FLiXWiSE CANADA, EPiSODE 11: Berlin Alexanderplatz.

"I have to buy some flowers, miss. But I'm not sure... I'm not quite sure what kind they should be. The thing is, they have to mean 'The past keeps following you, driving you on and on, driving you someplace where there's no future.' Do you understand?"

The Pink Smoke’s John Cribbs and Christopher Funderburg recently appeared on the Flixwise: Canada podcast with host Martin Kessler to discuss R.W. Fassbinder's epic miniseries, the 15 & 1/2 hour Berlin Alexanderplatz. A favorite film of both Funderburg & Cribbs, both were excited to have the opportunity to discuss the monumental work in-depth.

With a typical mixture of cynicism and humanism, Fassbinder explores the world of Weimar-era Berlin; a city still reeling from the massive unemployment and hyperinflation that followed in the wake of WWI. Based on a 1929 novel by Alfred Döblin, the narrative is both startlingly presceient about the horrors that would shortly follow and eerily unconscious of just how much worse things could get. Featuring gripping performances from Günter Lamprecht as Franz Bieberkopf, Barbara Sukowa as his "Mieze" and Gottfried John as the villainous petty crook to which they are inescapably drawn, many viewers consider Alexanderplatz to be the crowning achievement of Fassbinder's astonishing career.

~ NOVEMBER 21, 2017 ~