Berlin Alexanderplatz

Alfred Doblin's 1929 Berlin Alexanderplatz is a masterpiece of modern European literature. The first German novel to adopt the technique of James Joyce, it tells the story of ex-con Franz Biberkopf. Struggling to survive among the poverty, unemployment, crime, and burgeoning Nazism of 1920s Germany, fate teases him with a little pleasure before cruelly turning him in.

In 1980, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the genius of New German Cinema, adapted Doblin's novel into a legendary and controversial TV series starring Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa, and others. Presented in its re-mastered movie version at the 2007 Berlin film festival to unanimous acclaim, it will be on view in an international travelling exhibition.

This book features over 500 color film stills from the series, the complete script, and essays by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Susan Sontag, and exhibition curator Klaus Biesenbach.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1946-1982), German filmmaker, founded his own Anti-Theater company in 1968 with Hanna Schygulla. After his breakthrough with Katzelmacher in 1969, he completed over 40 feature films.

Klaus Biesenbach is Curator of Film and Media at the New York Museum of Modern Art and Chief Curator of the New York P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

Susan Sontag (1933-2004), American writer, was a leading commentator on modern culture. Her essays on camp, pornography, fascist aesthetics, photography, AIDS, and revolution gained international attention.