Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 9
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 0
want to see
User Ratings: 142
My Rating
Movie Info
TV mini-series- Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed this 16-hour film that follows Franz Biberkopf (Gunter Lamprecht) after his release from prison in 1920s Germany. Although Biberkopf wants to remain straight, the poor economy ultimately drives him back to a life of petty crime and violence. Based on Alfred Doblin's acclaimed novel, this movie documents a man's descent into depravity and insanity, and sets the stage for the emergence of the Nazi party.
Drama, Television, Art House & International, Special Interest
Reiner Werner Fassbinder, Alfred Döblin, Rainer Werner Fassbinder
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (9) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (0) | DVD (4)
The work of a genuine master with nothing left to lose or hide.
Top CriticAll of the usual distancing effects drop out, leaving the wrenching spectacle of one man grappling with his life in perfect candor.
Rarely do films this big and this comprehensive come across as so private and personal, but Berlin Alexanderplatz frequently plays like the literary interpretation of its creator's diary entries.
This Criterion release could have been entirely without features and it would still rank among the finest DVDs of the year.
If greatness is determined less by perfection than by sheer forward thrust, I can think of few better examples than Berlin Alexanderplatz.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's fifteen-hour-plus adaptation of Alfred Döblin's novel, one of the most revered classics of German literature, is the German auteur's most lavish and complex production ever.
It's the crowning achievement for the prolific filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
... the auteur's most lavish and complex production ever.
One of the greatest character studies imaginable.
An astonishing, momumental work.
Despite its small-screen beginnings, Fassbinder's incisive grasp of the milieu and themes, wonderful cinematography and pitch perfect acting make Alexanderplatz his undisputed masterpiece.
Is it a dream that two of cinema's holiest of grails, Berlin Alexanderplatz and Killer of Sheep, arrive on Region 1 DVD on the same day? If so, don't wake me up.
For its first 13 episodes, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's adaptation of Alfred Döblin's 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz is most decidedly a masterpiece.
Audience Reviews for Berlin Alexanderplatz
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for Berlin Alexanderplatz yet.
Latest News on Berlin Alexanderplatz
November 13, 2007:
RT on DVD: The Return of Shrek, Miami Vice, and Seagal!It's a week of threequel DVD offerings, as a certain green ogre playing daddy (Shrek the Third) and...
What's Hot On RT
The Last Stand, Side Effects
Trailer for James Franco adaptation
Rachel McAdams' time travel romantic drama
Blockbusters ranked!
Featured on RT
- Ranking the Blockbusters with Summer Movie Scorecard 2013 0
- RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: The Last Stand and Side Effects 8
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Star Trek Softer Than Expected at #1 81
- Weekly Ketchup: Will Smith to Star in Wild Bunch Remake? 37
- Critics Consensus: Star Trek Into Darkness is Certified Fresh 106
- Red Carpet Roundup: Star Trek Into Darkness Edition 0
- Video Interviews with Katie Aselton & Lake Bell of Black Rock 2
Top Headlines
-
Alex Gibney Talks We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks
0
-
RED Screenwriters Returning for RED 3
0
-
Brave's Brenda Chapman Talks Merida Makeover Controversy
2
-
Gold Discovers Spike Lee
1
-
Morgan Freemand and Diane Keaton Team Up for Life Itself
0
-
The Ten O'Clock People Are Counting on Chris Evans
0
-
Marton Csokas in Talks for The Equalizer
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Fassbinder's vision breathed through 14 chapters,line-ups of diagrams tracking down Franz Biberkopf (Günter Lamprecht),his alter ego/foe and friend Reinhold Hoffmann (Gottfried John),his ever longing confidante Eva (Hanna Schygulla) and his dear lover Mieze (the goddess named Barbara Sukowa) amongst countless of encounters,quarrels,processes till the expiation under the Berlin skies.
"And if you ask again whether there is any justice in the world, you'll have to be satisfied with the reply: Not for the time being; at any rate, not up to this Friday." Alfred Döblin