Rating: 
Summary: A Snapshot Of A Time
Review: As another reviewer has noted, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's so-called "BRD Trilogy" cannot be compared to other movie trilogies, which take the same characters and show them over different periods of time. Instead, it is a snapshot of the Bundesrepublik as it existed in the 1940s and 1950s, as seen through the stories of three different women.
"The Marriage of Maria Braun" starts immediately after WWII, and lasts through the creation of the Bundeswehr in 1954. We are introduced to a woman who is hardened by the war and its aftermath (or maybe, her innate strength enabled her to survive.) Maria Braun is tough, shrewd and manipulative -- and gets more so as the years pass. By and large, the story of this climber is engrossing and realistic. (One minor flaw -- no American will believe that the "American officer" running the ramshackle court in Maria's trial, early in the movie, is actually American. He sounds like a German affecting an American accent. Poor casting choice!) We do not find out until the end of the movie (and possibly not even then) whether and how the marriage of Maria Braun endured, or whether Maria changed so much as to make the marriage impossible.
"Veronika Voss" was the last to be filmed, but falls second in the trilogy in terms of time. Filmed entirely in black and white, it looks like a late-1940s film noir, and has the feel of a thriller. When the film opens (ca. 1956), Veronika is a washed-up actress from the Third Reich years, now addicted to morphine. Like Maria Braun, she too knows how to manipulate men, in this case, for money to buy drugs. As the film goes on, the mystery unfolds. Veronika is living in her dreams of the past, and two Holocaust survivors are attempting to flee from their own memories. This film, while not as widely acclaimed as "Maria Braun," is my personal favorite.
The third movie (actually made second) is "Lola," filmed in sharp, almost candy-colored tones. Like Maria Braun (but unlike Veronika Voss), Lola is a tough, strong, climber who moves up from prostitution to becoming the wife of a building inspector. The theme here is that under the faux "moral" patina of the town lies seething immorality and corruption.
Criterion gives you all this, plus a bonus disk with a documentary and an interview with Fassbinder, plus commentary on every one of the films. This is a great deal, and a fascinating look at the BRD in the 1950s -- a country running from, hiding, re-creating, and ultimately coming to terms with its past while building its future.
Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Trilogy
Review: Fassbinder's BRD trilogy is not a trilogy in the sense of being one continuous story spread over three films. Each film is separate and self-contained with different characters. Moreover all three films have a very different style. The link between the films is that they are all set in the period just after World War II and tell the story of the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD) and its recovery from the wreckage of defeat. Each film has as a central character a woman struggling to live in the new Germany. Fassbinder uses these women's lives to comment upon the history of the forties and fifties and especially to critique Germany's "Economic Miracle." The films however, are not politically heavy handed. Fassbinder may be critical of aspects of post-war German society, but his points arise naturally from the nature of the stories the films tell. He clearly saw that his first task as a filmmaker was to make films with strong stories, which were both intellectually and emotionally involving. He succeeds with the three films in the trilogy. One of the reasons for the success of these narratives is the acting. The performances, especially from the three main actresses, are superb. Furthermore these films show that Fassbinder did not forget that his audience should be able to comprehend his ideas. He avoids being cryptic or obscure.The prints on the Criterion DVDs are very good. The films are presented in their original aspect ratios and look great. This is important especially for Lola with its unusual colour palette and for Veronika Voss with its stark black and white photography. Criterion also does very well in providing good subtitles to these films. Fassbinder often uses multiple layers of dialogue with, for example, characters talking while a radio plays one of Adenauer's speeches in the background. The difficult task of subtitling such scenes is carried out well. This box set contains a huge amount of extras. Each film has a commentary and in addition there are over five hours of documentaries and interviews with the people involved in making the films. There is finally a fifty-page booklet about the trilogy. These DVDs are a great introduction to the work of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The films are enjoyable and thought provoking and essential for anyone interested in post-war German culture.
Rating:
Summary: No real euphoria...
Review: God bless Criterion for finally releasing Rainer Werner Fassbinder's most popular films on disc. The great underappreciated little madman of the New German Cinema and certainly the most ignored genius in film history, Fassbinder's trilogy of films are set in the fifties of the Federal Republic, where the beautifully detailed characters are tortured by post-war burns on society. In The Marriage of Maria Braun, the title heroine loses her husband to war after spending half a day and one night with him, only to have him return and demand from her the weight of obligation. In Lola, an idealist reconstructionist falls in love with a brothel singer and sacrifices his innocence to his obsession. And Veronika Voss tells the story of a former actress whose involvement in a murder plot leads to her undoing. Featuring outstanding work by actors such as Hanna Schygulla and Armin Mueller-Stahl, gorgeously photographed by Michael Ballhaus and Xaver Schwarzenberger, the BRD Trilogy is an outstanding follow-up to Criterion's recently released Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (my personal favorite Fassbinder - pick it up if you haven't already). Fassbinder's agonized desire for art through life led to an independent revolution of absolute brilliance. Fourteen years, forty-four films and not one of them bad: the proof is right here in this amazing trio of brutally dark and romantic cinema.
Rating: 
Summary: Now this is chunky.
Review: I dont know if the films really deserve such extreme fawning (they are "small" films with an extremely independent feel) and my personal favourite of Fassbinder's of those I've seen, I must admit, is Criterions' "Ali..". Now that at least deserved a commentary. Still, every Fassbinder addicts' dream. The films themselves vary in quality; the first two "...Maria Braun" and "Veronika Voss" are the best, while Lola is the weakest of the lot (dramatically and conceptually). The real beef here is a lengthy documentary on the bonus disk. This is worth the proverbial 'price of admission', and rounds off a trilogy of nice "little" films. For more quality German stuff check out "The American Friend" by Wim Wenders. It's really cool.
Rating:
Summary: Now this is chunky.
Review: I dont know if the films really deserve such extreme fawning (they are "small" films with an extremely independent feel) and my personal favourite of Fassbinder's of those I've seen, I must admit, is Criterions' "Ali..". Now that at least deserved a commentary. Still, every Fassbinder addicts' dream. The films themselves vary in quality; the first two "...Maria Braun" and "Veronika Voss" are the best, while Lola is the weakest of the lot (dramatically and conceptually). The real beef here is a lengthy documentary on the bonus disk. This is worth the proverbial 'price of admission', and rounds off a trilogy of nice "little" films. For more quality German stuff check out "The American Friend" by Wim Wenders. It's really cool.
Rating:
Summary: A box of the good ole' B.R.D - Incredible!
Review: I highly recommend this box set to anyone who enjoys movies, and particularly to anyone with an interest in Germany. Despite the serious and tragic aspects of these stories, they are extremely enjoyable to watch.
Maria Braun: What a lady! Though it ultimately destroys her, Maria uses life to her own ends rather than allow it to make mincemeat of her. Like Wedekind's Lulu, she effortlessly climbs the ladder, innocently using the men who love her. The pace of this movie takes one's breath away.
Veronika Voss: Poor dear! Already drug-addicted at the outset of the film, she cannot let go of what she had before the war. She is simply a pathetic shell of a woman that crumbles with a whimper at the end. Fun to watch? Well, Rainer and Xaver made a black and white stunner.
Lola: Try to resist her! Is it an act or is she really that innocent? After deceiving a building commissioner into falling in love with her, the truth destroys both their idealized pictures of love. The close of the film is devastating. Beautifully shot, and even more fast paced than Maria Braun.
The special features are fascinating, and, if you had them, you could spend hours with the 2 long documentaries, 8 interviews (including one with a ravished-looking Fassbinder), and 3 commentaries. Well worth the coin amazon asks!
Rating:
Summary: for Maria Braun only
Review: One of the greatest films I have seen. The dialogue is razor sharp, even in subtitles, which is itself an amazing, perhaps unintended, achievement. The story blends the surreal with historical fiction, and is protrayed in an effectively stylized way. As may be expected, the cinematography is brilliant, from the way close-up beads of sweat on skin convey climate and mood, to the freeze-frame technique used to underscore the brilliant existential connection tethered from beggining to end. I have yet to see the other two films that make up the "BRD Trilogy".
Rating:
Summary: The german tragic epic
Review: Since I watched this movie in 1980 I became a real admirer of the genius of Mr. Fassbinder.
All the story is a full circle. It's a untired fight against the fate and the search for the bliss not only of Maria Braun, but Germany in final instance, because the metaphor is brutally clear.
The sense of loss, the hope (altough no matter what),the intelligent and proactive personality of Maria, the spirit of to achieve the goal, the huge tension carried under the body of Maria Braun, just for love. Twelve years are lived in this tale from 1942 to 1954. This personal epic is so really described for Fassbinder without exploring but living and suffering in silence the pain and the anguish. Fassbinder made several true gems for all the eternity, but this film in particular has a strange enchantment, so convincent and so human that in my personal view (it constitutes not only the most sincere statement of Fassbinder for ejecting the inner demons of the Germany of the postwar) one of the most perfect examples of the supreme perfection in the germany cinema together with The bridge (Rowicki), the wrath of God (Herzog),the american friend (Wenders), the tin drum (Schlondorff) and Das Boot (Petersen).
Don't miss
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I expected but still a fine release.
Review: The BRD Trilogy is a set of 3 films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In this release by the Criterion Collection. The format is released in a 4 disc box set. The BRD stands for Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany.)
Die Ehe der Maria Braun (The Marriage of Maria Braun) 1979
Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss (Veronika Voss) 1982
Lola (Lola) 1981
The first film, "Marriage of Maria Braun" is about a young woman who marries a German soldier near the end of World War 2 but he becomes MIA after the wedding. This film has some fine imagery of Germany and does well at reenacting The war.
The second film "Veronika Voss" is about an ailing German actress who is hiding in a clinic and a journalist who is attempting to find her. It is filmed in black and white and is also an interesting release.
The third film "Lola" is about a woman working as a prostitute and exotic dancer who is attempting to quit her job. This is also an interesting film but is boring just as well.
The set has some great special features which compensate.
Disc 1 contians the Maria Braun film along with audio commentary by cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and filmmaker Wim Wenders and interviews with lead actress Hanna Schygulla and scholar Eric Rentschler.
Disc 2 contains the film "Veronika Voss" along with audio commentary by scholar Tony Rayns, interviews with lead actress Rosel Zech and editor Juliane Lorenz, and the documentary Tanz mit dem Tod (Dance with Death) The documentary is a biographical sketch of Sybille Schmitz who is the inspiration for the film's title character.
Disc 3 contains the film "Lola" along with audio commentary by Christian Braad Thomsen, a friend of Fassbinder and video interviews with lead actress, Barbara Sukowa and co-screenwriter, Peter Märthesheimer.
Disc 4 contains a video interview with Fassbinder collaborator, Xaver Schwarzenberger. There is also a 45 minute video interview with Fassbinder titled "Life Stories: A conversation with R.W. Fassbinder" and also a documentayr about Fassbinder titled, "I Don't Just Want You to Love Me"
In addition, there is a large booklet with information about the production of each of the films.
While I did not enjoy these films, fans of Fassbinder will certainly enjoy this. Hopefully, Fassbinder's best work, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" will one day be re-released!
Rating:
Summary: MY FAVORITE FILM TRILOGY
Review: These three films are all similar and yet different. They are all aout post-war Germany, they are all about women, and they are all about coruption. And yet it is hard to find a trilogy in which the films are so different. The Marriage of Maria Brown is about a women's dedication to her husband despite his absence - and her success through any means possible - including prostituting herself - which mirrors the situation of Germany and its economic miracle - which came at a large price which can be witnessed in the films powerful last scene.
Lola is also about a woman who is reduced to prostitution - but is also about a longing for innocence in a way. The character of Von Bohm represents this innocence - that over the course of the film gets dragged through the mud only to come out at the other end as he buys Lola from Schukert.
Veronica Voss is a fitting end to the trilogy ending in a very tragic scene from Rosel Zech.
Fassbinder's collaboration with Xaver Schwarzenberger in the last two films is amazing. Never has anyone exhibited as much control over lighting and image and its relationship to content as these two geniuses do here (and in Berlin Alexanderplatz).
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