Lola

“One of Fassbinder's four masterpieces” (Vincent Canby, New York Times), Lola is a lush, lavish, candy-coloured hommage to The Blue Angel, the Josef von Sternberg/Marlene Dietrich classic. It was also one of Fassbinder’s greatest successes, and helped introduce both Barbara Sukowa and Armin Mueller-Stahl to wider international audiences. Set in a Bavarian city in 1957, Lola stars Sukowa as an ambitious, social-climbing cabaret singer and prostitute who sets her calculated sights on town's only honest politician, building commissioner von Bohm (Mueller-Stahl), while also maintaining her long-time affair with a corrupt developer (Mario Adorf). With The Marriage of Maria Braun and Veronika Voss, the film forms part of an informal Fassbinder trilogy on the moral bankruptcy at heart of Germany's postwar "Economic Miracle." “The prostitution metaphors come undiluted from early Godard, the poster-art visuals from the magnificent melodramas of Sirk and Minnelli; the provocations are all Fassbinder’s own" (Paul Taylor, Time Out). "Fassbinder’s funniest film and one of his most tender … Lola is a rarity, a work of art important and fun in equal proportions" (Jay Scott, Globe and Mail). Colour, 35mm, in German with English subtitles. 113 mins.