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IMDbPro

Lola

  • 19811981
  • RR
  • 1h 55m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
6.1K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
14,925
3,466
Lola (1981)
DramaRomance
A seductive cabaret singer-prostitute pits a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, launching an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world wher... Read allA seductive cabaret singer-prostitute pits a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, launching an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything-and everyone-is for sale.A seductive cabaret singer-prostitute pits a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, launching an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything-and everyone-is for sale.
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
6.1K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
14,925
3,466
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Writers
      • Pea Fröhlich
      • Peter Märthesheimer
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Stars
      • Barbara Sukowa
      • Armin Mueller-Stahl
      • Mario Adorf
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Writers
      • Pea Fröhlich
      • Peter Märthesheimer
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Stars
      • Barbara Sukowa
      • Armin Mueller-Stahl
      • Mario Adorf
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 23User reviews
    • 41Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Awards
      • 4 wins

    Photos95

    Mario Adorf and Barbara Sukowa in Lola (1981)
    Barbara Sukowa in Lola (1981)
    Barbara Sukowa in Lola (1981)
    Udo Kier, Raúl Gimenez, Barbara Sukowa, and Elisabeth Volkmann in Lola (1981)
    Barbara Sukowa in Lola (1981)
    Y Sa Lo and Barbara Sukowa in Lola (1981)
    Barbara Sukowa in Lola (1981)
    Barbara Sukowa and Rosel Zech in Lola (1981)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl in Lola (1981)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl and Karin Baal in Lola (1981)
    Lola (1981)
    Armin Mueller-Stahl in Lola (1981)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Barbara Sukowa
    Barbara Sukowa
    • Lola
    Armin Mueller-Stahl
    Armin Mueller-Stahl
    • Von Bohm
    Mario Adorf
    Mario Adorf
    • Schuckert
    Matthias Fuchs
    Matthias Fuchs
    • Esslin
    Helga Feddersen
    • Fräulein Hettich
    Karin Baal
    Karin Baal
    • Lola's Mother
    Ivan Desny
    Ivan Desny
    • Wittich
    Elisabeth Volkmann
    Elisabeth Volkmann
    • Gigi
    Hark Bohm
    Hark Bohm
    • Völker
    Karl-Heinz von Hassel
    • Timmerding
    • (as Karl Heinz von Hassel)
    Rosel Zech
    Rosel Zech
    • Frau Schuckert
    Sonja Neudorfer
    • Frau Fink
    Christine Kaufmann
    Christine Kaufmann
    • Susi
    Y Sa Lo
    • Rosa
    Günther Kaufmann
    Günther Kaufmann
    • GI
    Isolde Barth
    Isolde Barth
    • Frau Völker
    Karsten Peters
    • Editor
    Harry Baer
    Harry Baer
    • 1st demonstrator
    • Director
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Writers
      • Pea Fröhlich
      • Peter Märthesheimer
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Part of the BRD Trilogy along with The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) and Veronika Voss (1982). "BRD" stands for Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the official name of West Germany and of the united contemporary Germany, period in which those three stories takes place.
    • Goofs
      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

      Lola: Did you love your wife very much?

      Von Bohm: I don't really know, perhaps. I came back from the war, and told myself: That's the woman I really love, otherwise I wouldn't have married her. But I didn't feel love. It was just... like the memory of love... Then she told me there was someone else, and for the first time since being back, I really felt something. Not love, but pain. I was thankful to my wife for teaching me how to feel again, even if it was pain.

    • Connections
      Edited into Großes Herz und große Klappe - Helga Feddersen (2001)
    • Soundtracks
      Unter fremden Sternen
      Lyrics by Aldo von Pinelli

      Composed by Lotar Olias

      (p) 1959 Polydor

      Performed by Freddy Quinn

    User reviews23

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    The memory of love
    Von Bohm is from East-Prussia, his two "weaknesses" are "East-Prussian human beings and West-Frisian tea", he tells to Lola's mother who works as his house-keeper after he has been elected as the new head of the construction department by the city of Coburg. Coburg - as any German city in the time of the "Wirtschaftswunder" - is a place "where people have an outer and an inner life, and both have nothing to do with one another". Although Von Bohm agrees, he has not a ghost of an idea that the elegant and beautiful young lady who gets his hand-kiss is in her "inner" life the attraction of the local bordello where the "crows" (major, police president, politicians, heads of the governmental departments) and the "vulture" (Schuckert) reunite every evening while their wives are knitting at home or are already asleep.

    It is amazing what Fassbinder made out of the Heinrich Mann-Von Sternberg drama "Professor Unrat" or "The Blue Angel", respectively. Fassbinder's Lola is not a man-murdering and at last unreachable "beauty" like the (not so beautiful) Marlene Dietrich, but a girl who has to nourish her little daughter and still has the hope for a better live. She is "open" for everybody and does not flirt with the distance. In the opposite: On the stage she goes from hand to hand and is something like a collective propriety of the "Creme De La Creme" of the little city. (The figure of Esslin - whose name is close to Enslin -, who quotes Bakunin in Lola's Boudoir, is probably the rest that remained from the original protagonist character of Professor Unrat.) Therefore, Fassbinder's Lola is not about the decrease of a society member by entering the "wrong" society, but about her way to become a part of her society and Von Bohm's desire to possess his beloved "object". This is managed in an almost fairy-tale-like style, typically (and ironically) for the Germany of the Adenauer-era, so that in the end everybody looks happy, since everybody got what he wanted: Lola says to Mrs. Schuckert: "Now I belong to you". Schuckert earns his 3 millions of D-Marks from the "Lindenhof", the Mayor will be reelected, and Von Bohm gets Lola. Then, Lola's little daughter asks him: "Are you happy now?". Von Bohm answers a bit hesitatingly by "Yes". Unlike Professor Unrat, he does not pay with his life for his love, but probably with his soul.
    helpful•24
    1
    • hasosch
    • Jan 3, 2010

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 4, 1982 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • West Germany
    • Official sites
      • Criterion (United States)
      • StudioCanal (France)
    • Languages
      • German
      • English
      • French
      • Latin
    • Also known as
      • BRD 3 - Lola
    • Filming locations
      • Bavaria Studios, Bavariafilmplatz 7, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany
    • Production companies
      • Rialto Film
      • Trio Film
      • Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • DEM 3,500,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $8,144
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $11,623
      • Feb 16, 2003
    • Gross worldwide
      • $8,144
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 55 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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