The Merchant of Four Seasons Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

The Merchant of Four Seasons Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 22, 2015

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "The Merchant of Four Seasons" a.k.a. "Händler der vier Jahreszeiten" (1971) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new interviews with actors Irm Hermann and Hans Hirschmüller; video new video interview with Eric Rentschler, a film historian and the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature at Harvard University; and audio commentary by director Wim Wenders. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring professor Thomas Elsaesser's essay "Downward Mobility in Munich". In German, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Hans

Fruit peddler Hans (Hans Hirschmuller, Alice in the Cities) and his wife Irmgard (Irm Hermann, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) barely make ends meet. Hans does not blame anyone for his misery, but can’t stand the fact that Irmgrad does not trust him. Eventually, after a long night at a local inn, he beats her in front of their beautiful daughter (Andrea Schober) and she leaves him.

Alone and frustrated, Hans begins reevaluating his life and then asks Irmgard to forgive him. She reluctantly comes home, but Hans has a heart attack and nearly dies. With their last savings they purchase a new cart and hire Hans’ old friend, Harry (Klaus Löwitsch, World on a Wire), to sell their produce.

The business quickly grows and while Hans tries to figure out what to do with his free time Harry begins entertaining his wife. Hans quickly becomes seriously depressed and returns to his old drinking friends. He dies in front of them and Irmgard marries Harry.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder tells Hans’ story in a series of uneven episodes, each highlighting some sort of a failure. In one of them Hans is a police officer interrogating a beautiful prostitute who destroys his career. In another he disappoints his bourgeois family after he returns from the Foreign Legion. (Real heroes never do). And in another, before he beats his elegant wife, he is treated by his best friends like a big odd doll. Initially, these episodes create the impression that Hans is the classic German loser. His life has been a series of stupid mistakes and he fully deserves his misery.

But the more time one spends with Hans, the more one begins to realize that he is a like a bird in a cage. Because he does not respect the conventional rules of the hypocritical society he lives in and does not meet the expectations of the people around him, his dreams are crushed and he is repeatedly punished. He frequently gets drunk to escape the maddening reality, but as time passes by he discovers that death is the only permanent way out of it.

The Merchant of Four Seasons is very critical of post-war Germany and its social values. At times it looks deceivingly calm and quiet, like a Douglas Sirk film, but Fassbinder carefully and effectively exposes the ugliness of the system that is alienating and ultimately destroying people like Hans.

The majority of the film feels tightly controlled, even overly sanitized. At times it seems like the various characters are fully aware that someone is closely monitoring their exchanges, their movements and reactions. All of this, however, is international -- it is Fassbinder’s way of highlighting and condemning the ridiculousness or a society in which the "odd ones" are promptly identified and denied happiness.

Fassbinder shot the film with cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann (Gods of the Plague, The American Soldier. It won multiple German Film Awards, including Outstanding Feature Film Award, and became the director's big commercial breakthrough.

The Merchant of Four Seasons Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Merchant of Four Seasons arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Produced by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation, this new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original camera negative at ARRI Film & TV Services in Munich, where the film was restored. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 17.5mm magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX4.

Transfer supervisor: Thilo Gottschling/ARRI Film & TV services, Munich.
Colorist: Andreas Lautil/ARRI Film & TV Services, Munich."

The new restoration of The Merchant of Four Seasons is very beautiful, but at this point this is hardly surprising as all of the Fassbinder films that have transitioned to Blu-ray via Criterion have looked terrific. Without exception close-ups boast excellent depth, even when occasionally light is restricted, while the outdoor footage impresses with excellent fluidity. Contrast levels remain stable throughout the entire film. Colors are wonderfully saturated and well balanced. Furthermore, grain is evenly distributed and beautifully resolved. There are no traces of sharpening adjustments or other forms of digital enhancements. Overall image stability is excellent. Lastly, there are no large debris, damage marks, cuts, or stains to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free Blu-ray player in order to access its content).

The Merchant of Four Seasons Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: German LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles have been provided for the main feature.

The Merchant of Four Seasons is a dialog-driven feature without a prominent music score. Predictably, the range of nuanced dynamics is quite limited. However, clarity, depth, and separation are outstanding. (See any of the outdoor sequences where Hans and Irmgard sell their produce and you will notice how incredibly easy it is to identify all sorts of different sounds and noises). The dialog is stable, exceptionally clean, and very easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in this review.

The Merchant of Four Seasons Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Irm Hermann - in this brand new video interview, actress Irm Hermann (Irmgard Epp) recalls her first encounter with Rainer Werner Fassbinder who convinced her that she should be an actress (prior to their meeting Irm Hermann was making ends meet as a clerk in an office), and discusses his directing methods, some of her fears while learning how to act and interacting with the German director, the "difficult" nude scene with Karl Scheydt in The Merchant of Four Seasons, The Federal Film Award she received in 1972, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Berlin in February 2015. In German, with optional English subtitles. (10 min, 1080p).

• Hans Hirschmüller - in this brand new video interview, actor Hans Hirschmüller (Hans Epp) discusses the character her plays in The Merchant of Four Seasons (the role was written specifically for him), some of the locations in Munich where the merchant sells his produce, his interactions with Rainer Werner Fassbinder during the shooting of the film, the rehearsals, the everyday language used in the film and how it defines the different characters, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Berlin in February 2015. In German, with optional English subtitles. (14 min, 1080p).

• Eric Rentschler - in this brand new video interview, Eric Rentschler, a film historian and the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature at Harvard University, discusses the significance of The Merchant of Four Seasons in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's body of work, the Douglas Sirk-esque overtones in the film, the social commentary on post-war reality in Germany, some of the key contrasts in the film, the intentional overstylization of important scenes, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in February 2015. In English, not subtitled. (27 min, 1080p).

• Audio Commentary - in this archival audio commentary, acclaimed director Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas) discusses his friendship with Rainer Werner Fassbinder as well as some of the similarities and differences in their lives and careers in post-war Germany, the female characters in his films, the movement of the camera in The Merchant of Four Seasons, the mutual destruction of the characters played by Hans Hirschmuller and Irm Hermann, etc. The audio commentary was recorded in 2002. Initially, it appeared on Wellspring's R1 out of print DVD release of The Merchant of Four Seasons. In English, not subtitled.

• Leaflet - illustrated leaflet featuring Thomas Elsaesser's essay "Downward Mobility in Munich". (The author is professor emeritus in the Department of Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam).

The Merchant of Four Seasons Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A former policeman is slowly crushed by a cruel hypocritical system in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Merchant of Four Seasons. The film became the director's big commercial breakthrough and solidified his status as a key figure within the New German Cinema of the 1970s. Criterion's upcoming Blu-ray release features two excellent new video interviews with the film's two stars, Irm Hermann and Hans Hirschmüller. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.