Lola (1981)
Directed by: Rainer
Werner Fassbinder.
Written by: Rainer
Werner Fassbinder and Pea Frohlich and Peter Marthesheimer.
Starring: Barbara Sukowa (Lola),
Armin Mueller-Stahl (Von Bohm), Mario Adorf (Schuckert), Matthias Fuchs
(Esslin), Helga Feddersen (Fraulein Hettich), Karin Baal (Lola’s Mother), Ivan
Desny (Wittich), Elisabeth Volkmann (Gigi), Hark Bohm (Volker), Karl-Heinz von
Hassel (Timmerding), Rosel Zech (Frau Schuckert), Sonja Neudorfer (Frau Fink),
Christine Kaufmann (Susi), Y Sa Lo (Rosa), Gunther Kaufmann (GI), Isolde Barth
(Frau Volker).
Chronologically,
Lola was the second in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s BRD trilogy, about life in
Germany in the decade after WWII, and how corruption seeped into everyone’s
life at the time. I say second chronologically because the title card says BRD
3 – although BRD 2 – Veronika Voss – would be completed after this film. It is
also the lightest of the three film – light being a relative term here, as all
three films stink with moral decay. Like The Marriage of Maria Braun, the title
character here works as singer and prostitute in a club in Berlin – and wants
to get out of that life, to something more financially secure – something she
sees with the men she sleeps with, but cannot be a part of. Unlike Maria Braun
though, Lola doesn’t pull herself up with her own talent – true, Maria Braun
sank her hooks into a wealthy industrialist, and used that to get her position,
but she was legitimately good at that job – because morals are bad for capitalism,
and Maria Braun had none. By contrast. Lola (Barbara Sukowa) sets her sites on
the one incorruptible man in the film, and by the end, of course, has corrupted
him. The film is a kind of play on The Blue Angel – turned into a masterpiece
by Josef von Sternberg in 1930, where a teacher (Emil Jannings) is destroyed by
a lounge singer (Marlene Dietrich – never better), but more in terms of broad
outline, then specifics.
When we
first meet Lola, she is having fun with her life as singer/prostitute – her
main benefactor being the larger-than-life Schukert (Mario Adorf), the father
of her small child. He is a wealthy builder, who has made a killing in this
town reconstructing it after the war. Into this town comes Von Bohm (Armin
Mueller-Stahl). He is supposed to be the new building supervisor – the
government agent to make sure things are running above board. He is a moral man
– he doesn’t frequent the club that everyone does, so he doesn’t know who Lola
is when he meets her, and starts to fall for her. There’s a sense that Von Bohm
may actually be able to change things – to make things operate above board. He
immediately starts to try and clean up the office – both figuratively and
literally – but faced with the beautiful Lola, he is doomed.
Lola is
slightly lighter and more fun than The Marriage of Maria Braun or Veronika
Voss, mostly because for most of the movie, Von Bohm is kept in the dark about
Lola, her past and present. So we see the larger-than-life Schukert and Lola at
the wild parties at the club, and scenes where the quiet Von Bohm courts Lola
in his own quiet way. This was the first film Mueller-Stahl made after fleeing
East Germany, and there is something different about him than the rest of the
cast. He is less crash, more mannered. He’s like a foreigner who doesn’t know
the local customs, but tries to be a good sport about them until he starts to
see the reality of them. It’s a great performance by him. Sukowa is also great
– Lola doesn’t have the depth of Maria Braun – she is a fun loving girl, who
simply wants a taste of the good life, and she keeps it fun. She is lying
throughout the Von Bohm – but there may be some genuine affection there for him
underneath it all. She isn’t going to stop being who she is though. And Mario
Adorf is great as Schukert as well – as is Rosel Zech (who would go on to be Veronika
Voss) as his wife. She has no delusions over who her husband is – and doesn’t
really care. He makes money, he is a success, they are part of what passes for
high society here. He keeps his womanizing to the club, which for her is out of
sight, out of mind.
If Lola
is lighter than the other two films in the series, it isn’t because Fassbinder
doesn’t see the awfulness at its core – but it is because, at least by the end,
the characters are not destroyed. Lola has succeeded in getting what she wants,
and is happy. In a way, Von Bohm has gotten what he wants as well – he wanted
Lola. But he has been corrupted, and whatever good he may have been able to do,
he won’t be able to do it anymore. And you get the sense that while right now,
he can do what Frau Schukert does – and ignore his wife’s indiscretions – he
won’t be able to do it long term. Maybe I’m wrong – maybe this isn’t lighter
than the other two films. It just stops before we get to the destruction. The
last scene in the movie is terribly sad – as poor Von Bohm is taking a quiet
walk by himself, either unaware, or at least not thinking, about what his wife
and Schukert are doing at home.
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