The Stationmaster's Wife

Music byPeer RabenCountry of originWest GermanyOriginal languageGermanProductionProducersCinematographyMichael BallhausEditorsRunning time201 minutesProduction companiesBudgetDEM 1.8 millionOriginal releaseRelease31 July 1977 (1977-07-31)

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".

• The Stationmaster's Wife at IMDb
• The Stationmaster's Wife at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Bolwieser (1977) – Documentary (FRsubs) (9:53) on YouTube
• Bolwieser (TV) page at Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation
• Bolweiser a review by Roger Ebert