Volker Schlöndorff’s BAAL opens in French cinemas
Following a limited German cinema release in March, Volker Schlöndorff’s film adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s BAAL will be released in French cinemas on 26 November. The film is being screened in the digitally restored version that had its world premiere at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
At the center of the film is Rainer Werner Fassbinder as the dissolute poet who slowly brings ruin to himself and those around him. But for Schlöndorff, Baal is not merely brutish but also a rebel who flouts the rigid rules of bourgeois life. Rather than a theatrical vernacular, Schlöndorff’s film, which was shot in streets and pubs in Munich, uses an unadorned realism. Along with Fassbinder and actors from his circle, the film also includes a performance by filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta. The soundtrack features songs by Hans Eisler reinterpreted by jazz musician Klaus Doldinger.
This rerelease of the film is particularly noteworthy for the fact that, following its controversially received broadcast on West German television in 1970, Brecht’s widow, Helene Weigel, was no longer prepared to renew the story rights for the film, i.e. the rights to the Brecht play on which the film was based. This amounted to an indirect ban on screenings, and as a result this very special film was not seen again for the following forty years.
More information
Website of the French distributor:
http://www.filmsdulosange.fr/en/film/211/baal
Text on the film’s rerelease:
https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-baal-is-back
Photos: BAAL, © Weltkino Filmverleih