Baal

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.

West Germany
1970
84 minutes
Color
1.37:1
German
Spine #914

Special Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Volker Schlöndorff, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Interviews from 1973 and 2015 with Schlöndorff
New conversation between actor Ethan Hawke and playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman about the play and adaptation
New interview with actor and filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta
New interview with film historian Eric Rentschler
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic Dennis Lim

New cover by Rainer Fetting

Blu‑ray 1 Disc $31.96 SRP: $39.95

DVD 1 Disc $23.96 SRP: $29.95

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Volker Schlöndorff, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Interviews from 1973 and 2015 with Schlöndorff
New conversation between actor Ethan Hawke and playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman about the play and adaptation
New interview with actor and filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta
New interview with film historian Eric Rentschler
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic Dennis Lim

New cover by Rainer Fetting