Berlin Alexanderplatz

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 15-hour-plus adaptation of Alfred Döblin's novel, made for German television as a miniseries and later shown around the world in epic screening events, is the auteur's most lavish and complex production. The story of Franz Biberkopf (played with almost childlike openness and vulnerability by Gunter Lamprecht), who steps out of prison and into the depression of 1927 Berlin, is one of the most revered classics of German literature and a personal touchstone for Fassbinder, who identified with the trusting, emotionally open hero. It was a disastrous flop, proclaimed "too dark" (both visually and thematically) by German critics and viewers alike, but it has grown in stature with time. It's a mesmerizing portrait of the period (re-created on lavish sets at Bavaria Studios) and a devastating love story between the three central characters: the trusting and loyal Biberkopf, his manipulative and predatory friend Reinhold (Gottfried John), and Mieze, Biberkopf's naïve and adoring girlfriend, played with heartbreaking purity and simplicity by Barbara Sukowa. After 13 episodes, Fassbinder replays, rethinks, and entirely reimagines the novel in the impressionist epilogue: "Rainer Werner Fassbinder: My Dream of Franz Biberkopf's Dream." It remains one of the richest and most cinematically accomplished works ever made for television.

This lavish seven-disc set, collected in a foldout digipak, does the production justice. The 1980 production, shot in 16 mm at 25 frames per second (to match the German television standard), was restored and remastered in 2006 by the Fassbinder Foundation and cinematographer Xaver Schwarzenberger, and mastered for DVD by Criterion from that new digital master. The set also features the 1980 documentary "Notes on the Making of Berlin Alexanderplatz," which features invaluable behind-the-scenes glimpses of Fassbinder at work but little insight to the actual production; and two new documentaries by Juliane Lorenz (Fassbinder's editor, wife and controversial director of the Fassbinder Foundation). One revisits the film through interviews with the stars and other collaborators, the other is a thorough illustration of every step of the six-month restoration process. Also features Phil Jutzi's 1931 feature adaptation of the novel, a video interview with historian Peter Jelavich, and a booklet with essays and interviews.