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Bookmark this pageThe Merchant of Four Seasons (1971)
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Made before Fear Eats the Soul, which it resembles in many respects, this deceptively muted melodrama chronicles the 'rubbing out' of a character found oddly irrelevant by those around him: a man who dreamed of being an engineer, but had to settle for a fruit and vegetable stall, his aspirations constantly frustrated by his social circumstances. The film builds with remarkable power towards a concluding scene in which the process of Hans' destruction is revealed to be blindly self-perpetuating. Fassbinder's regular ensemble perform with enormous precision, and there's a remarkable dinner party scene in which, in a kind of mesmeric shorthand, the mechanics of destruction are revealed, working like clockwork.Author: VG
Cast & crew
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Producer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Hans Hirschmüller, Irm Hermann, Hanna Schygulla, Andrea Schober, Gusti Kreissl, Kurt Raab, Klaus Löwitsch, Ingrid Caven full cast
Duration: 89 mins
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