Baal

In this film, Schlöndorff maintains the tendency from the beginning of his career, which focuses on the phenomenon of rebellion against society and its values, carried by strong individuality. Based on Bertolt Brecht's original work, the film updates the revolt of a poet who refuses to submit to either prevailing conditions or basic laws of human coexistence. Gradually, in its precise but alienating lyrical diagnosis, it distances itself from not only ridiculous bourgeois but also its own friends. /// Schlöndorff's placement of the play from 1918 in the contemporary setting evokes in the viewer (also thanks to the use of folk-rock music - hopefully that's what it's called - to underscore Brecht's original choral) thoughts of the Western counterculture or Eastern underground culture of that time. At its core, it is a strangely romantic idea that in a dive pub, a drunkard could step forward and start reciting verses... /// The casting of R.W. Fassbinder in the leading role of Baal was very fortunate - the enfant terrible of German film and culture of his time perfectly fits his role (which is essentially anti-Brechtian...). (11.12.2015)