Editing Rainer Werner Fassbinder (section)

====''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1980)====
Returning to his explorations of German history, Fassbinder finally realized his dream of adapting [[Alfred Döblin]]'s 1929 novel ''[[Berlin Alexanderplatz]]''. A [[Berlin Alexanderplatz (television)|television series]] running more than 13 hours, with a two-hour coda (released in the U.S. as a 15-hour feature), it was the culmination of the director's inter-related themes of love, life, and power.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/01/17/the-genius-of-berlin/|title=The Genius of Berlin|last=Buruma|first=Ian|journal=The New York Review of Books|date=17 January 2008|volume=55 |issue=1 |access-date=16 February 2017}}</ref>

''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' centers on Franz Biberkopf, a former convict and minor pimp, who tries to stay out of trouble but is dragged down by crime, poverty and the duplicity of those around him. His best friend, Reinhold, makes him lose an arm and murders Franz' prostitute girlfriend, Mieze. The love triangle of Franz, Reinhold and Mieze is staged against the rising tide of Nazism in Germany. The film emphasized the sadomasochist relationship between Biberkopf and Reinhold stressing its homoerotic nature. Fassbinder had read the book at age 14; later claiming that it helped him survive a "murderous puberty". The influence of Döblin's novel can be seen in many of Fassbinder's films most of whose protagonists are named Franz, some with the surname Biberkopf like the naïve working class lottery winner in ''Fox and His Friends'', who is played by Fassbinder. He also took the pseudonym of Franz Walsch for his work as editor on his own films: Walsch was an oblique homage to director [[Raoul Walsh]].{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}