The Goethe-Zentrum Nicosia presents

                                     Rainer Werner Fassbinder

                                            A Retrospective

“Not the mind, but dreams widen the horizons of life.”  R.W. Fassbinder

To this day, more than 25 years after his death, Rainer Werner Fassbinder is considered by many filmmakers and film lovers to be the most important post-war German director. He was more productive than any other: writing and stage-setting over 50 films, television series and plays in 17 years, maintaining close relationships for years with some of the best actors and film technicians of several generations and thereby establishing a cinematic infrastructure that had been unknown in post-war Germany. With a manic zeal and merciless drive, Fassbinder, like no other focused on aspects of the German national and cultural character and of German history.

Juliane Lorenz, President of the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation, editor of his films since 1976 and also the last companion of the filmmaker, will come to Cyprus to give a seminar on Fassbinder’s life and work.

For more information click on the following links:

PROGRAMME

[All films will be screened with English subtitles] 

Entrance Free

THURSDAY 22 May, at 9.00

Angst essen Seele auf / Fear Eats the Soul (1974, 91 min., colour)

Director and script: R.W. Fassbinder

Camera: Juergen Juerges

Cast: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi Ben Salem, R.W. Fassbinder

Emmi, a 60 year old cleaning woman, falls in love with and marries Ali, a much younger Moroccan immigrant worker. Emmi’s family and neigbours disapprove of their relationship until they realize they can profit from it. But the pressure is too much for both of them. “A film about an impossible love which is nonetheless a possibility”.  (R.W. Fassbinder)

For more information click on the following links:

MONDAY 26 May, at 9.00

Die Ehe der Maria Braun / The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979, 120 min., colour)

Director: R.W. Fassbinder

Script: Peter Maertesheimer, Pea Froehlich

Editing: Juliane Lorenz

Cast: Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Loewitsch, Gottfried John, Guenter Lamprecht, George Byrd

The story takes place in Germany during reconstruction after World War II. Maria Braun manages to climb the social ladder, but must pay an excessive price for her professional success. The first film in Fassbinder’s eclectic and critical BRD trilogy ends fatally, just as Germany wins the 1954 World Cup.

For more information click on the following links:

THURSDAY 29 May, at 9.00

Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss / Veronika Voss (1982, 104 min., B&W)

Director: R.W. Fassbinder

Script: Peter Maertesheimer, Pea Froehlich

Editor: Juliane Lorenz

Cast: Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, Armin Mueller –Stahl

Fassbinder tells a melancholy tale inspired by former UFA star Sybille Schmitz’s life in post-war Germany. Drug-addicted actress is unable to repeat her earlier big-screen successes. Exasperated, she commits suicide while the Pope’s Easter blessing is broadcast in the background. In the second film of his 1950s trilogy, Fassbinder masterfully employs the stylistic devices of the UFA melodrama.

For more information click on the following links:

THURSDAY 5 June (Lecture at 7.30 followed by a reception, Screening at 9.00)

At 7.30 :

Lecture by Juliane Lorenz, President of the R.W. Fassbinder Foundation

Working with R.W. Fassbinder – Experience of a Lifetime

(The lecture will be held in English)

A reception by H.E. the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany,

Dr. Rolf Kaiser, will follow.

At 9.00 :

Lola (1981, 113 min., colour)

Director: R.W. Fassbinder

Script: Peter Märtesheimer, Pea Fröhlich, R.W. Fassbinder

Editor: Juliane Lorenz

Cast: Barbara Sukova, Armin Müller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Matthias Fuchs, Karin Baal, Rosel Zech, Christine Kaufmann, Juliane Lorenz

In 1957, the small town of Coburg in Northern Bavaria welcomes Mr. von Bohm, the new Head of the Building Authorities. First an outsider, he finally gives in to the plans of building contractor Schuckert. He marries Lola, a town prostitute, whom he got to know as Marie-Louise, without suspecting her double life.

For more information click on the following links: