Baal

Drama · 1970Not Rated

Volker Schlöndorff transported Bertolt Brecht’s 1918 debut play to contemporary West Germany for this vicious experiment in adaptation, seldom seen for nearly half a century. Oozing with brutish charisma, Rainer Werner Fassbinder embodies the eponymous anarchist poet, who feels that bourgeois society has rejected him and sets off on a schnapps-soaked rampage. Hewing faithfully to Brecht’s text, Schlöndorff juxtaposes the theatricality of the prose with bare-bones, handheld 16 mm camera work, which gives immediacy to this savage story of rebellion. Featuring a supporting cast drawn from Fassbinder’s troupe of theater actors that also includes Margarethe von Trotta, Baal demonstrates the uncompromising vision of its director, a trailblazer of the New German Cinema.

Starring

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Klaus Doldinger, Sigi Graue, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Volker Schlöndorff, Günther Neutze, Dietrich Lohmann, Hanna Schygulla

Director

Volker Schlöndorff

Producer

Hellmut Haffner