About

You can stream Lola (1981) on Criterion Channel with a subscription.

Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out—she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale. Shot in childlike candy colors, Fassbinder’s homage to Josef von Sternberg’s classic The Blue Angel stands as a satiric tribute to capitalism.

Can a cabaret singer manipulate the machinery of urban corruption to buy her way into a respectable life? This razor-sharp gamble pits a seductive strategist against the rigid bureaucracy of post-war Germany.