Is this a movie?


It's listed on Wikipedia as one of the longest films ever made, but if it was made for TV and it's composed of episodes, how is it a movie? I never quite understood this. The Human Condition is often found on longest films lists as well, but it's a trilogy. Why are these considered movies? Why isn't The Wire one big film, or the Harry Potter saga?


reply

It is a TV show, but film snobs insist that it is a "long movie" which is total BS.

There's this inferior view to TV show that has been around since forever, in which people who have barely seen any good TV shows claim that TV shows are for dumb people and films are for smart, sophisticated people.

One could even say that The Sopranos is a far superior character-driven drama than this german thing.

---
"Aut inveniam viam aut faciam"

reply

I've recently started Heimat which I hugely enjoy.

How different is this show/movie? (if you know)

reply

[deleted]

It's a film because:
(1) It was conceived and executed as a complete and integrated work, and more importantly
(2) Fassbinder tells us so in the friggin title - "Berlin Alexanderplatz…a film in 13 parts with an Epilogue"

reply

1) This isn't 1970, almost all TV series are conceived and executed as a complete integrated works, and it's not even a new thing, there has been miniseries as long as there been TVs.

2) Of course he's gonna say that, what did you think he'll say? "Oh, no dear, it's really a tv series and I'm really a sellout"?

Also, just because tomatoes are categorized as fruit doesn't mean it belongs with dessert.

---
"Aut inveniam viam aut faciam"

reply

1) This isn't 1970, almost all TV series are conceived and executed as a complete integrated works, and it's not even a new thing, there has been miniseries as long as there been TVs.

No, most TV series operate as open-ended endeavors, with a fundamental structure very different than movies. The creators pitch an idea, start with a pilot episode or two, hope it gets picked up for a season, and hope even more that it'll be renewed. The creative outcome beyond the initial stages is either unknown or ill defined as in Dallas, Twin Peaks, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The West Wing, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones etc…

TV miniseries are a different form, and less abundant (Roots, Brideshead Revisited, Jewel in the Crown, Pride and Prejudice, etc…). The creators establish beforehand what it will be, how it will end, and how all the pieces will fit together, and most importantly they deliver it to the public from the beginning as a finished work. So yes, miniseries are movies. The form of presentment is irrelevant.

2) Of course he's gonna say that, what did you think he'll say? "Oh, no dear, it's really a tv series and I'm really a sellout"?

I know exactly what he would say:
"Sie sind ein Arschloch. Es ist ein Film, weil ich sage, es ist ein Film! Haben Sie Kokain?"

Also, just because tomatoes are categorized as fruit doesn't mean it belongs with dessert.

Vox nihili.

-

reply

Well then Berlin Alexanderplatz is a miniseries, which is a form of TV shows.

---
"Aut inveniam viam aut faciam"

reply

It is a miniseries, but it was released as a 13 hour theatrical feature in very limited release in North America, hence it is often referred to as a film.

reply

Berlin Alexanderplatz actually premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the summer of 1980, a couple of months before it was shown on German television. And it subsequently screened in movie theatres and on the festival circuit. In 2010, it was named to Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 list of the greatest films (http://entertainment.time.com/2005/02/12/all-time-100-movies/slide/berlin-alexanderplatz-1980/).

One problem with theatrical screenings was that it was filmed in 16mm; D.W. Leitner wrote in 1983: "World cinema's pantheon of narrative masterpieces has been expanded to include a 16mm production: Berlin Alexanderplatz. But due to its Wagnerian 15-hour, 21-minute running time, R. W. Fassbinder's magnum opus has not been blown up to 35mm. (The distributors estimate the cost at $500,000.) This leaves first-run commercial theaters in a quandary: Rent 16mm projection equipment or forget the whole thing. The theater I attended found it difficult to keep the right and left sides of the screen focused at the same time." — The Independent, December 1983 (http://ww2.fassbinderfoundation.de/en/presse_detail.php?presseid=34).

When Berlin Alexanderplatz was digitally remastered in 2006, a new 35mm negative was also produced.

reply