Rainer Werner Fassbinder had yet to make his name as a filmmaker when he was cast in the leading role of Volker Schlöndorff’s 1970 adaptation of Bertold Brecht’s 1918 first play. Fassbinder is the vulgar, sadistic Baal, a hedonistic working-class poet who insults his patrons with anti-authoritarian glee and is (almost absurdly) irresistible to women, who endure his humiliations until he heartlessly dumps them. Baal’s romantic poetry suggests a sensitive soul but he behaves like a monstrous man-child with voracious appetites and a sadistic streak, destroying the lives of everyone he touches, including a fellow poet (Sigi Graue) who can’t seem to break away from the mysteriously charismatic Baal. Schlöndorff was one of the founders of the New German Cinema and this film, made for German TV on a tiny budget, is his most experimental. The actors were cast from Munich’s experimental theater world, including many members of Fassbinder’s Antitheater troupe (Hanna Schygulla, Günther Kaufmann, and Irm Hermann). Baal is an unpleasant film by design--shot with a jittery handheld camera on 16mm--but it is an interesting time capsule that captures Fassbinder as a young actor, along with the rebellious impulses of the new generation of German filmmakers. Unavailable for decades and only recently revived and restored, Baal bows on home video in a Criterion special edition with extras including new and archival interviews with filmmaker Schlöndorff, costar Margarethe von Trotta, and film historian Eric Rentschler, as well as a conversation between Ethan Hawke and playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman, and a booklet. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
Baal
Criterion, 84 min., in German w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95 Volume 33, Issue 3
Baal
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: