The Genius of Berlin

April 26, 2008 / Add comment

Brijit

The 1920s German novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, written in a working-class dialect long forgotten, has been ignored by translators but fascinated filmmakers. Buruma dissects two attempts to translate Alfred Doblin's work to the screen, both directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The story of pimp Franz Biberkopf, his cronies and the girls he works has all the makings of pulp noir, but the work's subconscious quality is closer to James Joyce's Freudian introspection. From sexuality to the rise of the Nazis, there's plenty of the subconscious in pre-war Berlin to make fascinating reading.