Fassbinder Collection 1, The: Whity / Pioneers In Ingolstadt (1970) Rating: Starring: Gunther Kaufmann, Ron Randell, Hanna Schygulla, Katrin Schaake, Harry Baer Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder Category: Documentary Studio: Fantoma Films Subtitles: English Length: 182 mins     He's been called everything from a petty tyrant to the last great filmmaker of the 20th century. In little more than ten years, Rainer Werner Fassbinder created an amazing legacy of 43 films. By his death at the age of 37, Fassbinder had destroyed boundaries, redefined genres, and changed the course of world cinema. Fantoma is very proud to present this special boxed-set featuring two of his finest films. Whity The first of Fassbinder's psychologically complex melodramas, Whity centers around the illegitimate son of the seriously deranged Ben Nicholson. Despite being their slave, he becomes the obsession of each member of the Nicholson family as they try to enlist his aid in disposing of one another. Whity marked the first of fourteen collaborations between Fassbinder and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus (Goodfellas, Bram Stoker's Dracula) and the result is a unique film in the development of one of cinema's greatest and most influential talents, a lush cinemascope western shot on the sets of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns in Spain. Winner of two German Oscars, yet virtually unseen in the U.S., Fantoma presents Whity on home video for the first time. Pioneers in Ingolstadt Fassbinder's first film to be invited to the Cannes and New York Film Festivals, Pioneers In Ingolstadt is the story of a group of young German recruits whose assignment is to build a wooden bridge in the town of Ingolstadt. They seek relief from their boredom with alcohol, acts of brutality and sexual escapades with the local women. Alma (Irm Hermann) and her friend Berta (Hanna Schygulla) welcome the excitement that the new arrivals bring to their lives, but while Alma picks up passing soldiers, Berta searches for true love. Heavily influenced by the theater of Bertolt Brecht and the Hollywood melodrama of Douglas Sirk, the film alternates between perverse comedy and melancholy. Pioneers In Ingolstadt announced the arrival of a fierce new cinematic talent, a talent that the New York Times' Vincent Canby dubbed the most original since Jean-Luc Godard.