The BRD Trilogy (German: BRD-Trilogie) consists of three films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder: The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982).
All three deal with different characters (though some actors recur in different roles) and plotlines, but each one focuses on the story of a specific woman in West Germany after World War II.
A sports reporter becomes enthralled by the unbalanced actress and discovers that she is under the power of a villainous doctor who keeps her addicted to opiates in order to steal her wealth.
Lola (1981) is loosely based on Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel and its source novel Professor Unrat by Heinrich Mann.
Unable to reconcile his idealistic images of Lola with reality, Von Bohm spirals into the very corruption he had sought to fight.
Maria Braun, released in 1979, is the earliest in terms of both production and the chronology of the plot, beginning in 1945, but became part of the trilogy only retrospectively, when Fassbinder added the caption "BRD 3" to Lola in 1981.
Veronika Voss, released a year later, included the caption "BRD 2" and is set in a slightly earlier period than Lola.
Fassbinder did not intend the series to end as a trilogy but his plans to make further films in the same mould were cut short by his death.
Lola is influenced by Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel and uses very bold colors in a manner similar to Technicolor.