Berlin Alexanderplatz

Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)

a film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

I got Berlin Alexanderplatz from the library naively and thinking it would be a 2 hours experience, thinking it would be a movie for one night. Completely ignoring the story and the legend I asked for it in the counter. And the answer from the librarian came to me as bucket of cold water: "Which of the seven DVDs?". This is one of the longest films in the history of cinema, is a movie in 13 episodes and an epilogue, a 940 minutes long film! This chronicle is the story of how I took the DVDs and in less than a week I watched Berlin Alexanderplatz and got to know who was Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Berlin Alexanderplatz is the adaptation of the 1929 novel by Alexander Döblin, as I found out later, a highly regarded book, ranked among the best books in German language and in any language, a classic of the German expressionism and world literature. This book was an obsession for the "enfant-terrible" of the German New Cinema: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a man with a vibrant and precipitated life which ended by an overdose when he was 37, leaving behind more than 40 films concluded. Berlin Alexanderplatz is the realization of his childhood dream of bringing the novel into the screen, a task of epic proportions which he consummated brilliantly in this film.

My first critical strike went to the fact that this is considered a full-length film instead of a series, and that they may as well consider for the list any TV series. But understanding the context and watching the film I understood the segmentation was just a product of the TV production. The parts of Berlin Alexanderplatz don't work as episodes and just like with a book the pauses are required but the thread is intact. After the second episode I required more and more of my time to continue with the story without interruption. Fassbinder has filmed virtually all of a novel, faithfully and enriching the text with unforgeable images.

This story is best summarized in the words of Alexander Döblin read by the taciturn voice of Fassbinder in the beginning of the epilogue: "Why do the two angels walk beside Franz, and what child's game is this, that angels should walk beside a man, two angels on Alexanderplatz in Berlin, in 1928, beside a former murdered, a burglar, and now a pimp? Yes, this tale of Franz Biberkopf and his oppressive, yet real and illuminating existence has progressed this far".

For me, the great success of this film is bringing the literature language into the screen with great richness and humanity. The strongest elements of cinema are at the service of the narrative, great music, creative cinematography, incredible photography with a taste for a dramatic contrast of light and darkness -get a good screening to enjoy it fully- and really good actors. The settings and the interpretation are almost theatrical but the actors stand really long shots without cuts in an incredible way, and it is through the fluidity of their performances that the story goes from visceral into poetic, evoking and beautiful.

Making such a long film and sending the audience home with something to think about, with something for their brains to chew is not an easy task. There is not secret behind the 15 and a half hours -fortunately this is not Lost-, there is no big lesson or shortcut to the end. Berlin Alexanderplatz portraits the life of a man: contradictory, sad, brutal and painful but vital and with shinny sparkles of beauty. The life of Franz Biberkopf is full the human condition amidst the personal and social tragedy, and is told in this movie with technical brilliancy and narrative power.

Worth the 15 and a half hours? Absolutely. If cinema was food Berlin Alexanderplatz would be a full meal in a many-Michelin-stars restaurant, but the price to pay for it is not money but time and dedication. I would recommend this movie to anybody who loves cinema, literature, and has the time and patience. This movie has been called The Everest of Modern Cinema and the mountain allegory fits perfectly when one feels free-falling after reaching the top into a phantasmagorical and mind-blowing epilogue. Enjoying this film was quite an experience, a very personal experience, and although I may never climb the Everest, the warm memory of this film confirms for me the word of somebody who did climb that mountain: "it is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves".