Though he never actually worked in Hollywood, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who died in 1982 at the age of 36, was influenced greatly by Amercian studio films of the 1950s and the convention of melodrama (the link most often mentioned is Douglas Sirk).
This brand new documentary takes a closer look at the production history, unique style, and lasting appeal of Fat City, as well as Leonard Gardner's novel that inspired it. Included in it are new interviews with actors Stacy Keach and Candy Clark, casting director Fred Roos, and camera assistant Gary Vidor.
Allison Anders talks about her love for the work of film director Douglas Sirk.
This absolutely top-notch documentary by Robert Fischer is a fascinating look back at not just the film in question, but Fassbinder's meteoric career which ended all too soon with his untimely death. Archival footage of Fassbinder is utilized (including several fascinating snippets culled from interviews he did at the disastrous Cannes premiere of Despair), as well as many others involved in the film and its release. Even if you're not a particular fan of Despair, or even in fact of Fassbinder, this is stellar documentary film making and is an intriguing look at one of the most enigmatic masters of the New German Cinema.
In June 2015, forty-five years after OUT 1 was made, the filmmakers went to Paris to interview cast and crew members and to revisit some of the film’s most significant locations. THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS features new contributions from actors Bulle Ogier, Michael Lonsdale and Hermine Karagheuz, cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn, assistant director Jean-François Stévenin and producer Stéphane Tchal Gadjieff, but also rare archival interviews with actors Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Michel Delahaye and, most prominently, illuminating statements by director Jacques Rivette himself from two different archival interviews.
Budd Boetticher talks about the Ranown Cycle, a collection of low-budget westerns of the late 1950s.
An interview with cinematographer Nestor Almendros about his work with French film director François Truffaut. Footage taken from the 1986 German documentary Arbeiten mit François Truffaut
Film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak discusses Pabst's 1931 film
In retracing the making of FEDORA, Robert Fischer’s documentary SWAN SONG: THE STORY OF BILLY WILDERʼS FEDORA adds yet another layer of comment and reflection on the film’s very own subject matter: 35 years after playing the romantic leads in FEDORA, Marthe Keller and Michael York look back at working with Billy Wilder – and their careers. Additional testimonies come from acclaimed cinematographer Gerry Fisher, producer Harold Nebenzal, Paul Diamond (son of Wilder’s writing partner I.A.L. Diamond), and German actor Mario Adorf.
In this feature-length interview, conducted by Robert Fischer in February 2015, Volker Schlöndorff talks about the making of his film BAAL (1969), based on the first play ever written by Bertolt Brecht. He describes his working relationship with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his group of actors and how the Brecht family hated the film when it first came out, resulting in BAAL’s inavailability for over 40 years.
An interview with cinematographer Richard H. Kline talking about his filming experience in Brian De Palma's film The Fury.
Archival interview with the co-writer of Max Ophuls' 1953 film THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE...
Ophuls scholar Alan Williams discusses the French director's 1950 film
For over half a century, the filmmaker Edgar Reitz, one of the signatories of the Oberhausen Manifesto and a pioneer of epic film narration, has explored, as a practitioner and theoretician, the rules and limits of cinema, which he always seeks to break and extend in new ways. One example of his tireless search and research are the Geschichten vom Kübelkind, which he co-directed with Ula Stöckl in 1969/70, 22 absurdly funny, subversive and anarchistic short films of different lengths, which consciously oppose all conventions, with incredible success. The films remain unrivalled in their Dadaistic inventiveness.
From footage filmed in 1983, this documentary presents an interview with director Jack Arnold and his reminiscences of the making of the 1957 film THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN.
The story behind the novel and the film Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
Milos Forman talks Robert Fischer through his filmography and the difficult transition from Czechoslovakia to Hollywood. Shot in 2000, edited and completed in 2018.
Allen Baron, director of "Blast of Silence" visits locations from the film and recalls the production.
Robert Fischer’s CINEMA REDEFINED: JACQUES RIVETTE’S L’AMOUR FOU REVISITED features new interviews with star Jean-Pierre Kalfon; writer/director and Rivette collaborator Pascal Bonitzer; Rivette biographer Antoine de Baecque; critic/historian Sylvie Pierre; and archival footage of Jacques Rivette
