Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1971 • Germany
Starring Hans Hirschmüller, Irm Hermann, Gusti Kreissl
New German Cinema icon Rainer Werner Fassbinder kicked off a new phase of his young career when he made the startling THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS. In this anguished yet mordantly funny film, Fassbinder charts the decline of a self-destructive former policeman and war veteran struggling to make ends meet for his family by working as a fruit vendor. Fassbinder had gained acclaim for a series of trenchant, quickly made early films, but for this one he took more time and forged a new style—featuring a more complexly woven script and narrative structure and more sophisticated use of the camera, and influenced by the work of his recently discovered idol, Douglas Sirk. The result is a meticulously made, unforgiving social satire.
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1971 • Germany
Starring Hans Hirschmüller, Irm Hermann, Gusti Kreissl
New German Cinema icon Rainer Werner Fassbinder kicked off a new phase of his young career when he made the startling THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS. In this anguished yet mordantly funny f...
The following interview with actor Hans Hirschmüller was conducted in Berlin in February 2015.
The following interview with Eric Rentschler, a film historian and the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature at Harvard University, was conducted in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in February 2015.
This interview with actor Irm Hermann was conducted in Berlin in February 2015.