Berlin Alexanderplatz – The Criterion Collection [$124.95]

It’s considered by many to be director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s masterpiece, an over 15-hour epic that took nearly a year to complete. Focusing on Franz Biberkopf, a typical German underling drawn deep into the underworld with no escape in sight, the moviemaking maverick used the complex character study as a corrosive allegory for the rise of Nazism. Finally available in all its episodic glory, the premiere preservationists at Criterion flesh out the multidisc packaging with all manner of supplements – the best of which remains the original, 1931 film by Phil Jutzi. Oddly enough, it only runs 90 minutes.