methods of escape
by Douglas Messerli
by Douglas Messerli
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (screenplay, based on a novel by Oskar Maria Graf) and director Bolwieser (The Stationmaster’s Wife) / 1977, USA 1982
Filmed shortly before one of Fassbinder’s very greatest films, In a Year with 13 Moons, his 3 ½
hour 1977 television film, Bolwieser (The Stationmaster’s Wife) pared down to about 2 hours in the DVD
version I saw the other day, may appear to be a much-more contained soap-opera
given his next film’s almost hysterical comic and tragic scenes. Many critics,
in fact, have described this work as a kind of provincial Madame Bovary.
One quick perceives that the stationmaster
is so obsessed with his wife that he is utterly impervious to the local gossips
who whisper among themselves about his wife’s affairs. When, at a funeral wake,
the patrons also “wake” him up to the truth, Bolwieser finally confronts his
wife, who pretends such an intense innocence that her husband has no choice but
to believe her; and ultimately she and
Merkel join together to sue the gossips and win, despite the fact that
Bolwieser himself stumbles over his own testimony, the fact of which later
brings his downfall.
The cuckolded stationmaster simply
accepts his fate, as the slightly, but only slightly sorrowful Hani moves on to
the rest of her empty life.
At least, Bolweiser, representing another
version of Fassbinder’s memorable character Franz Biberkopf of his 1980
television series, Berlin Alexanderplatz,
may survive simply because of his mental incompetence. Yet like Biberkopf, the
naïve Bolwieser will obviously fare no better in the Third Reich. If nothing
else, Hani may become a high class whore which might, at least, connect her with
the people to help her get through the war—or utterly destroy her in the
process.
In the end, it appears, Fassbinder’s
melodrama is simply another extension of his central concerns. How does one
survive in a world determined to destroy and outlaw different forms of morality
and perceptions of love that lie outside of what is described as the norm. The
next step in this exploration was quite naturally to question the boundaries of
what even a body was, and who might possibly define and control it: issues very
much at the center of In a Year with 13
Moons. And, looking back on this film now, we can recognize its importance
in Fassbinder’s amazingly productive career. I have not yet encountered,
despite the equivocations of other critics, a film by this director that I
could dismiss. And The Stationmaster’s
Wife is clearly an important work.
Los Angeles, June
11, 2017
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