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.
Special Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
- New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Volker Schlöndorff, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- 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
Special Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
- New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Volker Schlöndorff, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- 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
Cast
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Baal
- Sigi Graue
- Ekart
- Margarethe von Trotta
- Sophie
- Günther Neutze
- Mech
- Miriam Spoerri
- Emilie
- Irmgard Paulis
- Johanna
- Marian Seidowsky
- Johannes
Credits
- Director
- Volker Schlöndorff
- Produced by
- Hellmut Haffner
- Produced by
- Hans Prescher
- Produced by
- Volker Schlöndorff
- Play by
- Bertolt Brecht
- Teleplay by
- Volker Schlöndorff
- Cinematography by
- Dietrich Lohmann
- Production design by
- Hanna Axmann
- Edited by
- Peter Ettengruber
- Music by
- Klaus Doldinger
