THE FASSBINDER FOUNDATION Newsletter 2004/2005

Dear Friends, Partners, Followers and Supporters of RWFF and FF Inc.,

Since we did not send out a Newsletter last year we thought we should not delay in sending you this year's Newsletter before the spring is out. To start with, there is one especially good piece of news: we have "modernized" our website. In future, you will be able to find the latest reports and information at www.fassbinderfoundation.de under the heading NEWS. The German version is running since March 1, 2005, the English version will be ready shortly, and the French version from April 1, 2005 on. It is not only past events which we have cause to celebrate. We were particularly delighted to move offices in December 2003 to our new base at Giesebrechtstrasse 7, which is in the district of Charlottenburg not far from the Kurfürstendamm. Our new premises have been specially designed for our needs, and the move was organized so impeccably by our employee and Curator Dr. Daniel Kletke, who heads up logistics and coordination, that just one day after the official moving date, we were able to resume daily business. Since 2000 –and thus also last year –the focus of our work has been on the development and prepa- ration of our extensive RWF manuscript archive as well as preparations for releasing further Fass- binder films on DVD. With 24 titles having been released in the USA to date, this year we are launch- ing DVD editions in France, Belgium, Spain and Japan. From April 2005, the titles of sets 3 and 4 al- ready announced by e-m-s will be continued by Kinowelt Home Entertainment under the Arthaus label. A further positive development is our achievement in terms of world sales. Not only were we able to gain the interest of Carlotta Films, one of the most distinguished distribution companies in France, in connection with the renewed screening of classics, but we have found that there is huge interest in Fassbinder also in the UK, Ireland, Russia, Poland, Japan and China. The Fassbinder Commemoration Year 2005 –for on May 31, 2005, RWF would have been 60 years old –is starting with something of a minor sensation: Im Land des Apfel- baums, poems and prose from the Cologne years 1962/63 is being published by SchirmerGraf on February 25, 2005 and will no doubt cause quite a stir. And last of all, a particularly happy event: the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris is showing a Fass- binder exhibition and retrospective commencing on April 13, 2005 and continuing until June 6, 2005. To accompany this, the French translation of the excellent book Fassbinder`s by Thomas Elsaesser will be published, and on June 4, 2005 a renowned group of Fassbinder experts will be holding a round-table discussion at the Centre Pompidou. There is also news on the restoration of Berlin Alexanderplatz, but more on that below.

Sincerely yours,

Juliane Lorenz, President of RWFF, Berlin and FF Inc., New York

1 NEWLY PUBLISHED:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Im Land des Apfelbaums Gedichte und Prosa aus den Kölner Jahren 1962/63 [In the Land of the Apple Tree Poems and Prose from the Cologne Years 1962/63] Edited by Juliane Lorenz and Daniel Kletke Cover photograph: Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation, Berlin Linen, with dust jacket and bookmark 186 pages, with facsimiles €18.80 CHF 34.10 ISBN 3-86555-019-3

Rainer Werner Fassbinder would have been sixty years old on May 31, 2005. To mark the occasion, the poems and prose which he wrote as a 17-year-old in "exile" in Cologne will be published for the first time: impressive, moving documents of a young genius. Fassbinder recognized early on that he needed to express as an artist the things which would otherwise be impossible for him to convey. His first poems, and his Traum vom Hang nach Oben, are confident, casual, and yet infinitely sensitive, testifying impressively to this fact. Written in the years 1962/63 in Cologne, where he lived with his father and attended evening classes at high school, these texts already point to his whole anguished cosmos, to all his later themes. Published by SchirmerGraf, Munich

Contact: www.schirmer-graf.de

(An English translated publication is in preparation).

2 Rainer Werner Fassbinder Fassbinder über Fassbinder im Verlag der Autoren Edited by Robert Fischer 674 pages Br. € 29,50 ISBN 3-88661-268-6

Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982), author, director, dramatist and film-maker, was never one to hide himself away. From the outset, he spoke frankly and extensively in interviews with journalists and friends about himself and his work. It was as if he wished to supplement or correct the openly or obliquely autobiographical elements of his films and plays through personal statements and explana- tions. In conversation, Fassbinder always revealed himself to be acutely politically aware, analyzing social conditions astutely, and ever mercilessly self-critical. In order to understand his body of work, it is essential to read the interviews which he gave over the years.

This volume of interviews brings together 30 conversations with Rainer Werner Fassbinder conducted between 1969 and 1982 and thus covering the entire career of the most important German director in the post-War period.

What is special about this publication is that, for the first time, key interviews are reproduced in full and unabridged form. Highlights include Corinna Brocher's legendary Fassbinder interviews on the history of antiteater, and Christian Braad Thomsen's questions regarding Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte (), Satansbraten (Satan's Brew), Chinesisches Roulette (Chinese Roulette) and other films. For the first time, the most important interviews given by Fassbinder to English, US and French magazines are printed here in German.

Contact: www.verlag-der-autoren.de

3 04/13 –06/06/2005: Fassbinder exhibition and retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, Paris

A further honor for Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who would have been 60 on May 31, 2005, is a show dedicated to the German film-maker to be held in France at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. And there is more: on April 13, 2005, parallel to the retrospective "Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Un Cinéaste d'Al- lemagne", an exhibition on Fassbinder's life and work will also be opened. Notebooks, storyboards, stills and further rare documents will provide the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of Fass- binder's creative activity in all its different phases. The retrospective and exhibition will continue until June 6, 2005. Also on April 13, 2005, Carlotta Films will be releasing eight more Fassbinder films in the French movie theaters. http://www.cnac-gp.fr/Pompidou/Manifs.nsf/0/05047FC78FD70DF4C1256F930048D247?OpenDocument

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR –FASSBINDER PRIZE

Since 1997, the RWFF has been presenting the "European Discovery of the Year – Fassbinder Prize“, an honor and a monetary award which is given in the context of prize-giving by the European Film Academy in December each year –held in a different European city every time –to an exceptional European director.

Prizewinner for 2003 honored in Berlin

Andrei Zvyagintsev's Vozvrashcheniye –The Return –(Russia), is a tormenting film. It describes the story of two brothers whose father suddenly appears as if from nowhere. They only know him from an

4 old photo. Father and sons go on their first joint summer holiday to a lake in northern Russia. But this first family holiday becomes a journey into hell: anger, frustration, aggression and hate break out in all three of them. The sons settle the score with their father over their lost childhood, and their father at- tempts to force his new role as a father through authority.

"I first saw Fassbinder's films in 1992 at a retrospective in Moscow," explains Andrei Zvyagintsev. "These were masterpieces, so honest, so deep - they just knock you down,“ his interpretertranslating alternately into German and English. The film by this young Russian film-maker from Novosibirsk had unexpectedly also won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival in 2003. "I am particu- larly proud to be able to accept this prize," he declared, visibly moved. Patrice Chéreau, who pre- sented the Fassbinder Award, said he had regrettably only met Fassbinder once and had far too little time to speak to him. Thus it was all the more moving to be able to present this particular prize.

New selection procedure for the Fassbinder Prize from 2004

Since, in recent years, the wish has been increasingly expressed from among EFA members that they might participate actively in choosing the winner in the category European Discovery of the Year – Fassbinder Prize, the procedure has been changed so that the winner in this category can also be selected by all EFA members.

Until now, the procedure involved five members of the European Film Academy and five members selected by the Fassbinder Foundation each proposing two European films which were then viewed by a jury consisting of Laurence Kardish of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Derek Malcolm of The Guardian, London, and Pierre-Henrie Deleaux, Paris, former head of the Cannes International Film Festival, Section La Quinzaine des Auteurs. The prizewinner was then chosen by this jury.

The prize for 2004 was presented in Madrid

With Certi bambini –Stolen Childhood (Italy), Andrea and Antonio Frazzi have created a vivid and committed film about street children in Naples. The movie tells the story of orphan Rosario, whose life is dominated by a desperate struggle for survival and whose hopes of a different life are dashed by the merciless rules of a corrupt political system, the laws of the Mafia and the indifference of a Mafia- dominated society. The film describes Rosario's striving and hoping, and the "in-spite-of-everything" notion which fires his will to survive. At the same time it is a protest at the injustice into which Rosario has been born through no fault of his own. The fact that this injustice actually still exists in Europe is something we all need to face up to.

Previous winners of the European Discovery of the Year- Fassbinder Prize are:

▪1997: Bruno Dumont for La Vie de Jésus - The Life of Jesus (France) ▪1998: (shared) Thomas Vinterberg for –The Celebration (Denmark) and Erick Zonca for La Vie rêvée des anges – (France) ▪1999: Tim Roth for (UK) ▪2000: Laurent Cantet for Ressources humaines –Human resources (France) ▪2001: Achero Mañas for –Pellet (Spain) ▪2002: György Pálfi for –Hiccup (Hungary)

5 BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ

Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered

By securing the rights to Alfred Döblin's novel on which the film is based, we have managed a major achievement. After three years of negotiations with the Kiepenheuer Medienverlag, which represents the heirs of Alfred Döblin, we were able to sign an agreement which enables us in future to have ex- clusive use of the exploitation rights to Fassbinder's masterpiece. Acquisition of these rights is one of the most important bases for the remastering of Berlin Alexanderplatz. Since June 2004, we have been conducting negotiations with Bavaria in Munich, which holds the executive producer's rights and the original 16mm negative. Bavaria and RWFF are in agreement that this culturally and historically significant work of Fassbinder, also his most important work, should be made accessible to a new generation of moviegoers in a newly restored version and through worldwide exploitation in the form of special events and on DVD. Although a few matters are still being discussed by the main parties WDR, Bavaria and RWFF as to the terms and conditions and various areas of responsibility concern- ing the restoration, we can confidently say that, where there's a will, there's a way.

A brief reminder:

Berlin Alexanderplatz, ein Film in 13 Teilen und einem Epilog (Berlin Alexanderplatz, a film in 13 parts and an epilogue), was produced exclusively using television resources, but for Fassbinder, the 15 1/2 –hour serial was above all a film which was intended to be seen on the big screen –with all the parts to be viewed as close together and as coherently as possible. The premiere of the 14 episodes in

6 September 1980 at the Venice International Film Festival was a sensational success, but the first transmission on German television –at one episode a week –shortly thereafter, was to some extent too much of a challenge for the German TV audience. And so, today, Berlin Alexanderplatz is still known as "the dark film" in the memory of many German viewers and in recollected memories – whether seen or only read about. This judgment was also fostered by the huge criticism in the mass media, led by Bildzeitung, at the time still a ruthless publication which quite simply labeled the content and form of the film as "filthy sex out of murky depths". Nobody in Germany learnt of the film's trium- phal success through the rest of the world –the premiere in the USA in September 1983 left the streets of New York empty for two whole weeks.

Twenty-five years later, the past hysteria is mere history now. The new presentation, in best quality and with a new technical format, enables a new engagement with the masterpiece, which is now part of cinematic cultural history. The task mainly involved blowing up the 16mm original negative to 35mm and putting the digital WetGate scan taken from the original negative onto HD format, which gives an authentic reproduction of the original lighting created by Fassbinder together with his cameraman Xaver Schwarzenberger; through this standard, it can also be viewed in TV and DVD format. Not only does the Museum of Modern Art wish to get involved, but also the biggest and most aspiring DVD company in the world, the New-York-based Criterion, is keen to acquire Berlin Alexanderplatz in a special edition for its Criterion Collection and the US market. Our French distribution partner Carlotta Films has also declared a serious interest, and we receive e-mails and enquiries every day asking about the DVD edition.

The RWFF has also contacted public institutions with regard to financial support for the restoration, and generated lively interest. We have incurred considerable financial outlay in purchasing the novel rights by way of initial contribution, we will also provide Fassbinder's own rights to the screenplay and other services of our own, so we hope that our partners too will follow this example.

The total budget for the restoration alone is, according to our internal budget, approx. € 750,000, and this has been covered by us to date at a level of 1/3 of costs. A sum of € 500,000 is still to be fi- nanced.

Completion of the project should take place at the end of 2006. Please support us as much as you can: with your encouragement and positive thoughts –and if you wish, also with donations, for which we can let you have a formal receipt.

7 BRIGITTE MIRA

As this Newsletter goes to press, we have received sad news:

The unforgettable Brigitte Mira died on 8 March. "After the Second World War she sang as a soubrette in the theaters of East and West Berlin, acted in comedies and on screen, and was later also an exuberant "comic old lady" and cabaret performer with the Insu- laner. On April 20, she would have been 95. … She celebrated her breakthrough as a character actress in 1973 with the film Ali –Fear Eats the Soul by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in which she played a cleaning lady who falls in love with a younger dark-skinned immigrant worker. The role won her the German Fed- eral Film Prize. In 1980 she also played in Fass- binder's film productions Berlin Alexanderplatz and Lili Marleen. (dpa)

SUSAN SONTAG

The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation mourns the loss of Susan Sontag. The American writer, es- sayist, filmmaker and activist, who won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2003, died on December 28, 2004 in New York at the age of 71. She was not only a constant promoter and observer of art, but also followed and repeatedly watched Fass- binder's cinematic oeuvre from 1969 onwards. Her essay Novel into Film: Fassbinder's Berlin Alexander- platz (in: Susan Sontag, Where the Stress Falls, Es- says, Farrar&Strauss, New York, 2001) was a pio- neering piece of work that was ahead of its time when published in 1983. As a member of the Advisory Board of the Fassbinder Foundation, New York, she was particularly committed to the restoration of Berlin Alexanderplatz, and she wrote a moving accompany- ing text for the German edition of Im Land des Apfel- baums.

Susan Sontag was also a friend, and her death is a terrible loss.

8 FASSBINDER COLLECTION on DVD

By way of overview, we set out below all the DVD editions already released or scheduled for imminent release:

All the DVDs have been produced from high-quality digital master tapes rescanned directly from the original negative (see Newsletter 2003). They can be ordered directly via our website: just click on the title of the DVD required. Delivery of your order will be via amazon (www.amazon.de - www.amazon.com - www.amazon.fr - www.amazon.es)

USA and CANADA (Code 1)

Back in 2000, Fantoma in San Francisco had released the films WHITY (with commentary by Michael Ballhaus and ) and PIONIERE IN INGOLSTADT (PIONEERS IN INGOLSTADT); by 2004 the company had released a total of four films rarely shown in the USA. Two new titles will also appear this year under the Fantoma label.

FANTOMA (2000-2004)

- WHITY - PIONEERS IN INGOLSTADT (PIONIERE IN INGOLSTADT) - MARTHA - (IN EINEM JAHR MIT 13 MONDEN)

2005 (in preparation)

- WHY DOES MR. R. RUN AMOK? (WARUM LÄUFT HERR R. AMOK?) - THE THIRD GENERATION (DIE DRITTE GENERATION)

Contact: www.fantoma.com

WELLSPRING

Wellspring is one of the most highly-regarded distributors of independent and classic movies in the USA, focusing on the distribution and sale of films by eminent directors with the aim of representing their works as comprehensively as possible.

The following DVDs are available:

- LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH (LIEBE IST KÄLTER ALS DER TOD) - - (DER AMERIKANISCHE SOLDAT) - GODS OF THE PLAGUE (GÖTTER DER PEST) - RIO DAS MORTES - THE NIKLASHAUSEN JOURNEY (DIE NIKLASHAUSER FAHRT) - BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE (WARNUNG VOR EINER HEILIGEN NUTTE) - MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS (HÄNDLER DER VIER JAHRESZEITEN) - THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (DIE BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT) - EFFI BRIEST (FONTANE EFFI BRIEST) - FEAR OF FEAR (ANGST VOR DER ANGST) - SATAN'S BREW (SATANSBRATEN)

9 Contact: www.wellspring.com

CRITERION COLLECTION

- ALI –FEAR EATS THE SOUL (ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF) - BRD TRILOGY: THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN) LOLA (DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS)

Contact: www.criterionco.com

GERMANY (Code 2) e-m-s

- LIEBE IST KÄLTER ALS DER TOD (LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH) - KATZELMACHER - GÖTTER DER PEST (GODS OF THE PLAGUE) - DER AMERIKANISCHE SOLDAT (THE AMERICAN SOLDIER) - HÄNDLER DER VIER JAHRESZEITEN (THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS) - DIE BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT (THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT) - ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF (ALI - FEAR EATS THE SOUL) - SATANSBRATEN (SATAN’S BREW)

Kinowelt Home Entertainment –Arthaus

- WARUM LÄUFT HERR R. AMOK (WHY DOES MR. R. RUN AMOK?) - MARTHA - IN EINEM JAHR MIT 13 MONDEN (IN A YEAR WITH 13 MOONS) - DIE DRITTE GENERATION (THE THIRD GENERATION) - DEUTSCHLAND IM HERBST () - LILI MARLEEN –Director's Cut (German dubbed version) - LOLA - DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (VERONIKA VOSS) - ICH WILL NICHT NUR, DASS IHR MICH LIEBT (I DON’T JUST WANT YOU TO LOVE ME) (Documentary)

2005 in preparation

- DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN (THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN) (release date 04/05/2005) - FONTANE EFFI BRIEST (EFFI BRIEST) (release date 05/24/05) - FAUSTRECHT DER FREIHEIT () (release date 06/13/2005) - MUTTER KÜSTERS FAHRT ZUM HIMMEL (MOTHER KÜSTER’S TRIP TO HEAVEN) (release date 05/07/05) - WARNUNG VOR EINER HEILIGEN NUTTE (BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE) (release date 08/09/05)

The editions will include a vast array of additional material such as trailers, interviews and documenta- ries, as well as biographies and filmographies. The two short films "Das kleine Chaos (The Little Chaos)" from 1966 and "Der Stadtstreicher (The City Tramp)" from 1967 are included with all eight titles of the e.m.s. editions.

10 FRANCE (Code 2)

CARLOTTA FILMS

In Paris, a movie theater series entitled "R.W. Fassbinder: Partie 1 - Rétrospective en 8 Films“, began on October 6, 2004; starting in three movie theaters, and is still touring France.

From April 6, 2005, the titles of the first part will be released on DVD:

COLLECTION R.W. FASSBINDER Partie 1: LA TRILOGIE ALLEMANDE (Release date: 04/06/2005)

- LE MARIAGE DE MARIA BRAUN (THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN) - LOLA- UNE FEMME ALLEMANDE (LOLA) - LE SECRET DE VERONICA VOSS (VERONIKA VOSS)

COLLECTION R.W. FASSBINDER Partie 2 (Release date:04/06/2005)

- TOUS LES AUTRES L´APPELLENT ALI (ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL) - LE BOUC (KATZELMACHER) - LES LARMES AMERES DE PETRA VON KANT (THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT) - LE DROIT DU PLUS FORT (FOX AND HIS FRIENDS) - MAMAN KÜSTER S´EN VA AU CIEL (MOTHER KÜSTER'S TRIP TO HEAVEN) - LA TROISIEME GENERATION (THE THIRD GENERATION)

The films included in the movie theater series "R.W. Fassbinder: Partie 2 - Rétrospective en 8 Films“, commencing on April 13, 2005, will follow on DVD as Parts 3 and 4. This means that, by the start of 2006, 17 Fassbinder titles will be available on the French market. Carlotta Films has however acquired a total of 30 titles, so that the Fassbinder "Rediscovery and Revival" in the movies and on DVD will go on for some time yet.

Contact: www.carlottafilms.com

Belgium (Code 2) Cineart

The company Cineart in Brussels will distribute all titles released by Carlotta Films in France, with French and Flemish subtitles for the Belgian market.

Contact: www.cinelibre.be

11 Spain (Code 2) Avalon

From Spain too, we have news: the distribution company Avalon Productions in Madrid will release the following titles on DVD this year:

Released :March 11, 2005

- EL VAGABUNDO (THE CITY TRAMP) - EL PEQUEÑO CAOS (THE LITTLE CHAOS) - EL MERCADER DE LAS CUATRO ESTACIONES (THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS)

Release: June 2005

- LAS AMARGAS LAGRIMAS DE PETRA VON KANT (THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT) - TODOS NOS LLAMAMOS ALI (ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL) - FONTANE EFFI BRIEST (EFFI BRIEST) - LA LEY DEL MAS FUERTE (FOX AND HIS FRIENDS) - EL VIAJE A LA FELICIDAD DE MAMA KUSTER (MOTHER KÜSTER'S TRIP TO HEAVEN) - EL MATRIMONIO DE MARIA BRAUN (THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN)

Here too, there is a wealth of additional material, such as the documentary "Fassbinder 1977" (1977/97) und "Life, Love & Celluloid – A Journey and a Film Retrospective“ (1998).

Contact: www.avalonproductions.es

IN CONCLUSION

The RWFF Team hopes you will thoroughly enjoy rediscovering Fassbinder's filmic and literary oeu- vre, which we can merely report on in this Newsletter. We hope that you will read our NEWS regularly on our new website and would be pleased to receive your ideas and comments –especially positive ones.

Berlin/ New York, March 2005

The Fassbinder Foundation, Inc 101 West 81st Street, Suite 521 New York, NY 10024 Tel.: +1-212-580 1260 Fax: +1-917-441 0644 [email protected] www.fassbinderfoundation.de

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