A man goes on a schnapps-soaked rampage. Criterion Collection Year 2018 Video Release 2018-03-20 Studio Criterion Collection Genre Foreign MPAA Rating Not Rated Color Color Runtime 84 Animated Live-Action Full Synopsis Volker Schlondorff transported Bertolt Brecht's 1918 debut play to contemporary West Germany for this vicious experiment in adaptation, seldom seen for nearly half a century. Oozing with brutish charisma, Rainer Werner Fassbinder embodies the eponymous anarchist poet, who feels himself cast out from bourgeois society and sets off on a schnapps-soaked rampage. Hewing faithfully to Brecht's text, Schlondorff juxtaposes the theatricality of the prose with bare-bones, handheld 16 mm camera work, which gives immediacy to this savage story of rebellion. Featuring a supporting cast of Fassbinder's troupe of theater actors as well as Margarethe von Trotta, Baal demonstrates the uncompromising nature of Schlondorff's vision and forged a path for New German Cinema. Director Volker Schlondorff Cast Volker Schlondorff; Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Sigi Graue; Margarethe von Trotta; Gunther Neutze; Miriam Spoerri; Marian Seidowsky; Carla Aulaulu; Hanna Schygulla; Walter Sedlmayr; Gunther Kaufmann