Baal / von Bertolt Brecht ; Buch, Produktion und Regie, Volker Schlöndorff ; eine Produktion des Hessischer Rundfunk in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Studienprogramm des Bayerischer Rundfunk und Hallelujah Film GMBH.
Edition:
Director-approved Blu-ray special edition.
Publisher:
The Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
2018
Description:
1 videodisc (84 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded insert (10 unnumbered pages : color illustrations ; 19 cm).
Title from screen credits. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Sigi Graue, Margarethe von Trotta, Günther Neutze, Miriam Spoerri, Marian Seidowsky, Irmgard Paulis. Based on the work by Bertolt Brecht. Originally produced as a made-for-television movie in 1970. Full screen (1.37:1). "Remastered version Bioskop Film/Volksfilm 1969/2013"--End credits. Special features: Interviews from 1973 and 2015 with Schlöndorff; New conversation between Ethan Hawke and Jonathan Marc Sherman about the play and adaptation; New interview with actor and filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta; New interview with film historian Eric Rentschler; An essay by critic Dennis Lim.
Summary:
"Volker Schlöndorff transported Bertolt Brecht's 1918 debut play to contemporary West Germany for this vicious experiment in adaptation, seldom seen for nearly half a century. Oozing with brutish charisma, Rainer Werner Fassbinder embodies the eponymous anarchist poet, who feels that bourgeois society has rejected him and sets off on a schnapps-soaked rampage. Hewing faithfully to Brecht's text, Schlöndorff juxtaposes the theatricality of the prose with bare-bones, handheld 16 mm camera work, which gives immediacy to this savage story of rebellion. Featuring a supporting cast drawn from Fassbinder's troupe of theater actors that also includes Margarethe von Trotta, Baal demonstrates the uncompromising vision of its director, a trailblazer of the New German Cinema"--Container.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.