Retrospective
Rainer Werner Fassbinder Retrospective Baguio
This summer, the Goethe-Institut Philippinen presents some of the best works of the well-acclaimed German filmmaker, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in a retrospective exhibition that's free for all. Eleven Fassbinder films including a documentary about him will be screened for free every weekends from March 10 to April 1 at the Ili Likha Artists Village in Baguio.
About Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945–82) is one of the most polarizing and influential figures of the New German Cinema. He is famously known for his short-lived yet exceptional and remarkable career that lasted for nearly 16 years until his death in 1982. Fassbinder's artistic productivity resulted in a legacy of 39 films, 6 TV movies, 3 shorts, 4 video productions, 24 stage plays, and 4 radio plays. On top of that, he was also an actor, dramatist, cameraman, composer, designer, editor, producer, and theatre manager for some of his films and productions, yet he managed to combine all of it into a comprehensive, always expanding, retrospective, and progressive unity.-
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Fassbinder's films encompasses everything from intense social melodramas, Hollywood inspired female-driven tearjerkers, epic period pieces, to dystopic science fiction as well. But what all his films have in common is their radically personal way of portraying society. His demonstration of his deep sensitivity to social misfits and hatred to institutionalized violence in his films made him one of the most important catalysts of the New German Cinema Movement.
Here are the list of Fassbinder Films to be shown on the retrospective:
FASSBINDER (2015) | March 10, 17:00
Rating: R-13
1 hr and 35 mins
Commissioned by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation to commemorate what would have been the director's 70th birthday, Fassbinder was made with unprecedented access to the filmmaker's family and friends. The result is a thoughtful collection of interviews with Fassbinder's closest collaborators, colleagues and companions, with unpublished audio and rare archival footage of Fassbinder himself.
KATZELMACHER (1969) | March 10, 19:30
Rating: R-13
1 hr 28 mins
Marie belongs to Erich. Paul sleeps with Helga. Elisabeth keeps Peter. Rosy does it with Franz for money. They meet in the courtyard, at the pub, on the playground, in their apartments. They get together one-on-one, in pairs or as the entire group, and they exchange their views, they are aggressive, get sick of one another, drink, get bored … It is not until Jorgos, “the Greek from Greece” steps into their world that xenophobia, envy of his sexual prowess, and aggression break loose.
DER HÄNDLER DER VIER JAHRESZEITEN/ THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS (1971) | March 11, 17:00
Rating: R-16
1 hr 28 mins
Hans Epp, ex-foreign legionnaire and ex-cop, works the courtyards with his fruit cart. Much has gone wrong in his life. He never managed to live up to his mother’s expectations, he was not allowed to marry his big love due to class differences. He drinks and beats his wife, who lives at his side without any love and who takes care of the child and the household. Until one day, he suffers a heart attack.
DIE BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT/ THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972) | March 11, 19:30
Rating: PG
2 hrs and 4 mins
An arrogant fashion designer falls in love with an icy beauty who wants to be a model.
MARTHA (1973) | March 17, 17:00
Rating: R-16
1 hr 51 mins
The story of a less than ordinary marriage. After her father dies, Martha flies the parental nest and gets married, replacing one type of dependency with another until she finally become completely helpless when an accident confines her to a wheelchair – a situation which, in an intriguingly ambivalent way, she seems to relish.
ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF/ FEAR EATS THE SOUL (1973) | March 17, 19:30
Rating: R-13
1 hr and 33 mins
An almost accidental romance is kindled between a German woman in her mid-sixties and a Moroccan migrant worker around twenty-five years younger. They abruptly decide to marry, appalling everyone around them.
FAUSTRECHT DER FREIHEIT/ FOX AND HIS FRIENDS (1974) | March 18, 17:00
Rating: R-13
2 hrs and 3 mins
A young West German working-class man wins the lottery and initiates a relationship with a man above his social standing.
CHINESISCHES ROULETTE/ CHINESE ROULETTE (1976) | March 18, 19:30
Rating: PG
1 hr and 22 mins
The story of a long weekend at a secluded Franconian country estate. As a surprise to all parties concerned, the property owners meet there, although they had assured each other that they would be gone on business travel in very different directions. Those who meet are the couple Ariane and Gerhard Christ and their respective lovers Irene and Kolbe. Totally unexpectedly, another party arrives: Ariane and Gerhard’s mobility-impaired daughter Angela and her mute governess Traunitz. Acting out of injured love and wounded self-esteem, Angela asks all present to play “Chinese Roulette,” a game of truth.
DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN/ THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (1978) | March 31, 17:00
Rating: R-13
1 hr and 55 mins
Maria marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only to have him disappear in the war. Alone, Maria uses her beauty and ambition to prosper in Germany’s “economic miracle” of the 1950’s.
LILI MARLEEN (1980) | March 31, 19:30
Rating: R-13
2 hrs
From the beginning, the love Willie has for Robert is sorely tested. The apparently peaceful Zurich of 1938 is already overshadowed by the coming events. Robert’s father is an influential lawyer and director of a Jewish refugee organization who tries hard to prevent Willie′s return to Switzerland. World events drive the two further and further apart. When war breaks out their connection seems completely severed. But Willie is fortunate. A song she recorded some time before, and which seemed forgotten, is broadcast by the military broadcasting station in Belgrade, pervading the solitude of the soldiers. The song will outlast the war, but love will not.
DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS/ VERONIKA VOSS (1981) | April 1, 17:00
Rating: PG
1 hr and 44 mins
Once-beloved Third Reich–era starlet Veronika Voss lives in obscurity in postwar Munich. Struggling for survival and haunted by past glories, the forgotten star encounters sportswriter Robert Krohn in a rain-swept park and intrigues him with her mysterious beauty. As their unlikely relationship develops, Krohn comes to discover the dark secrets behind the faded actresses’ demise.
LOLA (1981) | April 1, 19:30
Rating: R-13
1 hr and 53 mins
Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out—she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale.
SCREENING SCHEDULE
The film screening is free admission and seats are on a first come, first serve basis.
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