SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
FASSBINDER BIERGARTEN WEDNESDAYS! Wednesday, November 10, 2021
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate. We’ll have staff to help guide/park you.
8pm GERMANY IN AUTUMN (1978, Fassbinder segment only, Leisure Time Features, approx 12mns) & THE THIRD GENERATION (1979, wri/dir Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Janus, Germany, 111mns)
IMPORTANT NOTE: These will be digital presentations. Because of the importance of these movies in the Fassbinder body of work, specifically his nuanced view of the politics of his time, we felt it was more important to screen these titles promptly then miss out on their placement in our series.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
***ALL GUESTS WILL BE TAKEN THROUGH PROTOCOLS PRIOR TO ENTERING THEATER SO EVERYONE CAN HAVE A FUN AND SAFE TIME.
***WE STILL RECOMMEND THAT EVERYONE BRING PROOF OF VACCINATION AND WE REQUIRE THAT EVERYONE WEAR MASKS.
***PLEASE HAVE A PHOTO OF YOUR VACCINATION CARD READY ON YOUR PHONE AND/OR HAVE IT ON YOUR PERSON FOR EASE OF CHECK IN.
HOW TO:
1)PLEASE BRING AND BE READY TO WEAR A PROPER MASK AT ALL TIMES INSIDE THE THEATER AS A SAFETY PRECAUTION.
2)PRE-ORDER ANY CONCESSIONS OR MOVIE MERCHANDISE you would like from the additional Add-Ons. You can pick up all concessions & merchandise at our tables in our lobby prior to the screening.
We will be able to sell concessions & merchandise at the theater. But it will make everything much quicker and easier if you pre-order!
3)PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANYONE EXHIBITING COVID OR FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS AT THE DOOR, WILL BE OFFERED COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO A FUTURE SHOW AND ASKED TO RETURN WHEN HEALTHY. So please, if you’re feeling sick, just write us at community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer your complimentary tickets to a future screening when you’re healthy. Let’s all do our part to beat this thing so we can go back to the complete movie going experience!
Tonight we screen two of Fassbinder's most pointed, provocative movies. His approx 12 minute segment in the Germany in Autumn omnibus movie (comprised of 13 directors' short films) and his feature length The Third Generation.
Both movies take head-on aim at the then raging debate about the Red Army Faction/Baader-Meinhoff Gang whose "revolutionary/terrorist (depending on your point of view)" actions were upending post-World War II West Germany's sense of its own identity.
The RAF/BMG were a left-wing guerilla organization that felt that West Germany had not adequately faced up to its fascist/Nazi past. Consequently, they employed guerilla tactics of kidnapping, terror, anarchy to try to force a change/confrontation. This included kidnapping/killing industrialists, etc.
In Germany in Autumn, Fassbinder stars alongside his then lover Armin, and Fassbinder's Mother in a quasi-documentary where Fassbinder interrogates those closest to him to get at their real thoughts about the events. This is one of Fassbinder's greatest works because it functions as both a window into his own politics AND his personal life, two keys to understanding his body of work.
In 1978, Fassbinder took the topic of the RAF/BMG and made it the subject of his feature The Third Generation which deals with a thinly-veiled fictionalized version fo the RAF/BMG as they bumble and bungle their way through the botched kidnapping of a West German tycoon. The movie had the audacity to play the whole situation as near farce thus enraging everyone from the far right to the far left. One enraged German audience even threw acid at the screen and another beat the projectionist!
These two movies demonstrate most directly the dangerous genius Fassbinder possessed. While most likely in sympathy with much of the German left, Fassbinder clearly saw how unproductive the RAF/BMG were in effecting any real systemic change. Fassbinder also has the extremely rare talent of seeing the bullsh*t of everyone.
Nowhere is this talent put to more dangerous use than these two movies where Fassbinder calls out large portions of ALL society-right and left- for its complicity in perpetuating a broken system through conservative complacency, willful ignorance, dumb ideas of what consitutes "revolution", or all of the above.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
35mm Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR OUR IN-DOOR THEATER SCREENINGS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write us at: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening.
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
There is, however, free parking all around the theater on Wilson and Bay Streets.
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
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HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.