Lola (1981)

Director:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writers:

Pea Fröhlich and
Peter Märthesheimer ...
(more)

Release Date:

4 August 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Ten years after the war, West Germany's market economy is booming. Into an unnamed city that's rife with corruption comes a new building commissioner...

Plot Keywords:

Nipple Slip | One Word Title | Forced To Strip | Character Name In Title

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Barbara Sukowa	...	Lola
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Von Bohm
Mario Adorf	...	Schukert
Matthias Fuchs	...	Esslin
Helga Feddersen	...	Frau Hettich
Karin Baal	...	Lola's Mother
Ivan Desny	...	Wittich
Elisabeth Volkmann	...	Gigi
Hark Bohm	...	Volker
Karl-Heinz von Hassel	...	Timmerding (as Karl Heinz von Hassel)
Rosel Zech	...	Frau Schuckert
Sonja Neudorfer	...	Frau Fink
Christine Kaufmann	...	Susi
Y Sa Lo	...	Rosa
Günther Kaufmann	...	GI
Isolde Barth	...	Frau Volker
Karsten Peters	...	Editor
Harry Baer	...	1st demonstrator
Rainer Will	...	2nd demonstrator
Herbert Steinmetz	...	Concierge
Nino Korda	...	TV delivery man
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Raúl Gimenez	...	1st waiter (uncredited)
Andrea Heuer	...	Librarian (uncredited)
Udo Kier	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Juliane Lorenz	...	Saleswoman (uncredited)
Maxim Oswald	...	Grandfather Berger (uncredited)
Helmut Petigk	...	Bouncer (uncredited)
Marita Pleyer	...	Rahel (uncredited)
Ulrike Vigo	...	Little Marie (uncredited)

Directed by
Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writing credits
Pea Fröhlich		and
Peter Märthesheimer		and
Rainer Werner Fassbinder		(as R.W. Fassbinder)

Produced by
Wolf-Dietrich Brücker	....	producer: WDR (as Wolf Brücker)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder	....	line producer
Thomas Schühly	....	line producer
Horst Wendlandt	....	producer
Hanns Eckelkamp	....	co-producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Freddy Quinn
Peer Raben

Cinematography by
Xaver Schwarzenberger

Film Editing by
Rainer Werner Fassbinder		(as Franz Walsch)
Juliane Lorenz

Production Design by
Raúl Gimenez
Rolf Zehetbauer

Art Direction by
Helmut Gassner

Costume Design by
Barbara Baum
Egon Strasser

Makeup Department
Edwin Erfmann	....	makeup artist (as Eddi Erfmann)
Anni Nöbauer	....	makeup artist
Hedy Polensky	....	makeup artist (as Hedi Polensky)

Production Management
Michael Bohnstengel	....	unit manager
Michael McLernon	....	unit manager
Stephan Pfleger	....	unit manager
Thomas Schühly	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Karin Viesel	....	assistant director

Art Department
Richard Eglseder	....	property master
Hans Stangl	....	property master

Sound Department
Vladimir Vizner	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Ekkehard Heinrich	....	lighting technician
Josef Vavra	....	assistant camera (as Sepp Vavra)
Karl-Heinz Vogelmann	....	still photographer

Other crew
Nico Brücker	....	production assistant
Helga Fischer	....	production assistant
Dieter Gackstetter	....	choreographer
Gisela Schneider	....	production secretary
Jean-Étienne Siry	....	poster designer (french version)
Ursula Wöhrl	....	cashier

Thanks
Alexander Kluge	....	dedicatee

Production Companies

• Rialto Film
• Trio Film
• Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

Distributors

• Tobis (1981) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• AMLF (1981) (France) (theatrical)
• Filmways Australasian Distributors (1981) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Kinosto (1982) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Dolmen Home Video (2005) (Italy) (DVD)
• Finnkino (2008) (Finland) (DVD)
• Goethe-Institut (1982) (Finland) (VHS)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2004) (Germany) (DVD)
• Poletel (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Sherlock Home Video (2005) (Spain) (DVD)
• United Artists Classics (1982) (USA) (subtitled)
• Universal Pictures (1992) (Germany) (VHS)
• Videocast (198?) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1993) (Finland) (TV)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 (f) | Spain:13 (re-rating) | Iceland:L | Australia:M | Germany:16 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Rialto Film

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The photograph above the mayor's desk shows downtown Houston, Texas as it looked in the 1960s. The film is set in the late 1950s.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Little Marie:Are you happy?
Von Bohm:Yes, Marie. I am happy.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "At the Movies: The Long Good Friday/Class of 1984/Lola/Pink Floyd The Wall (#1.1)" (1982)

Soundtrack:

Caprifischer

wonderful and mostly heartbreaking melodrama from Fassbinder

Lola is a singer, and a sometimes-prostitute, in the whorehouse run by Schukert, a big vulgarian who also happens to have a land deal coming up and has such a reputation that he won't be hassled by a cop when at a checkpoint. A new building commissioner is in town, Von Bohm, and he's a very pure soul, non-corruptible, sensible, a 'moralist' if ever there was one. But he's soon entranced by a 'chance' meeting with Lola (who is, actually, put on the spot to charm the straight-arrow Von Bohm), and soon he becomes enraptured with her, to his possible demise. If this premise is pretty much similar to the Blue Angel, it's intentional so much so that I would consider this a full-blown remake- Blue Angel set this time in post WW2 Germany instead of pre-War, and with some extra doses of socio-political context thrown in (and, of course for Fassbinder, some added sensuality that works magnificently as classy-raunch, if that makes sense).

Fassbinder's film Lola, one of his last and the 2nd part of a BDR trilogy he made, is sumptuous melodrama, filmed with such a vibrant and eclectic and varied sense of color with the lighting and sets and costumes- on the faces and bodies and sets- that one can just look at any scene in this and find something fantastically stylized about it. It should be a real horror-show fable, but Fassbinder is something much of a realistic-romantic, if that also makes any sense, in that he thrusts naturalistic actors alongside a few 'personalities' (one of them a great actor playing Schukert, Mario Adolf), among such vibrant sets like the inside of the nightclub and amid the turmoil of the post-war German setting where the economy is finally back in boom (if not for everyone).

Occasionally some of the musical choices- or just the abundance of them in nearly every scene- is a bit much, and I was thrown off by what seemed like maybe too much of a happy ending considering everything tragic that has preceded it (Fassbinder doesn't let his characters completely off the hook, but it feels too clean-cut as well). However Fassbinder is also working on some prime material with a real eye for the harrowing scope of a tragic romance and the means of 'fitting-in' to a urban landscape where, according to Lola, Von Brum doesn't really fit in. It's also got Barbara Sukowa as the title character, obviously in a career-high-point, and Armin Mueller-Stahl in another of a long series of really interesting roles where he can show emotions but very wisely and carefully and appears to be reserved- sometimes deceptively reserved like in Eastern Promises- and for Von Brum it's one of his best.

Anyone who loves a juicy drama of romance and building-capitalist intrigue would do well to watch this. I'm sure it'll be one of Fassbinder's best. 9.5/10