Bolwieser - A German Film By Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR BOLWIESER - A GERMAN...

Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad, in association with the Hyderabad Film Club, is screening some of the celebrated works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder through the screening of 9 of his unforgettable and unsurpassed films, from 20th to 26th August, at the Prasad Labs Preview Theatre.

Today, the second day, Bolwieser will be screened. A drama of post-World War I Bavaria based on Oskar Maria Graf's novel Bolweiser, this was originally presented as a 3-hour-plus event for German television. In preparing his theatrical cut, director Rainer Werner Fassbinder shaved away the subplots and supporting characters to focus tightly on the story of railway stationmaster Bolweiser (Kurt Raab) and his philandering wife Hanni (Elisabeth Trissenaar).

Set in late-1920s Bavaria, Bolweiser is a Nazi party man surrounded by grotesque, toady underlings at the station but is pathetically servile to his increasingly frustrated, unhappy wife. Disgusted by her weak-willed husband, she finds passion in the arms of the butcher. Bolweiser ignores the town gossip and even perjures himself to defend his wife in a trial - an act which later dooms him.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was born in 1945 and died in 1982. He was one of the most significant directors of the "New German Cinema". In just 13 years, between 1969 and 1982, he made 44 films. He wrote 14 plays, revised six others and directed 25. He wrote 4 radio plays and 37 screenplays and worked on a further 13 scripts with other writers. Fassbinder's films are among the most valid social documents produced between the late '60s and early '80s in Germany; his plays are among the most performed of any post-war German dramatist.

Please contact Goethe-Zentrum at 6552-6443 or Bh S S Prakash Reddy of the Hyderabad Film Club at 2373-0841/93910-20243 for further details.