The Third Generation
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979, 112 min
German with English subtitles

"The film that prompted Vincent Canby to call Fassbinder "the most dazzling, talented, provocative, original, puzzling, prolific, and exhilarating filmmaker of his generation." In West Berlin in 1978, computer magnate P. J. Lurz seeks to increase sales by covertly promoting terrorism. He recruits a new-styled gang of terrorists-middle-class people for whom terrorism is a lifestyle. For Fassbinder, "terrorism is an invention of capitalism to better protect its capital," and contemporary German terrorists are distinguished from their predecessors (including the Baader-Meinhof cell) by their lack of coherent political beliefs. "To act in danger but without perspective, the ecstasy of adventure experienced in the absence of ulterior motive: this is what motivates The Third Generation," he said." – BAMPFA

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