Sunday, December 16, 2018
544 - Berlin Alexanderplatz, Part 5, Germany, 1980. Dir. Werner Rainer Fassbinder.
A Reaper with the Power of Our Lord.
Franz finds a friend.
We are back in the bar. The one where everything sparkles. Where the lights shine like the Star of Bethlehem. And where Franz Biberkopf meets important people in his life.
This time he meets Reinhold. A tall man. Mysterious. At the bar. With a woman.
Franz studies him. He can tell Reinhold has done time. He can tell that Reinhold can tell that Franz has done time. People who have done time recognize each other. There is something between them.
Reinhold sees that Franz is looking at him. He comes over. What are you looking at?
Franz tells him enthusiastically that he has spotted him. A fellow jailbird. A brother in arms. Arms from the farm.
Reinhold does not know what he is talking about. Reinhold has never been to jail. He has not done time.
He was politically active when he was younger. He wanted to blow up a gasworks once. Someone blew the whistle on them. It never happened.
But he has never done time.
He returns to his woman.
So much for that.
The men in the bar try to recruit Franz to sell fruit. He has gone back to his old pal in the subway and started selling newspapers again. But around here everyone is selling fruit.
This man with the strange name, Pums, is the wholeseller. He supplies everyone. Come join us.
Franz declines the offer. He will continue to sell newspapers.
One day while selling newspapers on the street, Franz sees the man from the bar again. Reinhold.
This time Reinhold is friendly. Open, Happy to see him. Remember me from the bar? He is with his woman. Franze. The female Franz.
Reinhold and Franz will meet again. They will become friends.
In private Reinhold tells Franz his problem. He no longer wishes to see Franze but he cannot get her to understand that. She will not leave him.
Franz agrees to help him. He will charm Franze away from Reinhold and then leave her.
A plot between two men to manipulate the emotions of a woman to get what they want.
Suddenly we are In the Company of Men.
Franz takes care of it. We see him court Franze. He is good at it. She loves it. She leaves Reinhold for him. And then suddenly he switches and argues with her, in front of a male guest, until she walks out.
There is a moment when she comes to him, confused, and appeals to him, and he out of instinct goes to comfort her. But then he remembers his objective and stops himself and pretends to be cruel.
It is a brilliant piece of acting and a heartbreaking moment in the story. And yet Franz himself is oblivious of it. To him it is a part of life. One does what one has to do.
Reinhold comes to Franz again.
This time it is Cilly. Please take her off my hands.
It turns out Reinhold has a problem. He does this perpetually. He falls for a woman, goes crazy over her, cannot get his mind off of her, moves in to love her, and then after a few weeks it all goes away and he cannot stand her any more. But he does not know how to get rid of her.
So he recruits Franz to help him again. And Franz is all too happy to help. Anything for a buddy.
When Cilly realizes what Franz is doing, she confronts him aggressively.
If Reinhold is scum, you're even worse.
You are worse than the worst pimp.
But Franz is immune to this kind of scolding. He is practical. This is the way the world is, and there is nothing any of us can do about it. So we may as well just live our lives. Furthermore, he has been honest with her. He has told her what he was doing. He even tried to recruit her to help him with Trude, the next one.
In the midst of all of this Eva returns. Again. She must be the one who really loves him. She turns up in every episode and offers to help him. We feel we are being set up for a payoff down the road, where the two of them really do reunite. Her eyes sparkle when she looks at him. Her face glows. Nothing can stop her from loving this man.
Reinhold wants to stop.
He knows he has a problem. He does not like his own behavior one bit. He is like an alcoholic wanting to be free.
He goes to the Salvation Army. He takes Franz with him. He tells Franz he has been here before.
LORD, we thank thee that we may gather here in thy name.
The narrator speaks on top of the preacher so that we do not hear the sermon. And the narrator's speech is an unrelated message discussing the status of the neighborhood in a kind of secular prophecy.
Before us lies a garbage heap.
For dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.
We have built a splendid house, but no one goes in or out here anymore.
Rome. Babylon. Nineveh. Hannibal. Caesar. All have fallen.
Think on this.
This is the nature of the novel and therefore this movie on which it is based.
At the end of the sermon people get up and walk forward. They kneel.
What are they doing?
They have been called to the sinners' bench.
Reinhold shakes. He is being brought under conviction. He wrestles with his soul. Something inside of him wants to walk forward and kneel.
He runs out.
Franz follows him. He asks why Reinhold ran out. Reinhold speaks cynically at first, and then humbly. He tells Franz his problem, and he tells him of how he has started coming here to get help for it.
Perhaps Reinhold will go back one day. But in the meantime he turns for Franz for help. And Franz helps him. This kind of thing is all too easy for Franz.
Which brings us to the place where Cilly is angry. Reinhold had sent Cilly over with a fur scarf. The one before her, with galoshes. She sees that she has been had, and she is angry.
When Franz realizes how angry Cilly is, he charms her again.
And she goes for it.
And all is forgotten in the dancing and the laughter and the mirth.
And in the mesmerizing grip of this mesmerizing man.
* * * *
An enormous amount of capital is squandered in the world.
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