Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one of the most influential directors of the New German Cinema, was born in Bavaria in 1945. Over his fourteen-year career as a filmmaker, he directed more than forty films, in which he often also figured as an actor. Additionally, he adapted some of his own theatrical plays for the screen, such as The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), originally staged at the Anti-theater in Munich, a venue he founded and directed himself. Fassbinder is renowned for his iconic films, frequently starring Hanna Schygulla, including The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) and Lili Marlene (1980). One of his most notable works is the television series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), based on the novel of the same name by Alfred Döblin. Throughout his career, the filmmaker presented post-war German society through the lens of marginalized lives, delving into themes like isolation, apprehension, societal disarray, and defiance against established norms and authority, both on stage and on the cinematic canvas.
