About

The second instalment of Fassbinder's BRD trilogy, Lola is a gaudy, vulgar reworking of Joseph von Sternberg's 1930 classic The Blue Angel. Taking the name from Marlene Dietrich's character, the eponymous Lola (Barbara Sukowa) is a single mother who moonlights as a sultry singer at the town brothel. The bordello's owner is the sleazy Schukert (Mario Adorf), an unscrupulous developer who stands to benefit greatly from the boom of post-war reconstruction, along with his cronies. When the self-righteous new building commissioner von Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl) comes to town, he begins collecting evidence to expose Schukert's corruption. But von Bohm quickly falls for Lola, oblivious that she is Schukert's mistress. Though Lola abounds with wry humour and lavish kitsch, it goes beyond broad satire and into political condemnation, particularly of Germany's "economic miracle." Though it exists in the same cinematic world as The Marriage of Maria Braun and Veronika Voss, unlike those Lola is rendered in garish, rainbow technicolour, highlighting the reckless extravagance of Lola and her ilk.

M | Mature themes and coarse language, Sexual references, drug use and nudity