Directed by:
Volker SchlöndorffCinematography:
Dietrich LohmannComposer:
Klaus DoldingerCast:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Sigi Graue, Margarethe von Trotta, Miriam Spoerri, Hanna Schygulla, Christine Schuberth, Michael Gempart, Carla Egerer (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Volker Schlöndorff transposes Bertolt Brecht's late-expressionist work to latter-day 1969. Poet and anarchist Baal lives in an attic and reads his poems to cab drivers. At first feted and later rejected by bourgeois society, Baal roams through forests and along motorways, greedy for schnapps, cigarettes, women and men: 'You have to let out the beast, let him out into the sunlight.' After impregnating a young actress he soon comes to regard her as a millstone round his neck. He stabs a friend to death and dies alone. 'You are useless, mangy and wild, you beast, you crawl through the lowest boughs of the tree.'
The film takes youthful impetuousness and hatred of oppression as its subject and also ponders the cult of genius and sexual morals. Rainer Werner Fassbinder simultaneously plays both Baal and himself and is surrounded by many actors who were later to perform in his own films. After the film was broadcast on West German television, Brecht's widow Helene Weigel prohibited any further screenings, arguing that the social circumstances engendering Baal's rebelliousness had not been adequately explained.
(Berlinale)
Cast
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Germany
Best movies:
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) (series) - actor, narrator
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Sigi Graue
Best movies:
The Artist in the Circus Dome: Clueless (1968)
The Niklashausen Journey (1970) (TV movie)
Baal (1970) (TV movie)
Margarethe von Trotta
German Empire
Best movies:
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970)
Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach (1971) (TV movie)
Coup de grâce (1976)
Miriam Spoerri
Best movies:
Baal (1970) (TV movie)
Hanna Schygulla
German Empire
Best movies:
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) (series)
Hunting Scenes from Bavaria (1969)
Christine Schuberth
Austria
Best movies:
Starke Zeiten (1988)
Sunshine Reggae auf Ibiza (1983)
King, Queen, Knave (1972)
Michael Gempart
Switzerland
Best movies:
Goodbye Lenin! (2003)
About a Girl (2014)
Chouans ! (1988)
Carla Egerer
Best movies:
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970)
Pioniere in Ingolstadt (1971) (TV movie)
Rio das Mortes (1971) (TV movie)
Marian Seidowsky
Best movies:
Young Törless (1966)
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971)
Gods of the Plague (1970)
Rudolf Waldemar Brem
Germany
Best movies:
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Martha (1974) (TV movie)
Jail Bait (1973) (TV movie)
Sabine von Maydell
West Germany
Best movies:
Baal (1970) (TV movie)
Tatort (1970) (series)
Das Traumschiff (1981) (series)
Johannes Buzalski
Best movies:
The Bridge (1959)
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach (1971) (TV movie)
Wilmut Borell
German Empire
Best movies:
The Devil Strikes at Night (1957)
The Doctor of Stalingrad (1958)
Baal (1970) (TV movie)
Claudia Butenuth
West Germany
Best movies:
The Last Valley (1971)
Ansichten eines Clowns (1976)
I Love You, I Don't (1976)
Ulf-Jürgen Wagner
German Empire
Best movies:
The White Rose (1982)
Baal (1970) (TV movie)
Herbert Rimbach
Best movies:
Baal (1970) (TV movie)
András Fricsay Kali Son
Kingdom of Hungary
Best movies:
Baal (1970) (TV movie)
Die wilden Fünfziger (1983)
Tatort (1970) (series)