Monthly Archives: November 2013

Berlin Alexanderplatz – Part III: A Hammer Blow to the Head Can Injure the Soul (1980)

Style and form—everything rested on this. No style without morals, no morals without style. —Ingrid Caven, Interview with Katia Nicodemus, signandsight.com, 5/31/2007 Part 3 picks up where Part 2 left off: outside Max’s bar where Franz, still shaken by the … Continue reading

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Berlin Alexanderplatz – Part II: How Is One to Live If One Doesn’t Want to Die? (1980)

After the roller coaster ride of Part 1, reality. We knew Franz’s euphoria couldn’t last. Struggling under the impossible reparations imposed at Versailles, in the midst of a global economic depression, it turns out Weimar Germany is just not a … Continue reading

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Berlin Alexanderplatz – Part I: The Punishment Begins (1980)

I don’t have to, but I’m going to come clean: about five years ago I rented and watched the first three episodes of Berlin Alexanderplatz. And then I gave up. I couldn’t deal with it. I couldn’t handle the relentless … Continue reading

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Some Disorganized Thoughts About Beginning Berlin Alexanderplatz

This is it. This is the film I’ve been working toward for the past two years (gasp—has it really been that long?). This is the film I’ve been dreading. Berlin Alexanderplatz: RWF’s magnum opus, the pinnacle and the summation of … Continue reading

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The Third Generation (1979)

No, the tenor, if you will, hasn’t changed. The theme’s remained the same, and always will remain the same: the manipulability, the exploitability of feelings within the system that we live in, and that at least one generation or more … Continue reading

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