| The Stationmaster's Wife | |
| Director: | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| Screenplay: | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| Cinematography: | Michael Ballhaus |
| Music: | Peer Raben |
| Runtime: | 201 minutes |
| Country: | West Germany |
| Language: | German |
| Budget: | DEM 1.8 million |
The Stationmaster's Wife (German: '''Bolwieser''') is a 1977 German television serial directed and edited by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It was made for German television and originally aired in 1973 as a two-part miniseries. It was based on the 1931 novel Bolwieser: The Novel of a Husband by Oskar Maria Graf.
The film is about a railroad system manager, Xaver Ferdinand Maria Bolwieser (the eponymous Station Master), who is unwittingly cuckolded by the town butcher and a hairdresser. Critic Vincent Canby, in his 1982 New York Times review, said the story, which is set in the fictional Bavarian town of Werburg in the 1920s, was reminiscent of Madame Bovary.[1]
The 1983 theatrical release was 90 minutes shorter than the 201 minute TV version. The theatrical cut had been finalized and approved in 1977, but the release was postponed due to legal and commercial reasons.[2]
In the credits, Fassbinder, who edited the film with Juliane Lorenz and Ila von Hasperg, was billed as a cutter under the stage name "Franz Walsch".