The BRD Trilogy

“Oh, my box sets, don't forget my box sets. My box set of the BRD, Fassbinder, who, I mean, he was a postwar, German young filmmaker with radical ideas and really reinscribed, invented, infused a new sort of life force into melodrama, family dramas, postwar dramas, living, how do we live, talking about the kind of core of life and its values, but, this has Lola, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss in it, so this is a real great special collection of that work, and it's a great introduction to, German cinema from this time period, that's in my special collection I asked for.”

“Now The BRD Trilogy is somewhere, and this is one of the most coveted box sets. It's so beautifully designed. It includes three of the later Fassbinder female-driven stories: Marriage of Maria Braun with, Hanna Schygulla, Veronika Voss, and Lola. It is just an exquisite and perfect object, collection of three masterpieces, and the perfect gift, and I just, every time I see it, I want to repossess it. Thank you, but I already have two copies.”

“Actually, do you know what I want that I saw that you have is The Marriage of Maria Braun. I feel like that was one of the first movies that I saw, and I saw it in that same film class in college, that I was like, “That’s my taste.” Thank you. It really spoke to me. And then I did… I tried to copy her hair for Candy in The Deuce, or at least as an inspiration. So, going in the bag.”

“And there’s one more: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, and Lola. Again, to tie things up with my whole melodrama thing, I mentioned Douglas Sirk and Written on the Wind earlier, Fassbinder was someone who was hugely inspired by Sirk. He is someone who is hugely inspiring to me. His movies are weird. They’re beautiful. They are playing with emotion in a way that’s unlike any other director that I can think of.”