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      The Merchant of Four Seasons

      Now Playing 1h 28m Drama List
      94% 16 Reviews Tomatometer 75% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score Hans (Hans Hirschmuller) is a lifelong member of the middle-class. His family, especially his wife, Irmgard (Irm Hermann), derides him for his lack of ambition and his chosen profession: running a fruit stand. Eventually, the constant ridicule drives him to alcoholism, and his bout with the bottle lands him in the hospital. While recovering, he hires extra help and watches his business boom. However, his success doesn't alleviate his pain, and his anger and drinking slowly destroy him. Read More Read Less Now in Theaters Now Playing Buy Tickets

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      Audience Reviews

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      peter w Post-war eras are never great for those trying to return to a society that has changed beyond recognition. This theme has been addressed by American directors like Oliver Stone (e.g. Born on the Fourth of July) who illustrate how broken soldiers can't fit into the society that awaited them post-Viet Nam. There is also the critique of families who projected their ambitions on the sent sons they sent to war but who abandon them on their return bearing the scars and trauma of the experience. Hans Epp expresses his unresolved trauma through aggression against his wife, child and his family when he returns with no financial or emotional resources to support him. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member My second film from this sad man. Hans sells fruit to make ends meet. He is a short, chubby guy with a long, skinny wife. She nags on him as he pour the earnings into drinks. He treats her bad, but after he suffers from a heart attack she just can't leave him. This does not change much, he is still in depression and everything seem pretty hopeless. Not the most joyful of films but said to be Fassbinders first true melodrama. The lack of love is present here and a pretty troubled man and his relationship steer this film. Solid performances, OK looks - with some easy moves and tricks. This film is not ment for entertainment, rather the oposite - it may put you in a bad mood. 7 out of 10 fresh pears. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Brutally delivered and non-linear in its narrative, The Merchant of Four Seasons is an early masterstroke from one of Germany's most important directors. Despite being set in early post-war Germany, The Merchant of Four Seasons is less a social commentary than other works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's, and instead it concentrates on a more universal theme: the break down of the male psyche. The movie gives us an indelible character in Hans (quietly played by Hans Hirschmüller) a man who initially comes off as deplorable, but becomes unexpectedly more sympathetic as the film goes on. This was also one of Fassbinder's first films that showed his adherence to Douglas Sirk with his penchant for melodrama and unflattering depiction of domestic life, but he actually might be an even more nuanced then his forbear. Fassbinder really knows how to work a camera, with subtle and surprising movements that augment the drama, and his subdued use of music (where sometimes its played so loudly that a pin drop would ruin the mood) can't be matched by any of his peers. One of the director's most essential works. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Fassbinder stops experimenting and goes back to storytelling, and the film is all the better for it. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Fassbinder deceptively aims for "realism" when where he is really taking us is a world in which every aspect of the human condition is amplified beyond the realm of "reality" -- this creates for a profound and strangely effective commentary and examination of expectations and hopes relating to both the individual and "the bourgeois." Hans is a fairly unsuccessful fruit peddler who almost revels in his failure while his wife grows increasingly unhappy and unsatisfied. The same is true of his successful family. His has fully taken "ownership" of the way his family views him. Gradually our protagonist slips further and further into a state of rage-fueled anger to a full-fledged alcoholic. Hans' choice is disturbing, but also operates on a sort of metaphorical level. Whether it be due to his circumstances or some stronger power to which there is hint -- Hans is as much a victim of his own nihilism as the trap formed by the cultural in which he must live. It is a brutal and harsh examination of the human man oppressed. Devastating and unforgettable. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review marc r A harshly unsentimental portrait of failure and resentment. Fassbinder's theatrical sensibilities and staging make the proceedings exaggerated as usual, but the exaggeration leaves a scar Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (16) Critics Reviews
      Nora Sayre New York Times This soggy picture allows the disintegration of a human being to be almost as dull as the way he earns his living -- and that is appalling. Rated: 1.5/5 May 9, 2005 Full Review Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine A pivotal work in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's career because it was the first film he made after meeting and befriending his muse Douglas Sirk in 1971. Rated: 3.5/4 Sep 5, 2003 Full Review Don Druker Chicago Reader Rainer Werner Fassbinder has a genius for detailing the pain of suppressed emotional states, and even at its most achingly deliberate, his style in dealing with the petit bourgeois mentality is a source of endless fascination. Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com This film marks the beginning of Fassbinder's notable stylizations of wicked social satire. Rated: 4/5 Oct 27, 2020 Full Review Christopher Machell CineVue The Merchant of Four Seasons is often a difficult watch with little opportunity for respite, but it is also a rewarding, challenging and worthwhile one. Rated: 4/5 Jan 17, 2017 Full Review Eric Melin Lawrence.com Fassbinder is going for realism, but almost a heightened, stagey version of it. This strategy makes the film more deeply felt, amplifying the awkwardness. Rated: 3/5 Jun 13, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Hans (Hans Hirschmuller) is a lifelong member of the middle-class. His family, especially his wife, Irmgard (Irm Hermann), derides him for his lack of ambition and his chosen profession: running a fruit stand. Eventually, the constant ridicule drives him to alcoholism, and his bout with the bottle lands him in the hospital. While recovering, he hires extra help and watches his business boom. However, his success doesn't alleviate his pain, and his anger and drinking slowly destroy him.
      Director
      Rainer Werner Fassbinder
      Screenwriter
      Rainer Werner Fassbinder
      Distributor
      New Yorker Films
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      German
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Oct 8, 1972, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      May 27, 2015
      Runtime
      1h 28m
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