Product Details

• Actors: Hark Bohm, Ingrid Caven, Peter Chatel, Michael Fengler, El Hedi ben Salem
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: Arabic, German
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: November 23, 1999
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301722078
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,938 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Rainer Werner Fassbinder had 12 features under his belt when he finally found success at home and earned international acclaim for The Merchant of Four Seasons. Hans Hirschmüller stars as Hans, who returns from a stint in the French Foreign Legion with high hopes and grand plans for the "economic miracle" of 1950s Germany. Fired from the police force for dallying with a hooker, he sets himself up as a street peddler selling fruits and vegetables from a pushcart, much to the horror of his bourgeois family and his socially conscious lover, who leaves him in disgust. Settling for a loveless marriage with a manipulative wife (Irm Hermann), Hans sinks into depression and ill health and finally falls silent as his new partner quietly usurps his place. It's a chilly but compelling portrait of a mercenary, often unfeeling family desperate to grab a piece of the economic boom, and Fassbinder invests it with a mix of street realism, melodrama, black comedy, and theatrical flourish. At the center is Hans, a prisoner of an unhappy life except for the moments he takes his cart to the streets and calls out his wares like a character in some working-class opera---until even that is denied him and he embarks on a special, utterly Fassbinderian escape. It's an unforgettable climax to one of Fassbinder's best films. Hanna Schygulla, Kurt Raab, and Ingrid Caven are among Fassbinder's familiar stock company of costars, and Fassbinder briefly appears in a small role. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving film & superb DVD "Masterworks Edition", August 7, 2002

By 

J. Clark (metro New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Merchant of Four Seasons (DVD)

MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS is the deeply moving tale of a German fruit-peddler searching for love and meaning in his life. Not only was this Fassbinder's first major commercial success, it is also one of his best films, and marks a crucial turning point in his career. Stylistically it both looks back to his earlier, more abstract "theatrical" films (like KATZELMACHER), and ahead to his unique melodramas (MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN). MERCHANT is an ideal film to begin exploring - or re-exploring - Fassbinder. Wellspring Media has created a superb "Masterworks Edition" DVD of the film, made from a gorgeously-restored print, with your choice of hearing either a new Dolby 5.1 soundtrack (which I recommend) or the original stereo. They also include two full-length documentaries about Fassbinder: Juliane Lorenz's 90-minute "Life, Love & Celluloid," a fascinating look at Fassbinder's legacy (featuring no film clips but staged scenes, in English, from his plays, plus many revealing interviews); and Alessandro Colizzi's "The Many Women of Fassbinder," which offers a good overview of Fassbinder's career - featuring extensive film clips - while deconstructing the myth of Fassbinder's "misogyny." There is also an insightful and entertaining optional full-length commentary track by Fassbinder's friend Wim Wenders (director of WINGS OF DESIRE, and co-founder with Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, and others, of the influential 1970s New German Cinema movement), and much more. This is an exceptional DVD release of a great film.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fassbinder's poignant Fruit Merchant., November 28, 2007

By 

G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Merchant of Four Seasons (DVD)

Fassbinder made three of his best films in the early 1970s: The Merchant of the Four Seasons (1971) (Händler der vier Jahreszeiten), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) (Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant), and Ali - Fear Eats the Soul (1974) (Angst essen Seele auf), for which he won the International Critics Prize at Cannes in 1974. In his insightful review of Fassbinder's films, "Straight from the Heart," Tony Pipolo notes that during this time, Fassbinder was discovering that however small his characters may be, and however insignificant their emotions may seem, they could be big on the movie screen. In the pivotal Merchant of the Four Seasons, Fassbinder paints a poignant portrait of a fruit merchant (Hans Hirschmüller) in 1950s Germany. There is profound sadness in this film. After returning from the French Foreign Legion, Hans Epp is fired from the police force for crossing the line with a beautiful prostitute, before peddling his produce from a pushcart. Hans is not only rejected by his lover (Ingrid Caven), his unfaithful wife (Irm Hermann), and his berating mother (Gusti Kreissl) for selling pears and plums, but by his judgmental, bourgeois family. As a result, he makes a slow downward spiral into depression and alcohol. Hans is an empathetic brute. He beats his wife and ignores his daughter. He is portrayed as a lost soul, and the portrayal is compelling. We watch as his day-to-day existence drains the life out of him. He loses interest in sex. "I go for walks a lot and think," he says. "Maybe I think too much." Much like Fox and His Friends, The Merchant of Four Seasons offers Fassbinder's critique of a cruel German society that crushes the human spirit with its false pretenses. Watch for a brief cameo appearance by Fassbinder playing Hans' dining pal, Zucker. This is one of my favorite Fassbinder films. Highly recommended.

G. Merritt

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ASTOUNDING WORK FROM THE GREATEST, October 18, 2000

By 

M. J. Holmes (Santa Ana, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Händler der vier Jahreszeiten [VHS] (VHS Tape)

filmmaker of the German New Wave,Merchant of Four Seasons is a truly heartbreaking film about thesorrows of a misspent life, conducted in a beautifully joyous manner.Hirschmuller, and especially(as usual) the actresses, Irm Hermann and Hanna Schygulla, are stunning .One of Master Fassbinder's most quietly powerful films, a study in how a great character study is to be done.