Lola (1982)

Lola (1982)

Lola movie storyline. Ten years after the war, West Germany’s market economy is booming. Into an unnamed city that’s rife with corruption comes a new building commissioner, Herr von Bohm, committed to progress but also upright. He’s smitten by Marie-Louise, a single mother who’s his landlady’s daughter.

Von Bohm does not realize she is also Lola, a singer at a bordello and the mistress of Schuckert, a local builder whose profits depend on von Bohm’s projects. When von Bohm discovers Marie-Louise’s real vocation and looks closely at Schuckert’s work, will this social satire play out as a remake of “Blue Angel,” a visit of Chekhov to West Germany, or an update of Jean Renoir’s “Rules of the Game”?

Lola is a 1981 West German film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and is the third in his BRD Trilogy. The first film in the trilogy is The Marriage of Maria Braun (BRD 1) and the second is Veronika Voss (BRD 2).

About the Story

In 1957 in the town of Coburg, as in most of West Germany, reconstruction is the watchword and the élite all benefit: the mayor, the police chief, the bank president, the newspaper editor and most of all Shuckert. He is a property developer and also owns the town brothel which the other men frequent, his pet whore being its singer Lulu.

This cosy arrangement is threatened by the arrival in the town hall of the high-minded and cultured von Bohm, a refugee from East Prussia, as the new building commissioner. Divorced, he hires a woman with a little granddaughter as his housekeeper and devotes himself to his new job. One day, while he is out at work, his housekeeper shows her daughter round his house.

It is Lola, who decides she wants to know this interesting man and under her real name of Marie-Luise soon attracts his attention. Unaware of her night job or of the fact that Schuckert is the father of her little girl, he tries to get engaged to her but she warns him off. When he is finally taken to the brothel, he discovers the truth about her.

Lola Movie Poster (1982)

Lola (1982)

Directed by: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Starring: Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Matthias Fuchs, Helga Feddersen, Karin Baal, Ivan Desny, Elisabeth Volkmann
Screenplay by: Pea Fröhlich, Peter Märthesheimer
Production Design by: Raúl Gimenez, Rolf Zehetbauer
Cinematography by: Xaver Schwarzenberger
Film Editing by: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Juliane Lorenz
Costume Design by: Barbara Baum, Egon Strasser
Art Direction by: Helmut Gassner
Music by: Freddy Quinn, Peer Raben
Distributed by: United Artists Classics
Release Date: August 4, 1982

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