The Merchant of Four Seasons Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The Merchant of Four Seasons" )

directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
West Germany 1971

New German Cinema icon Rainer Werner Fassbinder kicked off a new phase of his young career when he made the startling The Merchant of Four Seasons. In this anguished yet mordantly funny film, Fassbinder charts the decline of a self-destructive former policeman and war veteran struggling to make ends meet for his family by working as a fruit vendor. Fassbinder had gained acclaim for a series of trenchant, quickly made early films, but for this one he took more time and forged a new style—featuring a more complexly woven script and narrative structure and more sophisticated use of the camera, and influenced by the work of his recently discovered idol, Douglas Sirk. The result is a meticulously made, unforgiving social satire.

Posters

Theatrical Release: 4 November 1971 (West Germany)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Wellspring (The Masterworks Edition) - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the DVD Screen Caps!

1) Wellspring (The Masterworks Edition) - Region 0 - NTSC LEFT

2) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - RIGHT

Box Covers
Distribution	Wellspring Region 0 - NTSC	Criterion Collection - Spine # 758 - Region 'A' Blu-ray
Runtime	1:28:15	1:28:45.486
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.9 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	Disc Size: 39,799,491,202 bytes Feature Size: 26,177,734,656 bytes Total Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Dual-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Wellspring (The Masterworks Edition)
Bitrate: Criterion Blu-ray)
Audio	German (Mono, 5.1 Dolby)	LPCM Audio German 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English, None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Wellspring Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Commentary track by Wim Wenders • Life, Love & Celluloid: A Journey and Film Retrospective (Documentary) (1:29:27) • The Many Women of Fassbinder (Documentary) (50:56) • Filmographies • Weblinks DVD Release Date: July 9, 2002 Keepcase Chapters 30	Release Information: Studio: Criterion Disc Size: 39,799,491,202 bytes Feature Size: 26,177,734,656 bytes Total Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Dual-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 Video Edition Details: • Audio commentary featuring filmmaker Wim Wenders • New interviews with actors Irm Hermann (9:13) and Hans Hirschmüller (13:25) • New interview with film scholar Eric Rentschler (26:10) • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Thomas Elsaesser Blu-ray Release Date: May 26th, 2015 Transparent Blu-ray case Chapters 13

Comments

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

ADDITION: Criterion Region 'A' Blu-ray: May 2015: The Criterion transfer is much darker than the old Wellspring SD and it shows more information in the frame - notable in the top and right edges. The HD is also crisper with a higher degree of sharpness and it shows some consistent texture. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. Colors are deeper on the BD and there are artifacts on the SD (low bitrate). The Wellspring was not poor for its time, but - of course - it is way out-of-print now.

Criterion adhere to authenticity with a linear PCM mono track at 1152 kbps in the original German language. No effects notable but dialogue is clean and consistent. There is no score for The Merchant of Four Seasons but in the film we do hear Rocco Granata's Buona Notte. I'd say this is flat but with some depth - probably very similar to its theatrical roots. It has optional English subtitles and the Blu-ray disc is region 'A'-locked like all Criterions to date.

Criterion include the 2002 audio commentary featuring filmmaker Wim Wenders from 2002 - also found on the Wellspring DVD and added 3 new interviews, with actors Irm Hermann (9:13) and Hans Hirschmüller (13:25) in German with English subtitles and another, 26-minutes long, with film and German-language scholar Eric Rentschler discussing the importance of The Merchant of Four Seasons in Fassbinder work. There is a liner notes booklet with an essay by film scholar Thomas Elsaesser.

NOTE: The DVD offers the same Wenders commentary plus Juliane Lorenz's 1998, 1.5 hour, documentary entitled Life, Love & Celluloid: A Journey and Film Retrospective that has some archival footage of Rainer Werner Fassbinder . There is another 50-minute documentary; The Many Women of Fassbinder by Alessandro Colizzi with Bernardo Bertolucci, Liliana Cavani and others on the importance and the role of women in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films. There are also filmographies and weblinks. I might give the edge to the Wellspring in regards to supplements although the Criterion Blu-ray offers real value with the 2015 interviews - which are certainly more relevant to the film.

I like Aubry Anne D'Arminio's description of The Merchant of the Four Seasons as "...another of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's several "bourgeois films" that depict and critique middle-class society. The film deceptively unfolds like a standard bourgeois melodrama: there is the black sheep son, the disappointed mother, the unhappy wife, the sympathetic sister." This is another complex, articulate piece of cinema, maybe with less-subtle themes but is rich and deep. It is an easy recommendation for all those who missed out of the Wellspring more than a decade ago. Essential Blu-ray for all world cinephile librarian's home theaters.

-Gary Tooze

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Wellspring (The Masterworks Edition) - Region 0 - NTSC