Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema, wrote, directed, produced and starred in over 40 films in his short but prolific life, before passing away of a drug overdose in 1982 aged just 37. Rainer Werner Fassbinder vol. 1 brings together a collection of his finest works from the early years of his career in High Definition digital restorations prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation.

His debut feature Love Is Colder Than Death (1969) is a playful but cynical crime picture, inspired by the nouvelle vague. Katzelmacher (1969) depicts the dynamics of a group of young layabout friends, which are radically altered by the arrival of an immigrant worker in their community. Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) pulls the curtain on the backstage dramas of the cast and crew of a film shoot as they wait in a Spanish seaside hotel for the arrival of funds to continue their production. The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) portrays the downfall of a beleaguered fruit seller in 1950s Munich as he struggles to keep his family, body and soul together.

Originally written and produced as a stage play, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) focuses on the loves, losses and lamentations of the titular Petra, a successful fashion designer with two marriages behind her and an estranged daughter. The Ulli Lommel directed Tenderness of the Wolves (1973) sees Fassbinder adopting the role of producer in a bleak tale based on the German serial killer Fritz Haarmann, memorably played by Fassbinder regular Kurt Raab, who also wrote the screenplay.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High definition digital transfers of all films prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all films
• Original uncompressed PCM mono 1.0 sound for all films
• Optional English subtitles for all films
• Reversible sleeves for all films featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde

DISC ONE - LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH & KATZELMACHER

• Two early short films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder from 1966, The Little Chaos and The City Tramp
• Interview with actor Ulli Lommel on Love is Colder Than Death
• End of the Commune?, Joachim von Mengershausen’s 1970 documentary portrait of Fassbinder and his troupe including rare footage of his actors rehearsing and Love Is Colder Than Death’s premiere at the 1969 Berlin Film Festival
• Original theatrical trailer for Katzelmacher

DISC TWO - THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS & BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE

• Audio commentary on The Merchant of Four Seasons by critics Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Christian McCrea
• Audio commentary on Beware of a Holy Whore by Adrian Martin
• Interview with actor Lou Castel on Beware of a Holy Whore
• Beware of a Holy Whore theatrical trailer

DISC THREE - THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT

• Commentary by filmmaker and lecturer Diane Charleson
• Life Stories: A Conversation with R.W. Fassbinder, a 50-minute interview with the director conducted for German television in 1978
• Role-Play: Women on Fassbinder, a 1992 documentary containing interviews with four of the director’s regular female performers, Margit Carstensen, Irm Hermann, Hanna Schygulla and Rosel Zech

DISC FOUR - TENDERNESS OF THE WOLVES

• Audio commentary by director Ulli Lommel, moderated by Uwe Huber
• Introduction by Ulli Lommel
• The Tender Wolf, an interview with Lommel
• Photographing Fritz, an interview with director of photography Jürgen Jürges
• Haarmann’s Victim Talks, an interview with actor Rainer Will
• An appreciation by Stephen Thrower, author of Nightmare USA and Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco
• Still gallery
• Theatrical trailer