Merchant Of Four Seasons, The (BLU-RAY)
New German Cinema icon Rainer Werner Fassbinder kicked off a new phase of his young career when he made the startling The Merchant of Four Seasons. In this anguished yet mordantly funny film, Fassbinder charts the decline of a self-destructive former policeman and war veteran struggling to make ends meet for his family by working as a fruit vendor. Fassbinder had gained acclaim for a series of trenchant, quickly made early films, but for this one he took more time and forged a new style—featuring a more complexly woven script and narrative structure and more sophisticated use of the camera, and influenced by the work of his recently discovered idol, Douglas Sirk. The result is a meticulously made, unforgiving social satire.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary featuring filmmaker Wim Wenders
- New interviews with actors Irm Hermann and Hans Hirschmüller
- New interview with film scholar Eric Rentschler
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film scholar Thomas Elsaesser
New cover by David Plunkert