In a rather tight race (with no real clear cut frontrunner throughout), this week's victory goes to the Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama Ali: Fear Eats the Soul over the epic TV mini-series Berlin Alexanderplatz by a final score of 42 to 38.
Third place goes to The Marriage of Maria Braun with 25 points, while fourth place is awarded to The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (my personal favourite) with 21 points and in fifth, Fox and His Friends, with 19. Just missing out were Chinese Roulette and Beware of a Holy Whore, each coming in with 17 points.
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Individual lists:
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David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
In a Year of 13 Moons (1978)
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Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic, Cinematical.com, Las Vegas Weekly,
San Jose Metro, Combustible Celluloid.com
Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)
Whity (1971)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1970)
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Disclaimer: To date, I've only seen 13 Fassbinder films, so my top 5 is a bit skewed. But also the ones I like best tend to run contrary to the popular ones...
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Christopher Null
Film Critic &
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1972)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Katzelmacher (1969)
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972)
Fear of Fear (1975)
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Michael Parent
Film Student
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Veronika Voss (1982)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Well, shame on me these are the only three films I've seen from Fassbinder. Maybe I should remediate with buying the Criterion Boxset....
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Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Chinese Roulette (1976)
Fear of Fear (1975)
second five:
Lola (1981),
In a Year with 13 Moons (1978),
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975),
Veronica Voss (1982),
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970).
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Matt Severson
Photograph Department, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Martha (1974)
Fox and His Friends (1975)
Querelle (1982)
Note: While I own the Berlin Alexanderplatz Criterion DVD, I still haven't watched it yet. So -- perhaps it'd be a future candidate for this list.
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Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic
Chinese Roulette (1976)
Fox and His Friends (1975) - While films depicting the exploitation of minority groups by those in power are fairly commonplace, it’s exceedingly rare to find films about the exploitation of minority group members by other members of the same group, which is precisely Fassbinder’s theme in this unique, emotionally shattering study of one elitist homosexual’s cruel treatment of his naïve but likable lower class lover, who’s played with heartrending poignancy by Fassbinder himself. Insofar as it deals with the manipulation/exploitation of one class over another, the film treads fairly familiar melodramatic turf, but Fassbinder introduces an additional layer of complexity by having both the exploiter/manipulator and the exploited/manipulated belong to the same (minority) group, thereby demonstrating, quite astutely, that treachery occurs not just between groups but within them as well. The final scene, in which two kids rob Fassbinder’s corpse, sums up the film’s despairing viewpoint with haunting power.
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
The Stationmaster’s Wife (1977)
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Alan Smithee
Cinephile Ex-Patriot
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970)
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Lili Marlene (1981)
The Stationmasters Wife (1977)
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Bill Georgaris
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971)
Fox and His Friends (1975)
Love is Colder Than Death (1969)
Katzelmacher (1969)
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Vasili Mamulashvili
Geographer & Film Enthusiast from Tbilsi, Geaorgia
Chinese Roulette (1976)
Lili Marlene (1981)
Mother Kusters Goes to Haven (1975)
Veronika Voss (1982)
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972)
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Hans Lucas
Film Student
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Effi Briest (1974)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970)
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Stan Czarnecki
Film Enthusiast & Critic
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Chinese Roulette (1976)
In a Year with 13 Moons (1978)
Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
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Dennis Schwartz
Film Critic Ozu's World Movie Reviews
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
In A Year Of 13 Moons (1978)
The Marriage Of Maria Braun (1979)
Whity (1971)
Querelle (1982)
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Ben Dalton
Lover of Film
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Fox and His Friends (1975)
In a Year of 13 Moons (1978)
The Stationmasters Wife (1977)
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975)
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Doug Riblet
Cinephile
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Whity (1971)
Veronika Voss (1982)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Chinese Roulette (1976)
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Tristan Anthony Johnson
Film Enthusiast
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Lola (1981)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Veronika Voss (1982)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
That's five out of the six I've seen. Sorry to Fox and His Friends.
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Matthew Griffiths
Film Enthusiast
Love is Colder than Death (1969)
Fox and His Friends (1975)
Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
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Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Fox and His Friends (1975)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
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*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created
The Top 5 Project
is on hiatus
til mid-October
