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he keep on studying and forbid him from taking a job that would get his hands dirty. Irmgard complains to her in-laws that Hans attacked her the night before. Heidi and her husband agree with the mother that Hans has always been good for nothing. Anna is the lone relative sympathetic to him, saying his family has always despised him and never gave him a proper chance. When Hans arrives, he tries to reconcile with his wife, but
Irmgard retreats to a corner of the living room screaming in terror while the brother-in-law stands in front of her. The two men struggle while Irmgard phones a lawyer, saying she wants a divorce. When she puts down the receiver, Hans begins to sing his favorite tune: "Buona, buona notte, you can't have everything you want." Then he has a heart attack.
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woman in an apartment building. She asks him to deliver the pears in person and invites him in, but he refuses, saying "some other time." The woman is the great love of Hans's life since his youth. When the suspicious
Irmgard questions why it took so long, he escapes her incessant complaints by abandoning his cart and going to a nearby bar. Soon, the sad ritual of his empty existence emerges: arguing with his wife, drinking excessively, lamenting lost personal and professional opportunities. While in the bar, Hans gets sentimental about his golden days as a policeman. In a flashback, he recalls how one day he brought a prostitute to the police station to take a statement, but she lured him into having oral sex. Caught by his superior, this incident got him fired.
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hospitalization. Fearing exposure of her indiscretion, she manipulates Anzell into overpricing the produce and afterwards sharing the extra earnings with her. He agrees, but
Irmgard knows he will be found out because her husband spies on Anzell when he goes through the courtyards. It happens as planned and Anzell is fired in disgrace, but Hans knows of Irmgard's infidelity.
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who takes the cart through the streets and earns more than Hans did. Irmgard tends a fruit stand while Hans sulks with too much time on his hands. Though Harry's professionalism and dedication bring Hans' business profitability and success, they also render Hans obsolete in his own life, leading him further into isolation and despair.
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comrades at the last minute though he really wanted to die. Like then, Hans no longer wishes to live. At a grand dinner with his wife, Harry and his buddies, Hans downs a few dozen shots of liquor, which promptly kill him on the spot. After the funeral, Harry agrees to stay with
Irmgard and takes up the life meant for Hans.
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Irmgard, fleeing with Renate, finds support with Hans' family. His contemptuous bourgeois mother has always disdained Hans, as she favors her obedient married daughter Heidi and tolerates her outspoken college student daughter Anna. When Hans once dreamed of being a mechanic, his mother demanded that
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Irmgard appears at the bar to fetch him, but a drunk Hans says he will come home when he wants to. When his wife does not leave fast enough, he throws a chair at her. Finally Hans comes home intoxicated. Irmgard calls him a pig and he beats her up in front of their little daughter. The next morning,
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Hans works as a fruit peddler, calling out his products and diligently making his rounds through the residential streets. Short and stocky, he is married to the slim and taller
Irmgard, who helps him with his work. They have a young daughter, Renate. One day Hans sells fruit to an attractive married
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In his depression, Hans revisits the great love of his life. In his youth, he courted her with an armful of red roses, but she turned him down because her parents did not want her to marry a fruit peddler. Though married to someone else, she undresses for casual sex, but he leaves. When Hans visits
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While Hans is recuperating in a hospital bed, his wife lets herself be picked up by a man in the street and takes him home to bed. But her little daughter catches them having sex, after which
Irmgard sobs incessantly. At the hospital, Hans and his wife reconcile; she promises to stay with him. Once
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While dining with a friend, Hans is reunited with Harry, a close friend from his years in the
Foreign Legion who now waits tables, and immediately offers him a job. Soon Hans suggests to his wife that Harry move in with them. She protests, but Hans insists. Harry proves to be an industrious worker
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The doctor says large quantities of alcohol would be fatal for Hans because of his bad heart, and in the end, Hans deliberately goes to his regular bar. While drinking, he remembers an incident when he was in the
Foreign Legion in Morocco. Captured and tortured by an Arab, he was saved by his
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After his heart attack, Hans can neither work nor drink, so
Irmgard takes a larger role in the business. No longer able to push the cart around, Hans hires a hard-working and honest assistant, Anzell. He is the same man with whom, unknown to Hans, Irmgard had the brief affair during his
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he is back home and as they are about to have sex, Irmgard explains that sometimes she finds him funny because he is much shorter than she is and that she only grew interested in him in the first place because he was so comical.
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was a turning point in
Fassbinder's career, marking his entry into the international film arena. It is considered by film critics to be one of Fassbinder's best films. On the
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The title derives from the French expression for a fruit and vegetable seller,
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Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Film as Private and Public Art
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244:. The plot follows the life of a fruit-peddler, living in 1950s
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The New German Cinema: Music, History, and the Matter of Style
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The Merchant of Four Seasons: Downward Mobility in Munich
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225:) is a 1972 West German film written and directed by
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Mercer, John; Shingler, Martin (September 6, 2013).
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379:website it has a 92% 'fresh' rating.
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710:The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
418:. University of California Press.
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412:Flinn, Caryl (February 9, 2004).
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517:. Univ of South Carolina Press.
391:in the U.S. on July 9, 2002 in
360:Gusti Kreissl as Hans's mother
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539:"The Merchant of Four Seasons"
351:as Kurt, Hans's brother-in-law
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463:. Columbia University Press.
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873:Eight Hours Don't Make a Day
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920:The Stationmaster's Wife
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395:with English subtitles.
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43:Rainer Werner Fassbinder
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357:as Hans's great love
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971:(2023 book)
946:BRD Trilogy
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876:(1972–1973)
726:Effi Briest
629:Filmography
383:DVD release
325:Irm Hermann
321:as Hans Epp
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242:Irm Hermann
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229:, starring
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80:Irm Hermann
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57:Produced by
39:Directed by
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399:References
327:as Irmgard
179:88 minutes
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151:1972-03-10
133:Tango Film
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120:(arranger)
118:Peer Raben
49:Written by
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104:Edited by
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339:as Harry
192:Language
112:Music by
65:Starring
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782:Despair
579:at the
333:as Anna
184:Country
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923:(1977)
915:(1976)
907:(1974)
904:Martha
899:(1973)
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868:(1971)
860:(1970)
841:(1982)
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822:Lola
566:IMDb
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