to happen in Munich. But I do not look for an explanation; I’m too busy with other things.

Thanks to Angela Lilleystone for the translations