Eight Hours Don't Make a Day Blu-ray

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("Acht Stunden sind kein Tag" or "Eight Hours Don't Make a Day" or "Acht Stunden sind keinTag - Eine Familienserie" or "Eight Hours are Not a Day")

Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Germany 1972

Commissioned to make a working-class family drama for public television, up-and-coming director Rainer Werner Fassbinder took the assignment and ran, dodging expectations by depicting social realities in West Germany from a critical—yet far from cynical—perspective. Over the course of five episodes, the sprawling story tracks the everyday triumphs and travails of the young toolmaker Jochen (Gottfried John) and many of the people populating his world, including the woman he loves (Hanna Schygulla), his eccentric family, and his fellow workers, with whom he bands together to improve conditions on the factory floor. Rarely screened since its popular but controversial initial broadcast, Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day rates as a true discovery, one of Fassbinder’s earliest and most tender experiments with the possibilities of melodrama.

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Rainer Werner Fassbinder had been making feature films for three years and already amassed a filmography that would satisfy most careers when he decided to take on a bigger challenge. Teaming up with West German television channel WDR, he conceived of Eight Hours Don t Make a Day, a series that would extend to five feature-length episodes to be broadcast at monthly intervals.

Centring on the Krüger family, as well as their lovers, in-laws, friends and co-workers, the series takes a sometimes comic, sometimes dramatic look at domestic relationships and labour relationships, with particular focus on skilled worker Jochen (Gottfried John, Berlin Alexanderplatz) and his new girlfriend, Marion (Hanna Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun).

Reminiscent of working-class soap operas such as Coronation Street and the family-based sitcoms of Carla Lane, Eight Hours Don t Make a Day has been a one of the more difficult to find entries of Fassbinder s extraordinarily prolific output, but is now presented here in full and newly restored by the Fassbinder Foundation.

Excerpt from Amazon UK located HERE

Posters

Premiere: October 29th, 1972

Episode Titles

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Review: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: There is also an Arrow Academy, Region 'B' Blu-ray, edition from the UK:
Distribution	Criterion - Spine #946 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	5:09:20.500 / 3:08:50.944
Video	1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc One: 49,459,145,398 bytes Feature: 49,202,552,832 bytes Video Bitrate: 17.84 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video	1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc One: 48,866,741,352 bytes Feature: 42,260,551,680 bytes Video Bitrate: 26.11 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray 1:
Bitrate Blu-ray 2:
Audio	LPCM Audio German 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Criterion 1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc One: 49,459,145,398 bytes Feature: 49,202,552,832 bytes Video Bitrate: 17.84 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video 1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc One: 48,866,741,352 bytes Feature: 42,260,551,680 bytes Video Bitrate: 26.11 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • “Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day”: A Series Becomes a Family Reunion, a 2017 documentary directed by Juliane Lorenz, featuring interviews with actors Hanna Schygulla, Irm Hermann, Wolfgang Schenck, and Hans Hirschmüller (42:01) • New interview with film scholar Jane Shattuc (19:30) • PLUS: An essay by scholar Moira Weigelh Blu-ray Release Date: October 9th, 2018 Transparent Blu-ray Case Chapters 33 / 20

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Criterion new Blu-ray is described as a "New 2K digital restoration by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation". Eight Hours Don't Make a Day was shot in 16mm by DoP Dietrich Lohmann (Katzelmacher) and the restoration looks thick and rich. This was a TV mini-series and, as such, was broadest in the PAL standard at 25 frames per second. This is not dissimilar to Kieslowski's The Decalogue., where Arrow transferred it, accurately, at 25fps, where Criterion rendered it in theatrical running time (24 fps or 23.976fps.) I don't own the Arrow (spread over 3 Blu-rays instead of 2). We can assume they both had access to the Fassbinder Foundation restoration but I will try to get a copy to do some comparisons. The 1080P image has only a few sequences of green/blue leaning - which may be accurate - and the visuals show pleasing detail while maintaining the heavy grain. 5 hours for the first Blu-ray is surprising but being 1.37:1 it takes up less space and the, grassroots filmmaking, image doesn't seemed to have suffered. Overall, it looks quite impressive considering the 16mm roots.

NOTE: Steve tells us in email: "Just a quick note regarding your review of Fassbinder’s Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day. I have the Arrow edition, and I can confirm that it definitely plays at 25fps PAL standard." (thanks Steve!)

Criterion provide a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) track in the original German language. It belies the production roots but dialogue is clear. There is a pleasant score credited to Fuzzy aka Jens Wilhelm Pedersen (Memories of a Marriage). It sounds authentically flat with a touch of depth. Criterion add optional English subtitles on their Region 'A'-locked Blu-ray.

We're talking 8 hours of mini-series narrative so no commentary and only two digital supplements (both on the second Blu-ray)- the 42-minute, 2017 documentary “Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day”: A Series Becomes a Family Reunion, directed by Juliane Lorenz, featuring interviews with actors Hanna Schygulla, Irm Hermann, Wolfgang Schenck, and Hans Hirschmüller plus an insightful new 20-minute interview with film scholar Jane Shattuc who discusses Fassbinder and Eight Hours Don't Make a Day. There is a liner notes booklet with an essay by scholar Moira Weigelh.

Eight Hours Don't Make a Day is 'soapy' but in Fassbiner's own edgy, honest, eccentric style. It is very compelling and easy to bond with the characters - some likeable, others not so much. The Criterion Blu-ray is a great way to view this 8-hour mini-series. We will investigate the running time of the Arrow to see of they have adhered to the original 25 fps. I feel very appreciative to have been able to see this in 1080P.