Lola
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers
|
2001
|
|
Copyright 2001, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company. (Hide copyright information)
Copyright
LOLA
West Germany, 1981
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Production: Rialto Film-Preben-Philipsen and Trio Film Westdeutschen Rundfunk; color, 35mm; running time: 115 minutes; length 10,313 feet. Released 1981, West Germany.
Producers: Rainer Werner Fassbinder with Horst Wendlundt; screenplay: Peter Märthesheimer, Pea Frölich, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder; photography: Xaver Schwarzenberger; editors: Juliane Lorenz and Franz Walsch (Rainer Werner Fassbinder); sound recordists: Vladimir Vizner and Milan Bor; art director: Helmut Gassner; music: Peer Raben; costume designers: Barbara Baum and Egon Strasser; artistic consultant: Harry Baer; choreography: Dieter Gackstetter; staging: Peter Marklewitz and Uwe Ringler.
Cast: Barbara Sukowa (Lola ); Armin Mueller-Stahl (Von Bohm ); Mario Adorf (Schukert ); Matthias Fuchs (Esslin ); Helga Feddersen (Frau Hettich ); Karin Baal (Lola's mother ); Ivan Desny (Wittich ); Elisabeth Volkmann (Gigi ); Hark Böhm (Völker ); Karl-Heinz von Hassel (Timmerding ); Rosel Zech (Frau Schukert ); Sonja Neudorfer (Frau Fink ); Christine Kaufmann (Susi ); Y Sa Lo (Rosa ); Günther Kaufmann (GI ); Isolde Barth (Frau Völker ); Harry Baer (1st demonstrator ); Rainer Will (2nd demonstrator ); Karsten Peters (Editor ); Herbert Steinmetz (Concierge ); Nino Korda (TV delivery man ); Raul Gimenez (1st waiter ); Udo Kier (2nd waiter ); Andrea Heuer (Librarian ); Ulrike Vigo (Mariechen ); Helmut Petigk (Bouncer ); Juliane Lorenz (Saleswoman ); Marita Pleyer (Rahel ); Maxim Oswald (Grandfather Berger ).
Publications
Books:
Baer, Harry, Schlafen kann ich, wenn ich tot bin: Das atemlose Leben des Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Cologne, 1982.
Eckhardt, Bernd, Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Im 17 Jahren 42 Filme—Stationen eines Lebens für den deutschen Film, Munich, 1982.
Iden, Peter, and others, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Munich, 1982.
Raab, Kurt, and Karsten Peters, Die Sehnsucht des Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Munich, 1982.
Foss, Paul, editor, Fassbinder in Review, Sydney, 1983.
Franklin, James, New German Cinema: From Oberhausen to Hamburg, Boston, 1983.
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, Film befreien den Kopf: Essays und Arbeitsnotizen, edited by Michael Töteburg, Frankfurt, 1984.
Hayman, Ronald, Fassbinder, Film-Maker, London, 1984.
Phillips, Klaus, New German Filmmakers: From Oberhausen Through the 1970s, New York, 1984.
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, Die Anarchie der Phantasie: Gespräche und Interviews, edited by Michael Töteburg, Frankfurt, 1986.
Katz, Robert, and Peter Berling, Love Is Colder Than Death: The Life and Times of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, London, 1987.
Elsaesser, Thomas, New German Cinema: A History, London, 1989.
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, The Anarchy of the Imagination: Interviews, Essays, Notes, Baltimore, 1992.
Elsaesser, Thomas, Fassbinder's Germany: History, Identity, Subject, Amsterdam, 1996.
Watson, Wallace Steadman, Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Film as Private and Public Art, Columbia, 1996.
Kardish, Laurence, editor, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, New York, 1997.
Thomsen, Christian, Fassbinder: The Life & Work of a Provocative Genius, New York, 1997.
Lorenz, Juliane, editor, Chaos As Usual: Conversations About Rainer Werner Fassbinder, New York, 1999.
Articles:
Variety (New York), 2 September 1981.
Serceau, D., in Image et Son (Paris), November 1981.
Audibert, L., in Cinématographe (Paris), November 1981.
Magny, Joel, "Lola, une femme allemande : Des fantasmes de la petite-bourgeoisie liberale et des leurs consequences politiques," in Cinema (Paris), November 1981.
Bonitzer, P., in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), November 1981.
Tobin, Yann, "Den das ist meine Welt, und sonst gar nichts . . . ," in Positif (Paris), December 1981.
Jarto, G., in Film & Kino, (Oslo), 1982.
Wortzelius, H., in Filmrutan (Stockholm), 1982.
Caron, A., in Jeune Cinéma (Paris), February 1982.
Auty, Chris, in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), April 1982.
Nelissen, I., in Film en Televisie (Brussels), April 1982.
Johnson, S., in Films and Filming (London), May 1982.
Bernts, T., and P. Janssen, in Skrien (Amsterdam), May-June 1982.
Boer, L. de, in Skoop (Amsterdam), June 1982.
Franchi, I., in Cinema Nuovo (Turin), August-October 1982.
Stefanoni, L., in Cineforum (Bergamo), September 1982.
Hoberman, J., in American Film (Washington, D.C.), September 1982.
Chicoine, J. F., in Séquences (Montreal), October 1982.
Mravcova, M., in Film a Doba (Prague), November 1982.
Macbean, J. R., "The Cinema as Self Portrait: The Final Films of R. W. Fassbinder," in Cineaste (New York), 1983.
Cinema Journal (Evanston, Illinois), Fall 1983.
Turovskaya, M., in Iskusstvo Kino (Moscow), December 1983.
Elbert, L., in Cinemateca Revista (Montevideo), January 1984.
Willemse, H., in Skoop (Amsterdam), November 1985.
Moeller, H.-B., "Fassbinder's Use of Brechtian Aesthetics," in Jump Cut (Berkeley), April 1990.
Levy, Shawn, "Rainer Werner Fassbinder: When the Movies are Great, Does Their Maker's Manner Matter?" in American Film, vol. 16, no. 7, July 1991.
Schlumberger, Hella, "'I've Changed Along with the Characters in My Films': An Interview with Rainer Werner Fassbinder," in Performing Arts Journal, no. 41, May 1992.
Seesslen, Georg, "Lola," in EPD Film (Frankfurt), vol. 9, no. 6, June 1992.
Shattuc, Jane, "R.W. Fassbinder as a Popular Auteur: The Making of an Authorial Legend," in Journal of Film and Video (Atlanta), vol. 45, no. 1, Spring 1993.
Niroumand, Miriam, "German as a Foreign Language: Fassbinder on Video," in Cineaste (New York), vol. 20, no. 1, Winter 1993.
Medhurst, Andy, "The Long Take: Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder," in Sight and Sound (London), vol. 6, no. 2, February 1996.
Indiana, Gary, "All the Rage: Retrospective on Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder at the Museum of Modern Art," in Artforum, vol. 35, no. 6, February 1997.
* * *
Rainer Werner Fassbinder was by far the most prolific of Germany's Neue Welle directors, a group which includes Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, and Wim Wenders. During his short life, the controversial and iconoclastic Fassbinder directed 41 feature films of which Lola is arguably his best, perhaps his masterpiece.
Fassbinder's prodigious cinematic oeuvre abounded in political statements protesting psychological and material corruption. He held a lifelong contempt for those who lived for profit. The subject matter of the majority of his films is the post-World War II Adenauer years of Fassbinder's youth when Germany underwent its economic miracle. Fassbinder's political stance was not that of a great thinker. His socio-political philosophies emanated from his personal feelings, and his dissection of Germany's materialism was saved from total misanthropy by his abrasive wit and sense of the ironic. He disavowed those who called him a cynic by explaining, "My work is not cynical; it is realistic. Pessimistic. Life is pessimistic in the end because we die, and pessimistic in between because of corruption in our daily lives . . . . It is still the fact that you win by playing by the rules, and the pure person doesn't have much of a chance."
His depiction of the corruption which permeated his homeland was never more satisfying than in his allegorical quartet: The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lili Marlene, Lola, and Veronika Voss. These films span the social history of Germany from 1938 to the late 1950s and each is told from the point of view of a strong-willed woman (the mother country).
In Lola, a small town in Bavaria is controlled by the power elite, birds of prey who extort the poor and underprivileged. Led by Schukert, the building contractor, these officials conspire to gain political control over von Bohm, the new building commissioner. Their deus ex machina is Lola, Schukert's mistress, the mother of his illegitimate daughter and the singer in his whorehouse/cabaret. Von Bohm's moral and physical seduction by Lola is Fassbinder's cinematic metaphor for German corruption.
Lola obviously is a derivation of von Sternberg's Der blaue Engel, but it is only a derivation and not a re-make. The film expertly employs all of Fassbinder's filmic devices—his vivid use of color, his circular moving camera and long pans, his penchant for melodrama, his expert handling of actors, and most of all the distancing of himself and his camera from the subjects on the screen. All come together to better advantage here than in his previous works, making this easily his most accessible film.
Lola is a combination of themes from Der blaue Engel, Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, and the many influences of directors Fassbinder admired, such as Godard and Douglas Sirk, and stands as the best expression of his extraordinary personal cinema.
—Ronald Bowers
Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.
|
Healthcare reform: will the minimalist approach continue?(Column)
Magazine article from: Healthcare Financial Management; 2/1/1997; ; 700+ words
; ...The Telecommunications Act was chiefly the work of...officials. Telecommunications reform passed primarily because...The Kassebaum-Kennedy Act: A Minimalist Approach...the Kassebaum-Kennedy act, is a minimalist approach to healthcare reform, involving no new Federal...
|
|
CRA reform's unintended effect: bringing intitiatives to a halt. (Community Reinvestment Act) (Column)
Magazine article from: American Banker; 6/22/1994; ; 700+ words
; ...state of Community Reinvestment Act compliance. After much fanfare...the year-old federal CRA reform effort appears stalled. As...their programs. The extended reform effort has had the perverse...unintended byproduct of CRA reforms most severely impacts banks...garner maximum credit once CRA ...
|
|
Malpractice reforms not a cure-all. (Medical Malpractice Crisis).
Magazine article from: National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management; 3/10/2003; ; 700+ words
; ...on states where malpractice reforms succeeded in controlling costs...review several states where reforms have not delivered all of their...have stymied malpractice reforms in some states, according...defense attorneys and tort reform supporters. Although tort...Injury Compensation Reform ...
|
|
Acquisition reform: All sail and no rudder
Magazine article from: The Army Lawyer; 3/1/1998; ; 700+ words
; ...Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994,5 the Federal Acquisition...Measuring Results as an Acquisition Reform Is it a fair criticism to say that acquisition reform is all sail and no rudder...coming nearer to acquisition reform's announced goals. Paraphrasing...Bill Kovacic,8 the 1990's ...
|
|
AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAM IN WESTERN MINDANAO A SUCCESS
Newspaper article from: The Manila Times; 6/20/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...of the Department of Agrarian Reform, said over 60,000 mostly...said. The passage of Republic Act 6655, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), in 1988 was hailed...CARP is primarily a social-reform measure that addresses the need...
|
|
`Reform is a play on words' // Furor to fix the fixers has flared and faded often in Chicago history
Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times; 12/6/1987; ; 700+ words
; ...against the city - now that's reform. And a limit on campaign contributions...with the city - now that's reform. Some things, cynics notwithstanding, are reforms, cut and dried. Chicago's had only a precious few true reform mayors. Edward Dunne, mayor...mood has sometimes required an act of ...
|
|
Reform reaches out
Magazine article from: Alberta Sweetgrass; 9/30/1998; ; 700+ words
; ...book also states that: "The Reform Party of Canada supports eliminating...exemption under the Indian Act of Canada." At a party task...people in Airdrie on Aug. 19, Reform Indian Affairs critic Mike Scott said "the Reform Party doesn't say the reserves...
|
|
Reform Revising 'Who is A Jew' Policy After Years of Confusion
Newspaper article from: Forward; 6/19/1998; 700+ words
; ...on the Conference's Reform Jewish Practices Committee...appropriate and timely public acts of identification" with...differences in the way Reform rabbis and congregants...an opinion poll of 700 Reform rabbis on the issue of...the concept of `public acts of affirmation'" in...
|
|
Senate complicates reform; Split between GOP, Dems makes big tort reforms unlikely.(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Business Insurance; 2/5/2001; ; 700+ words
; ...possible to enact those two reforms; the class-action reform cited by Mr. McConnell; and...enactment of ``draconian'' reforms will not be possible, he said...Another area that's ripe for reform-although on the state rather...so-called ``sunshine'' acts, which require states that...
|
|
Educational Reform Begins In D.C.
Newspaper article from: Washington Informer; 8/7/1996; ; 700+ words
; ...Washington Informer 08-07-1996 Educational Reform Begins In D.C.. The District of Columbia School Reform Act of 1995 has been signed into law by President...and support promising efforts at school reform throughout the country. On Monday, July...
|
|
Military Reforms
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Russian History
...imaginable. His most enduring reform was the 1862 – 1864...The result of these three reforms centralized all power within...Milyutin's most important reform was the Universal Conscription Act of 1874 that required all Russian...standing army. Milyutin's reforms completely overhauled ...
|
|
Land Reform
Encyclopedia entry from: International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
...implementation. A major land reform was carried out around the...democratic and nonviolent land reform began in Denmark. A variety of land-reform undertakings are found in nineteenth...democratic and nonviolent land reforms, including many in European...collapsing before the catalyzing acts ...
|
|
|
Agrarian Reforms
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Russian History
...modernization. The nature of agrarian reform necessarily depends heavily...the date of the Emancipation Act, the purpose of which was...introduced a long period of agrarian reform through the Bolshevik Revolution...implementation of the Stolypin reforms, a series of changes designed...peasant ...
|
|
Education Reform
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Education
...well have viewed it as an "act of war." In support of their...efforts. The rhetoric of reform proclaimed that all children...sparking state action in education reform. California acted first, adopting omnibus education reform legislation that increased...s lead, adopting education reforms ...
|
|
Civil Service Reform
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to United States History
...office‐seeker that spurred reform on the federal level. After the...the 1883 Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. While that act initially applied...positions were classified. Civil service reform profoundly affected American society...
|
