Ali Wong's hilarious comedy special, and a contemporary v. of Berlin Alexanderplatz

A twofer: Last night we really enjoyed watching the spirited hour-long comedy special from Ali Wong, Hard Knock Wife, terrific and memorable not only for her fantastically energetic performance and her terrific comic timing but for the range of her materials, that stretches from a feminist take on a # of issues, especially sex on all its permutations, but also marriage equality, labor, breast-feeding, c-sections, the need for universal paid maternity leave - and on the lower end of the spectrum, fart jokes. She also had a few insights in her Asian cultural/ethnic background (a funny riff on Korean v Mexican culture in LA). The material here isn't really groundbreaking, but the humor, from the rancid to the fervent, is brought to life by a great performance before an enthusiastic audience - and via Netflix we have front-row seats, which is great because Wong's facial expressions and contortions are part of the show. 

Also last night finished watching the 1931 film v. of Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, worth noting because the screenplay was by Doblin himself. In 90 minutes he managed to hit most of the highlights of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 15-hour BA series, which isn't to say the shorter v is the better. RWF had much more time and space to develop the personality of the lead character, Franz Biberkopf; in fact, RWF is far more cruel to Biberkopf that was Doblin: in the 1931 film, Biberkopf comes off more as a fool and a dolt with a drinking problem - whereas in the RWF v from 1980 FB comes off as an awful man, a brute and a womanizer, full of rage and self-pity. One reason to watch teh 1931 v, however, is that we can see exactly what the scenes looked like at the time of the story (set in 1928); we see the urban bustle, the crowds, the ratty-looking shops and bars, the street cars and auto traffic, and even some of the new developments that were rising in postwar Germany at the time. RWF does a fine job in re-creating the era, but there's only so much he could do in a studio setting.

Berlin Alexanderplatz as a groundbreaking 13-part narrative for TV - and its woeful epilogue

By any measure Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 13-part (plus epilogue) series, Berlin Alexanderplatz was ground-breaking in 1980 and has been hugely influential in charting the way for a highly intelligent and literary long-form narrative for television (today, streaming). BA is the antecedent of such long-form, character-driven dramas as The Sopranos, The Wire, House of Cards - the list could go on. RWF's epic, based on the 1929 novel by Alfred Doblin, does look a little dated, of course - some of the voice-overs and title screens look more '60s than '80s, but in its scope and ambition alone it stands well ahead of its time. The series is set in the heart of postwar Berlin in 1928, a time of huge unemployment, no social services, an economy still reeling after the war, and a time of political unrest, w/ right- and left-wing organizations vying for power and public attention. Checking back on my notes from when I read Doblin's novel 5 or so years back, I can see that RWF hued closely to the novel - except in his free-wheeling 2-hour epilogue, which is largely RWF's vision. At the center of every moment of the series (and novel) is Franz Biberkopf (Gunter Lamprecht); the series begins w/ his exit from prison, where he has served 4 years (!!) for the murder of his wife. Throughout, he remains an entirely unsympathetic character: cruel and violent toward women, a petty criminal, full of self-pity. And yet - we see him as part of his time and place, a victim of an indifferent society that offers no help or hope to people like him, no way to get his life on track: We see him for a while try to make a living in sales (newspapers, pornography, shoe strings!), with no success, so he's of course drawn to violent crime and to "pimping" - even of his seemingly beloved Mieze. You can't root (or even hope) for this guy, but you can's stop watching his demise. Interestingly, in both book and miniseries, there is a not a bit of back story on Franz (nor on any other character, for that matter). The filmmaking itself is largely convention - a social-realist drama that could well have been played on stage; RWF does a great job creating a visual (and audio) reality - nearly the entire film shot in hues of brown and orange; in the very few moments when the plot diverts from the urban setting, the bright colors or an ordinary summer day are shocking and astonishing. The musical score involves "theme" music for most of the major characters and a period re-creation using some 20s jazz motifs. All of which brings us to the epilogue - where RWF breaks ranks and shows his own interpretation of Fran's fate - which involves a journey through an afterlife and a search for his murdered girlfriend (and perhaps for vengeance?) - and I can only say that this part of the series seems pretentious and labored and is at times so gruesome that I had to skip ahead rather than watch more naked bodies being dismembered - so, viewer, beware.