ARTS & EVENTS

The Wurst of Times: 'Berlin Alexanderplatz'

Photo courtesy Goethe-Institut

YOU'VE SEEN ANDY WARHOL'S "Sleep" and Ingmar Bergman's extended version of "Scenes From a Marriage," but as a cinema marathoner you're still a piker until you've settled in for all 15-plus hours of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Berlin Alexanderplatz."

Based on Alfred Döblin's classic modernist novel, the 1980 film parallels an ex-con's backsliding re-entry to society with Weimar Germany's descent into fascism. You're asking if, in the age of Netflix, full immersion is worth the back pain. But think of what else you'll be getting: currywurst, commentary by Desson Thomson and the company of a roomful of people who enjoy watching Germans have sex with their clothes on.

» Goethe-Institut, 812 7th St. NW; Sat., noon-11 p.m.; Sun, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., $9-$20; 202-289-1200. (Gallery Place-Chinatown)

Written by Express contributor Glenn Dixon
Photo courtesy Goethe-Institut

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