The BRD Trilogy (Marriage of Maria Braun / Lola / Veronika Voss) (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Everyone has their favorite Fassbinder film from the famous BDR trilogy. Almost everyone loves the classic that finally garnered Fassbinder the international respect he was seeking, THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN starring the absolutely stunning Hanna Schygulla. MARIA BRAUN has everything we love about Fassbinder wrapped in that tight black camisole Schygulla wears near the ending of the film. From its hilarious opening sequence of a marriage between a German soldier and his betrothed amid allied bombs, to the marriage which itself is constantly interrupted by Maria's success as a woman who uses her sexual prowess to get what she wants materially, but loses what she needs emotionally. Still many others find the distrubing story of THE LONGING OF VERONIKA VOSS to be Fassbinder's major work. Shot is the most intoxicating Black & White with star filters and gauze over the lens, this film replicates the faded glory and tawdry end of a Nazi era movie star, Veronika Voss (loosely based on the death of real life Nazi film star, Sybille Schmitz)with an unnerving visual authenticity. Voss is held captive in her drug addiction by a ruthless female doctor who keeps her hooked while siphoning all over her money and assets until she has literally nothing left to give. But even with these two brilliant achievements in the BDR trilogy, MARIA BRAUN and VERONIKA VOSS, for my money the real discovery and what makes the trilogy an ultimately unforgettable experience is LOLA. This is Fassbinder at his absolute perfect form. A simple theme of corruption and complicity told through the story of the town whore (Lola) who pretends to be chaste lady as she wins the affections of a German architect sent to rebuild a town after WWII is not the remake of Von Sternberg's THE BLUE ANGEL as Fassbinder's publists mentioned at the time. Instead, LOLA is as Micheal Toteberg mentions in his production histories of the films, a "Candy colored," tale of the amorality of the 1950's during the German Economic Miracle. In fact Lola is shot in that hyper-aestheticized color and lighting effects he developed with his cinematographer, Xavier Schwarzenberger that they would make notorious in Fassbinder's final film, Querelle. More than this, Fassbinder makes use of a little used transition effect (the blur-cut, as Toteberg calls it) that renders the themes of corruption and contradiction visible through the counter-punctual juxtapositioning of scenes that undercuts the sincerity of the emotions we witness. LOLA has incredible performances from its star Barbara Sukowa who brings a playful sincerity to her predicament, Armin Mueller-Stahl as the humilated architect Von Bohm who turns into an "Emeny of the People" once his heart is broken, and the fantastic Mario Adorf (The Tin Drum) is the most enjoyable villian whose lust for life almost makes you forgive his indiscretions. If you are even thinking about getting this Trilogy- you should already be purchasing it. Even if you only love one of the films- there will be enough within it to justify the price. But of course, each film will make an indellible impression upon you. This, again, is Fassbinder at his absolute uncontested best.

As another reviewer has noted, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's so-called "BRD Trilogy" cannot be compared to other movie trilogies, which take the same characters and show them over different periods of time. Instead, it is a snapshot of the Bundesrepublik as it existed in the 1940s and 1950s, as seen through the stories of three different women."The Marriage of Maria Braun" starts immediately after WWII, and lasts through the creation of the Bundeswehr in 1954. We are introduced to a woman who is hardened by the war and its aftermath (or maybe, her innate strength enabled her to survive.) Maria Braun is tough, shrewd and manipulative -- and gets more so as the years pass. By and large, the story of this climber is engrossing and realistic. (One minor flaw -- no American will believe that the "American officer" running the ramshackle court in Maria's trial, early in the movie, is actually American. He sounds like a German affecting an American accent. Poor casting choice!) We do not find out until the end of the movie (and possibly not even then) whether and how the marriage of Maria Braun endured, or whether Maria changed so much as to make the marriage impossible."Veronika Voss" was the last to be filmed, but falls second in the trilogy in terms of time. Filmed entirely in black and white, it looks like a late-1940s film noir, and has the feel of a thriller. When the film opens (ca. 1956), Veronika is a washed-up actress from the Third Reich years, now addicted to morphine. Like Maria Braun, she too knows how to manipulate men, in this case, for money to buy drugs. As the film goes on, the mystery unfolds. Veronika is living in her dreams of the past, and two Holocaust survivors are attempting to flee from their own memories. This film, while not as widely acclaimed as "Maria Braun," is my personal favorite.The third movie (actually made second) is "Lola," filmed in sharp, almost candy-colored tones. Like Maria Braun (but unlike Veronika Voss), Lola is a tough, strong, climber who moves up from prostitution to become the wife of a building inspector. The theme here is that under the faux "moral" patina of the town lies seething immorality and corruption.Criterion gives you all this, plus a bonus disk with a documentary and an interview with Fassbinder, plus commentary on every one of the films. This is a great deal, and a fascinating look at the BRD in the 1950s -- a country running from, hiding, re-creating, and ultimately coming to terms with its past while building its future.

I enjoyed ModelShop immensely, and so moving on to more jaccques Demy