BRD Trilogy: Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Disc 3: Lola (Criterion)

New digital transfer with restored image and sound.

By age of thirty four, German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder had already directed twenty-two feature films. In 1978, he embarked upon a project to trace the history of postwar Germany in a series of films told through the eyes of three remarkable women. Fassbinder's three films The Marriage Of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss and Lola-the BRD (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) Trilogy-would garner him the international acclaim for which he had always yearned and place his name foremost in the canon of New German Cinema. The Criterion Collection is proud to present these films for the first time ever in home video.

Germany is in the autumn of 1957. Lola (Barbara Sukova), a seductive cabaret singer and prostitute, exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out - she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor (Mario Adorf) against the new straight-arrow building commissioner (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything and everyone is for sale. Shot in childlike candy colors, Fassbinder's homage to Josef von Sternberg's classic The Blue Angel stands out as a satiric tribute to capitalism.