Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Vol 2) on DVD

Film Description

Until his untimely death aged just 36, Rainer Werner Fassbinder blazed a trail through post-war German cinema leaving a prolific and celebrated body of work that continues to inspire, shock and challenge audiences and filmmakers.

Veronika Voss (1982)

Influenced by Billy Wilder’s ‘Sunset Boulevard’, Fassbinder’s savage satire stars Rosel Zech as the eponymous Veronika Voss, a washed-up film star who dreams of returning to the glory days of her past.

Special features tbc: interviews with actress Rosel Zech, editor Juliane Lorenz, director of photography Xaver Schwarzenberger and co-writer Peter Märthesheimer/ theatrical trailer

In a Year of Thirteen Moons (1978)

Volker Spengler gives an extraordinary performance as the transgendered Elvira, a man who has become a woman in a desperate bid to please a former lover. Relaying various episodes from Elvira’s life, Fassbinder’s powerful film is one of his most intensely personal.

Special features tbc: interviews with filmmaker Werner Schroeter and co-writer Juliane Lorenz/ panel discussion with the performers/ theatrical trailer

The Third Generation (1979)

One of Fassbinder’s most controversial films, ‘The Third Generation’ is a perverse satire about an incompetent gang of bourgeois terrorists who are motivated more by a desire for action than by their weak political convictions.

Special features tbc: Interview with co-writer Juliane Lorenz, theatrical trailer

Germany in Autumn (1978)

This fascinating portmanteau film also takes as its subject the political unrest wrought in the autumn of 1977 by the terrorist activities of Red Army Faction. Through documentary, dramatised vignettes and archival footage, Fassbinder and his collaborators examine the events and explore the motivations behind this crisis point in German history.