Popular reviews

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 2

  I have not sought out information on this film, but every bit I've ever heard/read focused on two things: the length of it and the epilogue's sharp turn into madness. What I had not heard before (and what I suspect is bandied about in more in-depth reviews that I just hadn't read) is that this is Fassbinder at his visual best. It's wrapped in shadows, tilted and framed through bars, around corners, and beneath its subjects. It captures the bleak beauty of Berlin in the throes of depression and nascent fascism. Had it been a shorter film, I would have screencapped it.

  Since I brought it up, let me address the length. This is a miniseries. If you have the…

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  Review by Dante Izrael ★★★★★ 5

  FRANZ: But... don’t the others hate me?
  EVA: What are you, stupid? Haven’t you realized it’s all in your imagination, you mega-dork?
  FRANZ: But... I hate myself.
  MEIZE: One who truly hates himself, he cannot love. He cannot place his trust in another. 
  FRANZ: I’m a coward. I’m cowardly, sneaky, and weak. 
  BAST: No. Only if you think you are. But if you know yourself, you can take care of yourself. 
  FRANZ: I hate myself. But... maybe I could love myself. Maybe... my life could have a greater value. That’s right! I’m no more or less then myself! I am me! I want to be myself! I want to continue existing in this world! My life is worth living here!…

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  Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★★ 13

  In a filmography cluttered with remarkable films, Berlin Alexanderplatz spotlights one of the most impressive character studies conceivable and arguably proves to be Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s greatest masterpiece. Alfred Doblin's source novel tells a comprehensive story as it observes ex-convict Franz Biberkopf on the streets of Berlin during the nineteen twenties as he strives to discover his identity simultaneously as he glides through a procession of intense but brief relationships.

  The film has a mammoth runtime of fifteen and a half hours; however, it's never unnecessarily indulgent, and the plot moves unhurriedly in predominantly little increments which pick at the seams of Biberkopf as he strolls the rundown territories and backdrops crammed with props and costumes which convey meaningful symbolic…

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  Review by Justin Peterson ★★★★½ 6

  Criterion Collection Spine #411
  (Foreign language Miniseries)
  (Divided into 13 parts with an Epilogue, spanning 15 hours 31 minutes)

  Naivety, evil, and innocence personified through one man's struggle, during the pivotal years in Germany's history between World War 1 & 2.

  “What are you afraid of, mister, it won’t be so bad. You won’t die. Berlin’s a big place. Where thousands live, there’s room for one more.”

  I'm back from my 2020 summer vacation, and instead of watching a bunch of movies while I was away, I decided to tackle the Criterion Collection's colossal Berlin Alexanderplatz by auteur Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The series was adapted from a novel by Alfred Döblin, and is said to be one of Germany's most…

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★★ 21

  Fass Binge

  Fassbinder's Neon Genesis Evangelion

  "Man is an ugly beast, the foe of all foes, the most disgusting creature on earth."

  The most obvious sales pitch for Berlin Alexanderplatz is also the most revealing description of it: it's 15 hours of Fassbinder; if that sounds appealing to you, then you probably won't be disappointed. And likewise, because it's 15 hours of Fassbinder, it's all about what much of his filmography is about: the intersection of sex and sexuality, masculinity and misogyny, money and labor, and politics and ideology. And finally, because it's 15 hours of Fassbinder, it is not only intimidating but probably impossible to write about in any sort of comprehensive way, so you'll have to forgive my…

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  Review by 20oldboy03 ★★★★ 10

  Franz Biberkopf –

  Mann, Liebhaber, Frauenheld, Frauenversteher, Frauenschläger, Ex-Knacki, ruheloser Geist, Zuhörer, Sänger, Poet, Dichter, Trinker, Säufer, Arbeiter, Zeitungsverkäufer, „Obsthändler“, Zuhälter, Ganove, Krüppel, Missverstanden, Verstanden, Verkannt, Geliebter und Verliebter, Weise, Weltoffen, Nazi, Abtrünniger, Irrer und Verlorener

  Franz Biberkopf –

  Freund, Kumpel, Genosse, Zellengenosse, Gast, Stammgast, Aufwiegler, Bußgänger, Invalide, Armloser, Patient, Träumer, Tagträumer, Abgestempelter, Kasperl, Witzbold, Hurenbock, Steinbock, Hahn und Gockel

  Berlin Alexanderplatz –

  Berlin, Alexanderplatz, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Wohnung, Wohnungen, Kneipe, Kneipen, schummriges Licht, diffuses Licht, nicht vorhandenes Licht, Sonnenuntergang, Sonnenaufgang, Wald, See, Spazieren, alleine, zu zweit,

  Berlin Alexanderplatz –

  Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Epos, episch, gewaltig, Magnum Opus, vierzehn Folgen, fünfzehneinhalb Stunden, drei Akte, drei Ereignisse, ein Schicksal, eine Zeit, ein Ort, eine Geschichte, ein Buch, ein Wille, eine Vision, die Vollendung ihrer, Netflix sie zeigend, ich sie mir ansehend, ich eintauchend der Klänge Peer Rabens, sie mich ergreifend, einsaugend, zerkauend, ausspuckend wie Franz Biberkopf

  Epos –

  Und fertig

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  Review by Michael Stuhlman ★★★★★

  Much like my review for Out 1, I'll be updating this after each episode as opposed to trying to remember all of it at the end. Enjoy!

  Part 1: The Punishment Begins

  A fitting title for the beginning of this series as our lead character Franz is introduced. He is for lack of a better phrase a total piece of shit. Having spent the last 4 years in prison for killing his girlfriend, Fassbinder makes no illusions that this is someone we should root for. What strikes me immediately about this series is how it reminds me in a way of There Will Be Blood, in the sense that it follows a completely unlikable yet fascinating lead character. As a…

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  Review by Will Steele ★★½

  Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s magnum opus is anything but easy viewing. Despite its appearance on the Sight & Sound Top 250, the broad runtime and episodic chapters firmly situate Berlin Alexanderplatz as an early example of auteurist television. Cinema is not the medium through which this vast story could or should be told, but that didn’t stop Fassbinder delivering a cinematic statement within a televisual format just as potent as his other great works. 

  RWF has a narrative voice so distinctive that any of his projects will give you a flavour of the tone this miniseries strikes. With a plot situated within the decaying Weimar Republic and before the insurgent Nazi empire, our tale finds the most downtrodden and volatile players to…

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  Review by Dante Izrael ★★★★★ 2

  for thirteen hours, you feel the pot bubbling with intense emotions. and then, for two hours, it begins to boil, hotter than anything has ever boiled before. unbelievable that the epilogue of this is something that exists holy fuck

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  Review by BrandonHabes ★★★★½ 26

  One does not simply walk into BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ.

  This towering 15 1/2-hour all-or-nothing experience is something that every cinephile at some point needs to watch, digest, talk about, ruminate on, etc. I somehow managed to masochistically binge-watch it over the last 4 days, and I think that's the correct approach. If you're able to consume it under a shorter period, kudos to you, mostly because the film's hypnotic power grows on your ability to completely immerse yourself in, and endure, its sheer colossal length. The fact that it takes Fassbinder so long to tell this story ultimately becomes a theme itself. By repeating, prolonging, and stretching out scenes, Fassbinder milks what easily could've been told in 3-hours but would've lacked its…

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  Review by Rejia ★★★★ 15

  Inspired by Alfred Döblin's 1929 classic novel bearing the same name, 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' is a 13-episode mini-series bringing it to a towering 15-hour duration. We enter the mind of ex-convict, Franz Biberkopf as he is released from prison after serving a four-year sentence for beating his wife, Ida to death. An uncouth and selfish character, he attempts to navigate his way through the criminal underworld of 1920s Berlin in the final throes of a doomed Weimar Republic.

  This will be my third Wim Wenders and the most arduous of journeys. Not revisited in a while so another record of my thoughts consigned to memory. For the first three or four episodes, I could not muster interest. I started, stopped, restarted,…

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  Review by KYK ★★★★

  weirdest development of my life this year was when i got absolutely hooked on berlin alexanderplatz and tried very hard to stay up and keep watching even tho i put it on right after taking nyquil. anyway, logging this on the day i finished (holy shite that epilogue), but i think i started it last wednesday?