Film Review: An Unearthed Masterpiece by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day
Written and Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
I have never been a huge fan of the films of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982). Fassbinder was prolific (40 movies in 15 years), proudly and explicitly gay as a writer/director in an era where non-porno gay films were rare, and fond of exploring the middle and underclasses of German society.
This sometimes reflected his sexual proclivities, which were for young street-tough “trade” pickups. His movies often have a griminess and oiliness that makes me want to shower on emerging from them. He is also noted for his dark humor mixed with often-unrelenting depressiveness, with protagonists dying in gas explosions (The Marriage of Maria Braun) atom bombs and serial vehicular homicide (Berlin Alexanderplatz), and masochistic suicide (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant). His main output was films, but he did make a couple TV miniseries for West German TV, the most famous of which is the 15 1/2 hour Berlin Alexanderplatz. Recently, the ARRI photo corporation and the NY Museum of Modern Art have restored another miniseries, Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day (Acht Stunden sind kein Tag, 1973), which I saw in one 8-9 hour marathon at Film Forum last weekend. This five-part series gave me a whole new perspective on this director, and despite its lack of completion (West German Radio pulled the plug prior to the final episodes), it was the overall most satisfying work of his that I have seen.
The miniseries follows one extended family in Cologne through a typical series of personal (marriages, divorces, births) and professional (layoffs, bad bosses) events. Fassbinder’s brilliance is to fuse this family middle class comic drama familiar both in Germany and in the US (All in the Family, Andy Griffith) with a socialist consciousness. The lead character is high tech factory worker/toolmaker Jochen (the magnificently angular Fassbinder regular Gottfried John).
Jochen and his work colleagues work steadily during the series to improve their working conditions, climaxing in their proposal of a plan to have the workers set up their own schedule and task-division, sharing equally in the potential profits derived from greater efficiency and greater motivation/productivity. Fassbinder here is foreseeing strategies used 20-30 years later by Toyota and others, who belatedly decided that motivated workers invested in the product outcome work harder. The strategies that the workers use to attempt change are more psychological than violent, providing a model of a different kind of labor film. Jochen’s girlfriend/wife Marion is played by Hanna Schygulla, for once not playing a prostitute or homicidal lesbian in a Fassbinder film. She brings out a delicate gift for light comedy.
Another theme is the emancipaton of Grandma Krüger ( a truly wonderful performance by Luise Ullrich).
She starts living with the extended family in traditional German style, but gradually emancipates, finds a partner, and semi-illegally founds a needed Kindergarten for neighborhood kids. Her norm-busting interactions with German bureaucrats who resist her lack of proper “Following of Rules” are hilarious.
What was so unexpectedly revealed in this miniseries is how Fassbinder could work in an extended form to create a set of generous, redeeming, yet very real characters without resorting to his trademark depravity, death, and carnage. It is rumored that such an apocalypse might have occurred to end the series had it completed, but this seems unlikely to me given what I saw. The film is full of wit and gentle humor, such as the scene depicted below, as two women discuss their boyfriends and sexual hangups at length with a silent grinning man in the background. After much talk, he politely interjects that he is a customer, and has been waiting 15 minutes. Very German!
Despite the overall comic and warm tone, serious themes are certainly addressed. Besides the labor/factory subplot, much of the miniseries could be seen as a critique of Germans’ attraction to tradition and stasis. If the state is doing it, it must be correct, true? If a marriage has endured despite abuse, there must be value in it, true? At one point, Grandma states that “just because something exists does not mean it is necessary”. Or right, or best, or even acceptable. Americans like to see themselves as nontraditional, flexible, and different from hidebound Europeans, who are stuck in their ancestral homes and roles. Perhaps we do have less of this traditionalism, since we are a nation of immigrants, and those mold-breaking tendencies often linger in our families (or genomes). But it is still a common human tendency that resonates regardless of country. I read somewhere that 50% of Americans still live within 20 miles of where they grew up. True or not, we should not be too self-satisfied with our trailblazing culture. Conservativism in its pure form is everywhere, and this wonderful miniseries provides the best comic, warm, and pointed critique of this that I know of, while still promoting the values of family and friend connections. Look for this miniseries on DVD or cable networks like Filmstruck. It is very worth your while, and you do not need any premedication with antidepressants, as you might for other works of Fassbinder.
Written and Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
I have never been a huge fan of the films of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982). Fassbinder was prolific (40 movies in 15 years), proudly and explicitly gay as a writer/director in an era where non-porno gay films were rare, and fond of exploring the middle and underclasses of German society.
The miniseries follows one extended family in Cologne through a typical series of personal (marriages, divorces, births) and professional (layoffs, bad bosses) events. Fassbinder’s brilliance is to fuse this family middle class comic drama familiar both in Germany and in the US (All in the Family, Andy Griffith) with a socialist consciousness. The lead character is high tech factory worker/toolmaker Jochen (the magnificently angular Fassbinder regular Gottfried John).
Jochen and his work colleagues work steadily during the series to improve their working conditions, climaxing in their proposal of a plan to have the workers set up their own schedule and task-division, sharing equally in the potential profits derived from greater efficiency and greater motivation/productivity. Fassbinder here is foreseeing strategies used 20-30 years later by Toyota and others, who belatedly decided that motivated workers invested in the product outcome work harder. The strategies that the workers use to attempt change are more psychological than violent, providing a model of a different kind of labor film. Jochen’s girlfriend/wife Marion is played by Hanna Schygulla, for once not playing a prostitute or homicidal lesbian in a Fassbinder film. She brings out a delicate gift for light comedy.
Another theme is the emancipaton of Grandma Krüger ( a truly wonderful performance by Luise Ullrich).
She starts living with the extended family in traditional German style, but gradually emancipates, finds a partner, and semi-illegally founds a needed Kindergarten for neighborhood kids. Her norm-busting interactions with German bureaucrats who resist her lack of proper “Following of Rules” are hilarious.
What was so unexpectedly revealed in this miniseries is how Fassbinder could work in an extended form to create a set of generous, redeeming, yet very real characters without resorting to his trademark depravity, death, and carnage. It is rumored that such an apocalypse might have occurred to end the series had it completed, but this seems unlikely to me given what I saw. The film is full of wit and gentle humor, such as the scene depicted below, as two women discuss their boyfriends and sexual hangups at length with a silent grinning man in the background. After much talk, he politely interjects that he is a customer, and has been waiting 15 minutes. Very German!
Despite the overall comic and warm tone, serious themes are certainly addressed. Besides the labor/factory subplot, much of the miniseries could be seen as a critique of Germans’ attraction to tradition and stasis. If the state is doing it, it must be correct, true? If a marriage has endured despite abuse, there must be value in it, true? At one point, Grandma states that “just because something exists does not mean it is necessary”. Or right, or best, or even acceptable. Americans like to see themselves as nontraditional, flexible, and different from hidebound Europeans, who are stuck in their ancestral homes and roles. Perhaps we do have less of this traditionalism, since we are a nation of immigrants, and those mold-breaking tendencies often linger in our families (or genomes). But it is still a common human tendency that resonates regardless of country. I read somewhere that 50% of Americans still live within 20 miles of where they grew up. True or not, we should not be too self-satisfied with our trailblazing culture. Conservativism in its pure form is everywhere, and this wonderful miniseries provides the best comic, warm, and pointed critique of this that I know of, while still promoting the values of family and friend connections. Look for this miniseries on DVD or cable networks like Filmstruck. It is very worth your while, and you do not need any premedication with antidepressants, as you might for other works of Fassbinder.
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