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The Merchant of Four Seasons
(Der Händler der vier Jahreszeiten)

Screening on Film
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
With Hans Hirschmüller, Irm Hermann, Hanna Schygulla.
West Germany, 1971, 35mm, color, 89 min.
German with English subtitles.

The first Fassbinder film to garner broad praise in Germany, this film tableau, saturated with color, centers on a repugnant family based on Fassbinder’s own, with events plucked directly from his familial life. The director’s sympathies lie firmly with Hans, his protagonist, a spirit yearning for unattainable freedom amidst unexceptional people in a lonely city. "This is a melodrama," Fassbinder claimed. "That always sounds like a dirty word, but I don’t think it is. It’s a socially critical melodrama, to put it simply."

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