P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents in collaboration with Kunst-Werke (KW) Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin and the Media Department at The Museum of Modern Art, the first U.S. gallery exhibition that will feature the newly restored version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s monumental, sequential film Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). Based on Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel, this recently restored epic will be a long overdue introduction of a masterpiece of German cinema to a younger American audience. The more than 1... Read more
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents in collaboration with Kunst-Werke (KW) Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin and the Media Department at The Museum of Modern Art, the first U.S. gallery exhibition that will feature the newly restored version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s monumental, sequential film Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). Based on Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel, this recently restored epic will be a long overdue introduction of a masterpiece of German cinema to a younger American audience. The more than 15-hour epic will be divided into 14 screening rooms—one for each episode of the film. This exhibition will be on view in the Third Floor Main Gallery from October 21, 2007 through January 7, 2008.
The parallel screening of all the episodes in one place will highlight Fassbinder’s impressive visual idiom and his artistically challenging, free innovative use of images. It will enable visitors to choose their own mode of approach to Berlin Alexanderplatz: they can divide its unusual length up into pieces, watch episodes several times, or return to the exhibition whenever they like, as the entrance ticket entitles holders to repeated visits. Additionally all 14 episodes will be shown successively, in chronological order and in permanent loop on a central big screen. Stills from the film’s 224 scenes will also be on display along with a first time ever reproduction of Fassbinder’s storyboard and his personal copy of Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz featuring his written remarks. The exhibition will also feature excerpts from the audiotapes on which Fassbinder dictated the script for his 15-hour-epic.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945–1982) was a leader of the New German Cinema movement. Political and social corruption in postwar Germany was a primary theme in his work. Hailed as a cult hero during his life, he was a prolific filmmaker, having directed more than 40 productions including Love is Colder than Death (1969), , Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1973), Despair (1977), Lola (1981) and Querelle (1982).
