Newsletter November 2015
Now that the plethora of events marking the anniversary of RWF’s birth is behind us, we have decided to restart in November with a new approach. Rather than regular posts we will now be issuing a monthly newsletter containing the most important information on events and publications relating to Fassbinder. Our focus will be not only on the director’s work but also the ongoing significance of this work for a range of contemporary artists.
A good example is the new poster for the Göteborg Film Festival. Each year a different artist is invited to design the festival’s poster. For 2015 this commission went to the painter Karin Broos, who is known for her intimate, melancholic imagery. She chose to portray Irm Hermann in her role in the melodrama MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS. The painting shows the actress tearfully looking out from the movie screen onto a cinema in which sits a single viewer whose characteristic hat unmistakably recalls Fassbinder. The poster can be viewed and purchased at the following online address: http://giff.jetshopmini.se/affisch-2016-karin-broos-p-169-c-101.aspx
Anyone interested in experiencing Irm Hermann in person has the opportunity to do so in November – in two virtuoso productions by the Swiss director Christoph Marthaler: On 7 November Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus is presenting John Osborne’s The Entertainer (Tickets: https://tickets.rzsthh.de/schauspielhaus/Events.aspx?EventID=4422) and on 17 November Berlin’s Volksbühne will stage Marthaler’s Tessa Blomstedt gibt nicht auf (Tessa Blomstedt Doesn’t Give Up) (Tickets: https://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de/praxis/tessa_blomstedt_gibt_nicht_auf/?id_datum=9561 DE, https://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de/praxis/en/tessa_blomstedt_gibt_nicht_auf/?id_datum=9561 EN).
There are also opportunities over November to rediscover the work of Fassbinder himself, for example in Asia. From 5 to 15 November the Goethe Institute is hosting the annual German Film Festival in Singapore. A special feature of the festival this year is a small retrospective of the works of RWF (Program: http://www.goethe.de/ins/sg/prj/gff/fas/enindex.htm), in which almost all films will be screened in 35 mm. This year’s Taipei Golden Horse Festival, on the other hand, is presenting Fassbinder’s work in a form that will ensure the preservation of his cinematic heritage in the longer term. On 12 and 25 November the festival is screening the new digital 4K restoration (2KDCP) of LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH. (More information: http://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/programme/films/detail/1294?search_year=2015&ghff_id=226).
However, you don’t necessarily have to travel so far in November to see Fassbinder’s films on the big screen. Switzerland is also an option. On 2, 13, 22 and 27 November, the Stadtkino in Basel is screening LOLA as part of the series Farbexzesse (Color Excess) curated by Christine Noll Brinckmann. In this third part of his BRD Trilogy, Fassbinder tells the story of an ambivalent female character during the period of the German Economic Miracle in candy colors (more information: http://www.stadtkino.ch/stadtkino.php?m=2). And on 22 and 25 November the Kino Rex in Bern is screening the digitally restored version of the science fiction film WORLD ON A WIRE (more information: http://www.rexbern.ch/filme/welt-am-draht/). The same film has just been released as a DVD in Italy by Ripley’s Home Video (https://www.facebook.com/RIPLEYS-HOME-VIDEO-118686660055/).
Other home cinema releases within the RWF orbit in November include Uli Lommel’s THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES, which invests the story of serial murderer Fritz Haarmann with the character of a vampire tale. The film will be released on 30 November by cmv-Laservision (http://cmv-laservision.de/drama/die-zaertlichkeit-der-woelfe) on DVD, Blu-ray and as a media book with a painted cover. The HD transfer was done by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. The film will also be available from 2 November on the British label Arrow Video (http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/tenderness-of-the-wolves/). In addition, the documentary FASSBINDER made by Annekatrin Hendel in collaboration with the RWFF will be released on DVD by good!movies (https://www.goodmovies.de/content_detail.php?cid=14473&caid=81&genre=&b=). The film can also be seen at the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam, which runs from 18 to 29 November (https://www.idfa.nl/industry/festival/film-list.aspx?startchar=F).
Finally, we would like to wish a happy 75th birthday to Michael Fengler, who was co-director with RWF on WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK? and THE NIKLASHAUSEN JOURNEY. He subsequently worked for the most part as a producer – for Fassbinder as well as for Ulli Lommel, Klaus Lemke and Luigi Comencini.
We wish our readers an inspiring November!
More information:
Film info on MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS:
http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/movies/haendler-der-vier-jahreszeiten/?lang=en
Film info on LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH:
http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/movies/liebe-ist-kaelter-als-der-tod/?lang=en
Film info on LOLA:
http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/movies/lola/?lang=en
Film info on WORLD ON A WIRE:
http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/movies/welt-am-draht/?lang=en
Film info on THE NIKLASHAUSEN JOURNEY:
http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/movies/niklashauser-fart/?lang=en
Film info on WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK?
http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/movies/warum-lauft-herr-r-amok/?lang=en
Photo left: Poster of the Göteborg Film Festival, © Karin Broos
Photo right: DVD cover of THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES, © CMS Laservision