Baal knows no consideration. He calls it living in the here and now, but in truth he is simply a drunk and a sex maniac. He knows no friendship, no loyalty, not even to his patrons. Ball doesn't know love either. He kicks his ‘lover’ Sophie (Margarethe von Trotta) into the dirt, and he spares his ‘lover’ Ekart (Sigi Graue) just as little. We know the play by Bertolt Brecht. He wrote it in 1918. In 1969, Volker Schlöndorff turned it into a screenplay and filmed it on 16mm with Rainer Fassbinder and several later stars such as Hanna Schygulla. The music was composed by Klaus Doldinger, who would later become famous with Passport. This is how Brecht's songs were reworked. This small TV sensation was shown in 1970 - but then not for several years. Brecht's widow Helene Weigel saw to that, arguing that a cigarette and a leather jacket do not a Brecht make. At some point, Bayrischer Rundfunk dug the film up again for the 70th birthday of Fassbinder, who died worthy of a Baal: of cardiac arrest caused by the combination of alcohol and coke. Baal is a difficult film for our modern viewing habits. You have to get involved!
