Criterion announces the upcoming release of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 15-1/2 hour epic Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). The package design is a decided improvement over the German version, and we get one extra disc, but non-German speakers will shell out double the cost of the Süddeutsche Zeitung set. Special features include: two new documentaries by Fassbinder Foundation president Juliane Lorenz: one featuring interviews with the cast and crew, the other on the restoration; Hans Dieter Hartl's 1980 documentary The Making of "Berlin Alexanderplatz"; Phil Jutzi's 1931, ninety-minute film of Alfred Doblin's novel, from a screenplay co-written by Doblin himself; new video interview with Peter Jelavich, author of Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture; plus an essay by filmmaker Tom Tykwer, reflections from Fassbinder, an interview with Schwarzenberger, and German author Thomas Steinfeld on the novel. The 7-disc set is scheduled for release in November.
Criterion Rolling Out Berlin Alexanderplatz in November