Pioneers in Ingolstadt

Starring:Hanna Schygulla, Harry Baer, Irm Hermann, Rudolf Waldemar Brem, Walter Sedlmayr, Klaus LÃ¶witsch, Carla Egerer, GÃ¼nther Kaufmann, Burghard Schlicht, Elga Sorbas, GÃ¼nther KrÃ¤Ã¤
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Studio: Fantoma
Product Type: DVD

Description

He's been called everything from a petty tyrant to the last great filmmaker of the 20th century. In little more than a decade, Rainer Werner Fassbinder created an amazing legacy of 43 films and, by his death at the age of 37, had destroyed boundaries, redefined genres, and changed the course of world cinema. The lush widescreen western "Whity" (1970, 95 min.), winner of two German Oscars, centers on a slave who becomes the obsession of a demented family intent on disposing of one another. Presented in a beautifully restored anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen transfer. "Pioneers in Ingolstadt" (1970, 87 min.), Fassbinder's first film to be invited to the Cannes and New York Film Festivals, alternates between perverse comedy and melancholy as a group of young German recruits building a wooden bridge in the town of Ingolstadt seeks relief from their boredom with alcohol, acts of brutality, and sexual escapades. A fierce cinematic talent, Fassbinder was hailed at the time by Vincent Canby as the most original filmmaker since Jean-Luc Godard.

Average customer rating:

building a bridge...
EXCELLENT!!
Boring and pointless
Good picture and sound quality

Pioneers in Ingolstadt
Starring: Hanna Schygulla , Harry Baer , Irm Hermann , Rudolf Waldemar Brem , and Walter Sedlmayr
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Manufacturer: Fantoma
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005KH2D
Release Date: 2001-07-10

Description

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's first film to be invited to the Cannes and New York Film Festivals, "Pioneers in Ingolstadt" is the story of a group of young German recruits whose assignment is to build a wooden bridge in the town of Ingolstadt. They seek relief from their boredom with alcohol, acts of brutality and sexual escapades with the local women. Alma (Irm Hermann) and her friend Berta (Hanna Schygulla) welcome the excitement that the new arrivals bring to their lives, but while Alma picks up passing soldiers, Berta searches for true love. Heavily influenced by the theater of Bertolt Brecht and the Hollywood melodrama of Douglas Sirk, the film alternates between perverse comedy and melancholy. "Pioneers in Ingolstadt" announced the arrival of a fierce new cinematic talent, a talent that the New York Times' Vincent Canby dubbed the most original since Jean-Luc Godard.

Customer Reviews:

building a bridge..........2007-03-05

Fassbinder's unique adaptation of the fleisser story is something of a bridge in his career as a film director.. You can see elements of his previous movies in 'Pioneers ingolstadt' but you can also see that it looks forward to his later melodramas.. The unique camera work and lighting (pre michael balhaus) highlight the sexual frustrations and the battles that are being waged in this town.. Fassbinder creates a mood that lasts the whole movie.. The movie once again adresses the impossibility of love... and it shows how you can use the needs of other people as a weapon against them.. It is not Fassbinder's easiest work - but one of his most important..

EXCELLENT!! .......2006-02-26

This is the best review for this film that I have ever seen, so I wanted to share it here! (Source listed at bottom)

Why anyone of their own free will should elect to employ the most difficult accent in the British Isles to imitate plausibly - Northern Irish - is beyond me. Criticism over; the rest is rave. A squad of outsiders (with sort-of-Ulster burrs) cause upheavals in the lives of the (central Irish brogue-laden) inhabitants of a small '20s Bavarian town when they arrive to build a bridge. Town, surrounding hills, river and bridge are evoked in turn by a simple and superbly versatile set, which the squaddies and the local moat-swimming club move over, under and through as required.

The several strains of the plot - the girl who wants to go with a soldier and picks the most casually misogynistic of the lot, the one whose flirtatious savvy deserts her and is led into the game, the middleclass lad trying both to be one of the boys and to find lurve - are beautifully orchestrated by author Marie-Luise Fleisser and pitched to perfection by the ensemble. Any worries of tokenism surrounding the Gate's Women in World Theatre season are more than dissipated.

Written for City Limits magazine.

Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.

Boring and pointless.......2005-03-31

I have seen various Fassbinder movies and this one is clearly the weakest. Somebody tell me the point of this movie.

Pioneers in Ingolstadt is about a group of Germany army recruits stationed in the small Bavarian town of Ingolstadt to build a wooden bridge. The movie summarizes the interactions of various recruits with the local population from sexual encounters with the women and evoking jealousy amongst local men. Then, the bridge is built and they leave at the end.

As said, I watched this movie and at the end, asked myself what it was about. Some of the material doesn't make sense either. The soldiers wear swastikas on their berets. [...] Also, there is a BMW in the movie which appears to have been manufactured well after World War II.

If you want to see some of Fassbinder's better works, watch movies like Martha and Katzelmacher. This one will disappoint.

Good picture and sound quality.......2001-07-16

yeah this is what they should be like - colours are good, the sound is clear. Why can't all DVDs be of this quality??? the film is great of course. But I believe that buying a DVD is a bit of a risk - you don't know know if the quality of the transfer is going to be lousy (Querelle, Mirror) or good. What I hate most about DVDs is when the picture contains no movement, then it becomes like a still photo. Am I the only one who notices these things? BUY VHS if you care about picture quality.

The Fassbinder Collection I (Whity / Pioneers in Ingolstadt)

Average customer rating:

The Fassbinder Collection I (Whity / Pioneers in Ingolstadt)
Starring: Harry Baer , Elaine Baker (III) , Helga Ballhaus , Peter Berling , and Stefano Capriati
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

The Fassbinder Collection II (Martha/In A Year With 13 Moons)
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy (The Marriage of Maria Braun / Veronika Voss / Lola) - Criterion Collection
The Stationmaster's Wife
Fox and His Friends

ASIN: B0000687D5
Release Date: 2002-08-20

Description

Average customer rating:

building a bridge...
EXCELLENT!!
Boring and pointless
Good picture and sound quality

Pioneers In Ingolstadt
Starring: Hanna Schygulla , Harry Baer , Irm Hermann , Rudolf Waldemar Brem , and Walter Sedlmayr
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Manufacturer: Fantoma
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video