Berlin Alexanderplatz

“My mom, for some reason, was obsessed with Fassbinder, so we went to see a lot of Fassbinder movies, and I’m pretty sure Criterion has a whole collection, including Berlin Alexanderplatz, which is the TV show that Fassbinder did. Oh, wow. Look, it just appeared in my hand. And look how gorgeous that cover is. I remember my mom and I watching the whole series together. That just tells you all about my childhood.”

“Speaking of Fassbinder, why don't you take Berlin Alexanderplatz? Let's do it. Stance, I'm all in. That's, that's not to be. Yeah, I wish I was, I admit, I know he died young, but I still have this feeling of jealousy. Like he's so awesome that it leaves one feeling kind of small and uninteresting. I am really happy that you didn't die as young as Fassbinder, and I would like you to grow to a ripe old age so we can be like, Statler and Waldorf, the guys on the Muppets. We'll just be like, yeah, give me back, you'll be like, I can't believe you let me take Tootsie.”

“And I see that there's Berlin Alexanderplatz, that is when I met Fassbinder for the first time. And yeah, he had this thing that he did only ever one take. There was a situation that I remember, I had a scene with Hanna Schygulla and we were in a car, and they had to rig the camera on the car so he couldn't be with us, and so we did the scene without him. I think we were sitting in the car reading a letter, laughing, something like that. And so then the scene was done and he asked us, "So how was it?" And we said, "Yeah." And he said, "You want to have another take?" And we were, "What, another take? We never have the chance to do another take." So we said, "Yeah, of course." We did another take and then we came back and then he said, "So which one do we print?" So we had to decide. It was a way of working that I loved, but very different, I think probably the opposite of Mike Leigh.”

“Berlin Alexanderplatz. This is 15 hours long. But you want to be a movie person, don’t you? That’s why you’re watching the Criterion Closet video. So I suggest, if you want to be a movie person, you turn off the streaming and you put this on and put on some pants and sit down on the couch and take your dissonance like a man.”

“The one and only Fassbinder. Berlin Alexanderplatz. Fassbinder is someone that had no... No affiliation. He did not respond to anything or to anyone. He only wanted to make the movie that he wanted. This movie is from 1980. It’s just like a master class on a city, on a relationship with a square. And the characters, and the way that the movie is shot, really... Just blew my mind. There’s nothing like this. And this edition is just wonderful and beautiful. Look at this.”