BerlinAlexanderplatz Tagged Articles at Cinematical

How many movies can you watch in a row before they all begin to blur into one? As I'm sure many happy yet weary attendees of the Toronto International Film Festival can testify, it's very tempting to cram as many movies as possible into every viewing period at a festival. Beyond the confines of festivals, movie fans in general want to see as many good movies as possible, and time is short.

I sat through Rainer Werner Fassbinder's epic 15 and 1/2 hour Berlin Alexanderplatz during a very long night and a morning at a theater and felt drained, both physically and emotionally; I've watched seven movies in a row at Fantastic Fest and loved every moment; I've sat through eight movies back to back to back on videocassette in one day while on vacation. Lately, though, I find I'm lucky if I can watch even two movies in a row without interruption. Even if I had more unbroken availability, after two or maybe three movies I feel like I need a break, especially if they were good flicks. I want time to absorb what I've seen and think about them. That's especially true if I plan to write about them; the experiences begin to blend together, fusing themselves into an unholy viewing memory that is sometimes difficult to separate into individual segments.

How about you? I'm not talking about movies playing in the background while you do other things, but films that you're actively engaged in watching, either at home or at a theater. What's the most that you've seen in a row? Are some movies better as part of a double -- or triple or quadruple or whatever -- feature? When do they start to blur?

German cinema is mourning the loss of two greats this week, composer Peer Raben and actress Gisela Uhlen. The news of their deaths should be especially heartbreaking to fans of Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun, since it features the talents of both. Raben, who died Sunday at the age of 66, collaborated with Fassbinder on most of the director's films, including Querelle, which unfortunately earned the composer three Razzie nominations. Despite that one moment of fault, though, Raben was the recipient of a lifetime achievement honor at the 2006 World Soundtrack Awards.

In addition to scoring Fassbinder's major works, he also wrote original music for Wong Kar Wai's 2046 and The Hand (Wong Kar Wai's segment of the portmanteau Eros), Barbet Schroeder's Tricheurs and a restored version of Pandora's Box. And he occasionally wrote, directed, acted, produced. Uhlen died on January 16 at the age of 87. She had worked fairly steady as an actress for the past 70 years, though the aforementioned Fassbinder film is probably the work she's most known for in the States. It is also the film that brought her the one German Film Award she would ever receive. The only film that I have seen her in (I know, I need to see more Fassbinder) is Totò the Hero, and her death reminds me that it is disappointingly still unavailable on DVD in America.