Reviews (2)

"When cruelty reaches a certain point."
"Germany in Autumn" is a collaborative film made by multiple directors from New German Cinema. The directors' intent is to re-create the tense atmosphere in Germany during the autumn of 1977. Members of the terrorist group, the Red Army Faction (RAF), kidnapped industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, President of the Employers' Federation. Other members of the RAF hijacked a plane to Mogadishu. The crew and the passengers were held hostage while the RAF demanded the release of jailed terrorists--fellow RAF members--including Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan Carl Raspe who were being held under top security in Stammheim prison in Germany. The hi-jacking failed. Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in their cells, and their deaths were ruled suicides. Schleyer was also found dead. This period in Germany's history--autumn of 1977--is considered an extremely volatile time for the new German Republic.

"Germany in Autumn" is part documentary--part fiction, and it shows how people deal with terrorism on all levels on life. The film begins with footage of the funeral of Schleyer, and the film also includes scenes from Rommel's funeral, the assassination of the King of Serbia, and ends with the triple funeral of Baader, Ensslin, and Raspe. Also included is a jail interview with Horst Mahler, founder of the Red Army Faction. He refused to be included in the hostage exchange, and in his interview, Mahler presents strong condemnation for the kidnapping and murder of Schleyer, and this act he interprets to be evidence of the terrorists' ultimate corruption by capitalism. He states, "a murderer departs from the moral value system. A revolutionary reinforces it." Other sections of the film show a film director attempting to release his version of Antigone--only to be told that the play depicts 'terrorist women.' Antigone, it seems, is too controversial and must be shelved until a time when acts of civil disobedience are not interpreted as condoning acts of terrorism. Another chilling section concerns a border guard on the hunt for members of the Baader-Meinhoff gang.

Director Fassbinder's interpretation of the political and social climate of Germany in Autumn 1977 is a highly personal account. No doubt Fassbinder chose to present his section of the film this way as he knew many members of the RAF. Fassbinder is seen at home with his lover, actor Armin Meier. Armin is ready to blow up the terrorists--"if they don't obey the law, the state doesn't have to either." Fassbinder, however, cannot accept the justification that government is free to use violent tactics when dealing with terrorists. At one point, Fassbinder engages his mother, Lilo Eder, in an argument about various forms of government. She believes that democracy does not exist for the masses, and she prefers a benign authoritarian leader.

"Germany in Autumn" is not for the casually curious. The film is truly excellent, and the directors made a phenomenal film that recreates a crucial time in Germany's history. However, a little background information on the political situation is mandatory for this film--otherwise you risk being hopelessly lost in this wonderful, engrossing and eclectic film--displacedhuman

Germany in Autumn
Exception overlooked masterpiece. This film is a blend of documentary, fictional dramatic vignettes and archival historical footage. On the surface, it involves how intellectuals, media, and other elites reacted to the political terrorism brought about by the Red Army Faction (RAF)in Germany during the late 1970s. It touches also on why the RAF elicited sympathy from sections of society. The film espouses no political or economic philosophy. The gifted directors who collaborated on this word shed light on the workings or society and its institutions without, even subtly, guiding the viewer to conclusions. Fassbinder once commented that, unlike Freud or Marx, he has no solutions and wants his films to compel the viewer to undergo a personal revolution. This view is embodied in this vivid, engrossing, beautiful, and incomparable film. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

"It's not a good time for feelings."
I've heard a lot of criticism of this film, but whether one likes it or doesn't like it, it definitely is a masterpiece and a landmark of German cinema.

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is clearly political and Fassbinder took every opportunity he could to show us how much he despised and disapproved of the politics and economics of post-World War II Germany.

Outwardly, the plot of THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is rather simple. It is post-World War II Germany and the country is in ruins. Fassbinder focuses on Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla) and her actions as being representative of those of the nation as a whole. Apathy, hopelessness and despair abound, and certainly those are the emotions Maria is feeling. She lives in poverty and, though married, she finds herself alone when her soldier husband is reported missing in action and presumed dead. Maria is a person who does what she needs to do, however, and when an American GI asks her to move in with him (and action that leads to his death), Maria wastes no time in doing so.

As things turn out, Maria's husband is more missing than dead, but circumstances in his life and in Maria's land him in prison. Although, at this point, it might seem that Maria is right back where she started from, this isn't the case. Things have changed. Maria now has a productive job at a textile mill and an affair with her boss. More has changed, though, than Maria is aware of, and the outcome of it all will be something very different than what she'd planned.

I've read criticism of Hanna Schygulla's performance as Maria as being cold and superficial. Of course, it is, at one point in the film. That's how it's supposed to be. Personally, I think Schygulla's performance was brilliant. She displays a range of emotions from naïve and vulnerable to competent and self-confident with tremendous believability. Maria was corrupted, but she was corrupted because life, itself, is corrupt, not because she's an inherently bad person.

With THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, Fassbinder, one of my favorite filmmakers, shows us that even good people, with the purest and most honorable of intentions can be corrupted when they're reduced to abject poverty and neediness.

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is a film not to be missed for those who love European cinema or art house films.

"A Mata Hari of the economic recovery."
Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla) is Fassbinder's most fascinating and complex heroine. She's cold yet passionate, generous at times but miserly upon occasion, and an unfaithful yet devoted wife. The film "The Marriage of Maria Braun" begins in WWII on the day of Maria's marriage to German officer Hermann Braun. They have a total of an afternoon and a night together before he's shipped off to the front. When the war is over, and Hermann doesn't return, Maria begins to haunt the railway station with a placard bearing his photo. She joins other desperate women who hope that someone has news. In time, Maria receives news that Hermann is dead.

The end of WWII finds Maria living in a nation in a state of chaos. The bombed-out shell of her home is the only shelter she has, and food is in short supply. Maria's tough confidence ensures that she will have a place in the new Germany, and she concludes that her "time is just beginning." She suspends grief, and as a realist, she gets on with trying to succeed in the new social structure. In time, she grows colder-- "It's not a good time for feelings, but that suits me, and that way nothing really affects me." The film examines Maria's relationships with men against the backdrop of a changing Germany. Believing she's a widow, Maria uses her female wiles to survive as a dance hostess in post WWII occupied Germany. A relationship with a black GI ends in murder, but Maria capitalizes on her newly acquired knowledge of English by manipulating her way into a corporate position during Germany's economic recovery. Soon she is the capricious mistress of an ailing industrialist. Somewhere along the way, in her determination to survive and prosper, Maria Braun loses her soul and any chance of happiness. Maria is a symptom of social and economic change in Germany. The only acknowledgement of her past suffering and lost self is seen when Maria makes pilgrimages to old bombed-out buildings. They become shrines to her past.

Many critics consider "The Marriage of Maria Braun" to be Fassbinder's masterpiece. Fassbinder is one of my all-time favourite directors, and I have to agree that this film is simply outstanding. If you haven't watched a Fassbinder film, and are interested in his work, "The Marriage of Maria Braun" is an excellent place to start. Keep an eye open for director Fassbinder in a small role as a black market vendor--displacedhuman

The Marriage of Maria Braun
You have got to be kidding. This film is a waste of time unless you like to view softcore porn of the interracial flavor. Sure, she wants to be successful, but why is it important to show all the sick details? To get the "full emotional impact"? So you can really feel what she went through? The psuedo-intellectual (this review makes no claim at intellectual) arguments and reviews simply don't hold water. What is this film trying to say? It simply tries to show what one woman went through during and after the war in her attempts to become propsperous while"waiting for her love". What a load of crap. While "waiting for her love", whom she hears is dead, she engages in love affairs, in which she simply claims to have detatched emotion from...well...er...motion...Again, what a load of crap. She is simply trying to make herself look good, and trying to lose herself by giving in to every (so-called) "guilty pleasure" she can to avoid feeling or experiencing what is really going on around her. This movie is a waste of time, and I would place it in the same category as a Clint Eastwood film for its gratuitous and unnecessary "love" scenes.

Stunning, Brutally Realistic, Historical Fiction Masterpiece
First and best of Fassbinder's Post-WWII "Wirtschaftswunder" films. His lead character, a young woman, determined to emerge out of Germany's WWII ruins as a success, literally "walks over corpses" to get what she wants. Marrying a man doomed to be among the last to "fall" for the Fuehrer and the German Reich, Maria is now "Frau" instead of "Fraulein". Initially searching for her MIA husband, she eventually gives it up and moves on.

Climbing the ladder, Maria Braun has her share of good times. Showering her impoverished family with lavish presents and lifting everone's life-style up by a notch, Maria becomes the celebrated "Wunderkind" who gets whatever she wants. Although her uppidy attitude isn't always popular, and there is plenty of talk about Maria (and her "ways"), Maria Braun laughs it all away. The Marlene Dietrich-like heroine always has the last laugh, as the shocking ending proves.

This is a Modern Classic, one of the very best films to come out of the 1970s/80s German Cinema. Much stronger than "Veronica Foss" and in the league of "Das Boot", "The Marriage of Maria Braun" is a product of Modern German Dramatic Cinema's golden age. No sugar coating, just pure, unadulterated truth as seen through the rear-view mirror of people who have lived the horrors and survided into new tomorrows. A true gem of a film!*****

Fassbinder's Best Film
Without a doubt this is Fassbinder's best film. Many of his others are too whacked or just have poor acting and plot, but with this one he was on target. This movie provides a shattering view of what it was like for a woman in post war Germany. Often we have seen movies that show what it was like in occupied europe during or after the war, but few movies have provided what the German civilian experience was like.

Fassbinder provides his usual chaotic and striking images, which can sometimes be a little odd and weird, but work well here. From the nutty marriage in the beginning to the final tragic end, this movie provides a tour-de-force of what the ruin and devastation of the war was like for Germany and its people.

Hanna Schygulla is an impressive and sexy actress! Her forward style combined with her good looks makes for a fascinating combination. She lights up every scene in this movie. There are some controversial moments in this film, which considering that it was done in the 1970s are pretty avant-garde. Interracial activities may be considered standard now in US movies, but 30 years ago this was very much a taboo subject. While this only comprises a small segment of the film, we can see that Fassbinder loved to deal with this kind of forbidden fruit.

There is probably a lot of German cinematic technique that I am glossing over, which a film student would go ape over. I see the movie as a social-historical epic and thus my perspective is different. On many different levels this movie has interest, but I think its portrayal of the human cost of the Second World War on the German pysche is the most revealing. Even though a people may survive a devastating conflict, the emotional scars can linger for generations. Germany is still not a complete country pyschologically today because of the legacy of Hitler and the war, even with recent unification. Hence what appears on the surface to be Germany's almost bizarre aversion toward any kind of war today, even if justified. Those who have seen holocaust films like "Schlinder's List" should compare this film to see the other side of the coin (If they can). It might certainly prove educational. You won't see this kind of movie being made in Hollywood, ever! ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Stationmaster's Wife, a drama of post-WWI Bavaria based onOskar Maria Graf's novel Bolweiser, was originally presented as a three-hour-plus event for German television. In preparing his theatrical cut, director Rainer Werner Fassbinder shaved away the subplots and supporting characters to focus tightly on the story of railway stationmaster Bolweiser (Kurt Raab) and his philandering wife Hanni (Elisabeth Trissenaar). Set in late-1920s Bavaria, Bolweiser is a Nazi party man surrounded by grotesque, toadying underlings at the station but is pathetically servile to his increasingly frustrated, unhappy wife. Disgusted by her weak-willed husband, she finds passion in the arms of the butcher. Bolweiser ignores the town gossip and even perjures himself to defend his wife in a trial--an act which later dooms him. Exquisitely photographed (by Michael Balhaus) and beautifully designed, Fassbinder's lush, romantic style suffuses his caustic portrait of the self-destructive Bolweiser (a painfully perfect performance by Raab), and the petty small-town citizens who seal his fate. Even as Bolweiser sinks to the depths of self-pity, Fassbinder's gorgeous, shimmering canvas makes the small-minded doings look so much more tawdry. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (1)

"Women ... 1 of them can ruin 10 men and still survive."
Fassbinder's masterpiece, "The Stationmaster's Wife" is set in Bavaria in the 1920s. The stationmaster, Bolwieser (Kurt Rabb) is basically a good, but boring, man--he occupies a position of some importance in a small town. He bosses around a number of underlings who clearly have the stationmaster's number. They scurry around when he shouts at them, but behind his back, they ridicule him. Bolwieser's relationship with his wife, Hanni (Elisabeth Trissenaar) doesn't exactly help matters. Hanni brings some family money to their relationship, so there's an imbalance of power within the structure of the marriage. Bolwieser's dog-like worship of Hanni does little more than grate on her nerves, and soon she takes a lover--Merkl, the town butcher.

Naturally, everyone in the town is well aware of Hanni's relationship with Merkl, and the affair soon becomes a matter of gossip. And this is the fascinating aspect of this film--many would depict the cuckolded, spineless Bolwieser as an object of pity, or we might even expect him to exact revenge. In Fassbinder's hands, Bolwieser becomes the object of humiliating, collective ridicule, and once he's the town's laughing stock, Hanni manipulates Bolwieser into suing the gossipmongers for perjury. Bolwieser's weak character ensures that he will take the path of least resistance, and whatever Hanni dictates, Bolwieser does.

Fassbinder's film is based on the novel by Oskar Marie Graf. Originally, Fassbinder created "Bolwieser" as a 2-part television play. After concluding the play, Fassbinder cut down the material he had and created the film version. "The Stationmaster's Wife" has an episodic feel to it--perhaps this is due to the fact that several scenes were cut for the film version.

Fassbinder's depiction of the pathological aspects of the Bolwiesers' marriage is a searing, brutal and brilliant portrayal of the subtle power structures within the marriage. There are moments when Bolwieser has the upper hand--temporarily, and then he lavishes his drooling and unwelcome attentions on Hanni--often humiliating her while he has the chance. The ugliness and pettiness of small time life is emphasized through the perversity and grotesqueness of most of the characters. There's one scene, for example, when several characters read a newspaper story about a mother who tries to drown her child. The characters find this story immensely entertaining and amusing, and they all have a good laugh. In other scenes, the camera emphasizes the grotesque qualities of the characters--the only physically appealing characters are Hanni and her lovers. "The Stationmaster's Wife" is in German with subtitles in English. If you enjoy this film, I also recommend, "The Marriage of Maria Braun" and "Veronica Voss." Fassbinder is one of my favourite directors, and "The Stationmaster's Wife" is one of his greatest films--displacedhuman ... Read more

Reviews (7)

"It's not a good time for feelings."
I've heard a lot of criticism of this film, but whether one likes it or doesn't like it, it definitely is a masterpiece and a landmark of German cinema.

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is clearly political and Fassbinder took every opportunity he could to show us how much he despised and disapproved of the politics and economics of post-World War II Germany.

Outwardly, the plot of THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is rather simple. It is post-World War II Germany and the country is in ruins. Fassbinder focuses on Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla) and her actions as being representative of those of the nation as a whole. Apathy, hopelessness and despair abound, and certainly those are the emotions Maria is feeling. She lives in poverty and, though married, she finds herself alone when her soldier husband is reported missing in action and presumed dead. Maria is a person who does what she needs to do, however, and when an American GI asks her to move in with him (and action that leads to his death), Maria wastes no time in doing so.

As things turn out, Maria's husband is more missing than dead, but circumstances in his life and in Maria's land him in prison. Although, at this point, it might seem that Maria is right back where she started from, this isn't the case. Things have changed. Maria now has a productive job at a textile mill and an affair with her boss. More has changed, though, than Maria is aware of, and the outcome of it all will be something very different than what she'd planned.

I've read criticism of Hanna Schygulla's performance as Maria as being cold and superficial. Of course, it is, at one point in the film. That's how it's supposed to be. Personally, I think Schygulla's performance was brilliant. She displays a range of emotions from naïve and vulnerable to competent and self-confident with tremendous believability. Maria was corrupted, but she was corrupted because life, itself, is corrupt, not because she's an inherently bad person.

With THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, Fassbinder, one of my favorite filmmakers, shows us that even good people, with the purest and most honorable of intentions can be corrupted when they're reduced to abject poverty and neediness.

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is a film not to be missed for those who love European cinema or art house films.

"A Mata Hari of the economic recovery."
Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla) is Fassbinder's most fascinating and complex heroine. She's cold yet passionate, generous at times but miserly upon occasion, and an unfaithful yet devoted wife. The film "The Marriage of Maria Braun" begins in WWII on the day of Maria's marriage to German officer Hermann Braun. They have a total of an afternoon and a night together before he's shipped off to the front. When the war is over, and Hermann doesn't return, Maria begins to haunt the railway station with a placard bearing his photo. She joins other desperate women who hope that someone has news. In time, Maria receives news that Hermann is dead.

The end of WWII finds Maria living in a nation in a state of chaos. The bombed-out shell of her home is the only shelter she has, and food is in short supply. Maria's tough confidence ensures that she will have a place in the new Germany, and she concludes that her "time is just beginning." She suspends grief, and as a realist, she gets on with trying to succeed in the new social structure. In time, she grows colder-- "It's not a good time for feelings, but that suits me, and that way nothing really affects me." The film examines Maria's relationships with men against the backdrop of a changing Germany. Believing she's a widow, Maria uses her female wiles to survive as a dance hostess in post WWII occupied Germany. A relationship with a black GI ends in murder, but Maria capitalizes on her newly acquired knowledge of English by manipulating her way into a corporate position during Germany's economic recovery. Soon she is the capricious mistress of an ailing industrialist. Somewhere along the way, in her determination to survive and prosper, Maria Braun loses her soul and any chance of happiness. Maria is a symptom of social and economic change in Germany. The only acknowledgement of her past suffering and lost self is seen when Maria makes pilgrimages to old bombed-out buildings. They become shrines to her past.

Many critics consider "The Marriage of Maria Braun" to be Fassbinder's masterpiece. Fassbinder is one of my all-time favourite directors, and I have to agree that this film is simply outstanding. If you haven't watched a Fassbinder film, and are interested in his work, "The Marriage of Maria Braun" is an excellent place to start. Keep an eye open for director Fassbinder in a small role as a black market vendor--displacedhuman

The Marriage of Maria Braun
You have got to be kidding. This film is a waste of time unless you like to view softcore porn of the interracial flavor. Sure, she wants to be successful, but why is it important to show all the sick details? To get the "full emotional impact"? So you can really feel what she went through? The psuedo-intellectual (this review makes no claim at intellectual) arguments and reviews simply don't hold water. What is this film trying to say? It simply tries to show what one woman went through during and after the war in her attempts to become propsperous while"waiting for her love". What a load of crap. While "waiting for her love", whom she hears is dead, she engages in love affairs, in which she simply claims to have detatched emotion from...well...er...motion...Again, what a load of crap. She is simply trying to make herself look good, and trying to lose herself by giving in to every (so-called) "guilty pleasure" she can to avoid feeling or experiencing what is really going on around her. This movie is a waste of time, and I would place it in the same category as a Clint Eastwood film for its gratuitous and unnecessary "love" scenes.

Stunning, Brutally Realistic, Historical Fiction Masterpiece
First and best of Fassbinder's Post-WWII "Wirtschaftswunder" films. His lead character, a young woman, determined to emerge out of Germany's WWII ruins as a success, literally "walks over corpses" to get what she wants. Marrying a man doomed to be among the last to "fall" for the Fuehrer and the German Reich, Maria is now "Frau" instead of "Fraulein". Initially searching for her MIA husband, she eventually gives it up and moves on.

Climbing the ladder, Maria Braun has her share of good times. Showering her impoverished family with lavish presents and lifting everone's life-style up by a notch, Maria becomes the celebrated "Wunderkind" who gets whatever she wants. Although her uppidy attitude isn't always popular, and there is plenty of talk about Maria (and her "ways"), Maria Braun laughs it all away. The Marlene Dietrich-like heroine always has the last laugh, as the shocking ending proves.

This is a Modern Classic, one of the very best films to come out of the 1970s/80s German Cinema. Much stronger than "Veronica Foss" and in the league of "Das Boot", "The Marriage of Maria Braun" is a product of Modern German Dramatic Cinema's golden age. No sugar coating, just pure, unadulterated truth as seen through the rear-view mirror of people who have lived the horrors and survided into new tomorrows. A true gem of a film!*****

Fassbinder's Best Film
Without a doubt this is Fassbinder's best film. Many of his others are too whacked or just have poor acting and plot, but with this one he was on target. This movie provides a shattering view of what it was like for a woman in post war Germany. Often we have seen movies that show what it was like in occupied europe during or after the war, but few movies have provided what the German civilian experience was like.

Fassbinder provides his usual chaotic and striking images, which can sometimes be a little odd and weird, but work well here. From the nutty marriage in the beginning to the final tragic end, this movie provides a tour-de-force of what the ruin and devastation of the war was like for Germany and its people.

Hanna Schygulla is an impressive and sexy actress! Her forward style combined with her good looks makes for a fascinating combination. She lights up every scene in this movie. There are some controversial moments in this film, which considering that it was done in the 1970s are pretty avant-garde. Interracial activities may be considered standard now in US movies, but 30 years ago this was very much a taboo subject. While this only comprises a small segment of the film, we can see that Fassbinder loved to deal with this kind of forbidden fruit.

There is probably a lot of German cinematic technique that I am glossing over, which a film student would go ape over. I see the movie as a social-historical epic and thus my perspective is different. On many different levels this movie has interest, but I think its portrayal of the human cost of the Second World War on the German pysche is the most revealing. Even though a people may survive a devastating conflict, the emotional scars can linger for generations. Germany is still not a complete country pyschologically today because of the legacy of Hitler and the war, even with recent unification. Hence what appears on the surface to be Germany's almost bizarre aversion toward any kind of war today, even if justified. Those who have seen holocaust films like "Schlinder's List" should compare this film to see the other side of the coin (If they can). It might certainly prove educational. You won't see this kind of movie being made in Hollywood, ever! ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Excellent DVD also incl. both Fassbinder short films
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), one of Fassbinder's masterpieces, explores the tortured connections between desire and power. Not only is the DVD of exceptional quality, it includes both of Fassbinder's fascinating short films ("The City Tramp" and "The Little Chaos") plus a revealing documentary.

Although Bitter Tears remains one of Fassbinder's most controversial films - in part for its severely limited depiction of women's lives - it is also one of his most powerful. Fortunately, the range of lesbian-themed films in the past thirty years has presented women's experiences in considerably more diversity and fullness, so perhaps now we can better evaluate the film's considerable merits.

Fassbinder's casts are always uniformly strong, but this one is extraordinary, especially Margit Carstensen in the title role (she won several awards), Hanna Schygulla (with whom Fassbinder made 20 pictures) as her new lover Karin Thimm, and Irm Herrman as Petra's mysterious assistant Marlene who, without uttering one word, at times dominates with her sheer presence.

The film is astonishing for its interweaving of raw emotion with stunning and meticulous design. Fassbinder and director of photography Michael Ballhaus (who shot about half of the director's films, and now does all of Scorsese's pictures) wrest every bit of visual interest from the single claustrophobic set (we never leave this one apartment). The endlessly inventive deep focus compositions provide a series of emotionally penetrating, and technically virtuosic, comments on the action - ironic, allusive, symbolic, and visually gorgeous. The only picture which approaches this level of achievement - in making limited physical space utterly compelling as cinema - is Cocteau's Les Parents Terribles (1948), but he had all of two sets!

Fassbinder also makes acerbic use of every carefully placed object in the lavish apartment. Most notable is a gigantic blowup of Poussin's painting "Midas and Bacchus," which reminds us that Petra - like Midas, whose life was blasted by the "golden touch" - should be careful what she wishes for. The nude Bacchus stands in the center of the mural - and not infrequently Fassbinder's compositions - with the body of, well, a Greek god, a larger-than-life male in a film peopled entirely with women. Some critics argue that this overbearing backdrop represents the patriarchal system which underlies, and perhaps even dooms, the relationship of Petra and Karin. Fassbinder includes many other witty, even playful, elements throughout the film, both to give it greater resonance, and to keep it from descending into bathos. For instance, dramatic form has rarely been so drolly encapsulated as when Petra changes into a new wig - "symbolically" indicating her emotional state - in each of the film's five scenes (each unfolds in continuous time).

Although it would be unfair to reveal the ending, a tentatively optimistic reading may be possible: For one character it revolves around a newfound self-respect, for another because she has, for the first time, genuinely reached out to someone else. The film is so rich, on so many levels, that you may find yourself seeing it differently on each viewing. Few works so creatively, and powerfully, manage to subvert our desire for cathartic drama while simultaneously fulfilling it.

FASSBINDER'S SHORT FILMS ARE ALSO INCLUDED on this DVD. Both were made in 1966, when he was 19. "The City Tramp," about a homeless man who finds a gun, is a work of extraordinary, stark visual design and intriguing commentative sound (street noise juxtaposed with classical music juxtaposed with silence). It boasts excellent performances, with Fassbinder raising it far above the level of a "vanity piece" for financial backer cum star Christoph Roser. It also introduces several of the filmmaker's recurring themes, including alienation, the role of the outsider, exploitation, and violence, while its sporadic playfulness highlights another vital, and fun, aspect of his work. "The Little Chaos" is about three friends who use their knowledge of American crime movies (and Godard's 1964 film Band of Outsiders) to rob a woman. Although not as visually striking or emotionally rich as "City Tramp," it features first-rate performances and has a refreshing exuberance. The DVD also includes "Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977," an engrossing half-hour documentary.

"I can no longer go back and start again."
Decadent German fashion designer, Petra Von Kant (Margit Carstensen) rules her business world from her apartment. Here she exploits silent, faithful Marlene--her assistant designer, cook, secretary, slave and general dogsbody. Marlene worships Petra and shifts seamlessly between work roles while accepting everything dished out to her. Petra is cruel, self-focused, and arrogant--her success allows her to be unpleasant to everyone.

Petra is introduced to married model, Karin (Hannah Schygulla), and Petra falls madly in love with her. Karin--who seems to be vulnerable and gentle--agrees to move in with Petra, and so their relationship begins. With a great ironic display of the absolute corruptibility and viciousness of human beings, Fassbinder then shows how love and worship weakens Petra. Karin--the love object--holds all the power in the relationship, and in a strange reversal, Petra becomes the tiresome slave.

This film has a very small all-female cast, but the huge mural of a naked man serves as the token male presence. The placement of the mural and its anatomically diminished male is no accident, and I cannot recall a film in which the set is such an integral part of the film. Note Petra's bedding, and Petra's body is just a clothed version of the naked mannequins that sprawl all over Petra's apartment in various poses. Petra seems like a mannequin, and she dons the most fantastic outfits. She begins the day looking rather haggard, but with her wigs and make-up, she becomes glamourous and seductive by noon. Hannah Schygulla as Karin looks positively dumpy next to the sharp elbows of Petra. Note Marlene's silent participation during the dialogues that take place. Marlene often shows her displeasure or anguish in the subtlest ways, and again, it's all part of the set.

"The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant" is one of my favourite Fassbinder films, and one I re-watch ever year during my annual Fassbinder Festival. I think Fassbinder's film illustrates perfectly the inherent problem of possession and power in all love relationships. In the beginning of the film, it is difficult to imagine anyone besting Petra, and it seems as though Karin may just become another victim. After all, Petra holds all the power--the money, the apartment, the influence, and the position, but the power in the relationship moves to Karin, and all she does is exploit and torture Petra under Marlene's watchful and disapproving gaze--displacedhuman

Fassbinder's take on a Mankiewicz classic, All About Eve
Considerable journalism and scholarship has been devoted to Fassbinder's admiration for works of Danish-born film director Douglas Sirk. However Fassbinder did, in fact, loosely borrow from many melodramatic texts, Mildred Pierce for The Marriage of Maria Braun, Sunset Blvd. for Veronica Voss, both in the BRD Trilogy, and in the case of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, from Joseph's Mankiewicz's All About Eve.

In the audio commentary, popular arts critic Jane Shattuc makes reference to Fassbinder's theatrical renderings in the film, Petra's couture costumes, tightly framed background shots of the Poussin painting in Petra's apartment, and use of lighting, all of which provide the viewers with every bit of intimacy as a performance on stage.

Obviously his own background and training in theater was one source of inspiration for the film. But certainly another was his fascination with Hollywood melodrama, and specifically in this instance, Joseph Mankiewicz's characteriztion of Broadway legend Margo Channing and her idol Eve Harrington in All About Eve.

While same class consciousness dyanamics are evident in both films, so are elements of lesbianism and bi-sexuality. Only in the case of Fassbinder the class differences between Petra, her appentice, and the Hanna Schgulla character become stark and more exaggerated. As for sexual oreintation, what's implied in All About Eve is more evident in Petra von Kant and worthy of a enough consideration to do a doctorial dissertation on the subject.

i love this film because it provides the most vivid and detailed characterizations of female intentions, wants, and desires of any other film in the Fassbinder canon, including the female characters in the BRD Trilogy or Berlin Alexanderplatz.

The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
I don't know if it was bad acting or simply a bad script. The acting was stiff. Maybe something was lost in the translation. But it seemed they took a 10 min dialogue and stretched it to 2 hours. Basic story left me saying get over it, get on with it. I fast forewarded through most of it and didn't miss anything. If you're a lesbian looking for a movie with strong female interaction, it's not this one. This movie, definitely was not worth the money.

Interesting...yes
My rating is actually 2.5 stars. I was intrigued by the synopsis of this film and then the overall production design(the single divded loft space, the central positioning of the big bed, the vibrant wall painting in almost all the shots, and of course the costuming) really drew me in. Given that the film only has five or six scenes, each scene is 20 to 25 minutes long. The majority of each scene consists Petra Von Kant rambling on about her ethics, philosophies, and tragedies. She is completely self-obsessed. While there is sympathy for her life's pain and admiration for her sense of independence, her treatment of everyone around her is either callous(Marlene), patronizing(Sidonie and her daughter), predatory(Karin), or wheedling(Karin and her mother).

Even her love for Karin, however doomed, is poisoned by her inability to see anything outside of herself. Before their affair begins, Karin tells Petra exactly who she is in terms of her goals, discipline, desires, and damaged world view. Yet Petra refuses to acknowledge the real Karin and is shocked to find herself used and cast aside by Karin.

Throughout the film, Marlene, Petra's assistant, is a silent witness to Petra's dramatic highs and lows. She toils like a machine. Maintaining a patient grace, Marlene withstands Petra's demanding viciousness and suffers the presence of the callow ..., Karin. Every once in a while, Marlene's expression reveals her abject love for Petra. Marlene's devotion to Petra is not tragic unto itself; Marlene is happy in her submissive role. It is Petra's willful ignorance of Marlene's sacrifice that is the issue.

While Petra's dissolution into a lovelorn harpy is strangely humorous, her utterly destructive will toward all of her other relationships is the ultimate realization of her selfishness. This quality, not Petra's lesbian desire, is the deviant "other" of the film. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In 1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder made Fox and His Friends,inspired by his relationship with working-class butcher Armin Meier. When Fassbinder dumped his longtime lover in 1978, the distraught Meier committed suicide, andFassbinder fell into a deep depression. Whether driven by guilt or helplessness, the director drew from the experience for another film, the story of transsexual Elvira Weishaupt (Volker Spengler in a haunting performance). Elvira, formerly Erwin, is a working-class butcher who changed her sex for a lover who promptly left her. She now spends her days wandering the alienating industrial Frankfurt cityscape while reminiscing about her painful past. Coming after the lush, soft-focus beauty of the international hit The Marriage of Maria Braun, the bleak landscape of Frankfurt and Elvira's harsh, stylized flashbacks are almost shocking. The faint of heart should be warned of a gruesome slaughterhouse scene where cattle are killed and butchered--a display of cruelty that echoes the emotional brutality of Elvira's past. It's one of Fassbinder's most personal projects (in addition to writing and directing he serves as cinematographer, editor, and set designer), a strikingly stylized film and one of his most emotionally wrenching works. Meier may have inspired Elvira, but Fassbinder invests himself into the character, and his identification creates a powerful, painful portrait drenched in despair. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Extraordinary late Fassbinder film
Despite the flaws of '13 Moons,' I still believe that this is one of Fassbinder's best films. Part of that conclusion is of course the understanding that every Fassbinder film has flaws. But I judge films on how effective they were in telling a story and how effective they are in making me think. And this film still has a strong impression on me 10 years after seeing it last. For me, the film is best understood during the skyscraper sequence. We have an unknown character peeping through a keyhole in an abandoned office tower and laughing hysterically. That of course, is Fassbinder's little jab at the audience, as we are all voyeurs. Later, we see an executive playing a kind of "movieokie" / imitation of a Jerry Lewis sequence on television. A total carbon copy of a preexisting text, done in the twisted humorous style that only Fassbinder can deliver. We later see that same executive subject himself to a staged kidnapping drill by his security staff, which places the film in historical context as left-wing terrorists attacked CEO's during the 1970's. And finally, we see a man hang himself in an abandoned suite. It is over the top, unrealistic, and I'm sure it is torture for most viewers (if they weren't driven out by the early slaughterhouse scene), but it is still a masterpiece as it is a compelling example of post-modernism in the true sense. If you are a student of New Wave or Avant Garde cinema, 13 Moons is a must-see. I can't convince you that it is a masterpiece. You just have to see it for yourself. It ranks with "The American Soldier," "The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant," "Love is Colder than Death," "Chinese Roulette," and "Fox and his Friends," as Fassbinder's best works. If you want to see the darkest work of art to come of out West Germany in the late 1970's, this is it.

A BLOODY MASTERPIECE
THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST STYLISH FILMS EVER MADE. NOTHING IN IT IS EXCESSIVE - THE DIRECTOR IS TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING WITH EVEN THE MOST DISTURBING SLAUGHTERHOUSE SCENE.

Unpleasant and Unforgettable
The other reviewers are correct to write that this is a difficult film to watch, as are all of Fassbinder's films. But that's why "In a Year with 13 Moons" is such a masterpiece: the director isn't trying to slip you a wink; he has made a brutal film to convey brutal ideas. And whether you agree with those ideas or not, Fassbinder's violence here is never insincere or gratuitous. (There are also a few well-timed moments of comic relief.) An astonishing combination of craftsmanship and raw emotion from a filmmaker at his very best. It makes other films look lazy or cowardly, or both.

Spend your day getting wisdom teeth removed instead!
Fassbinder inflicts his personal pain and suffering upon his viewers. I've seen graduate film students walk out of this film. In fact, the INSTRUCTOR of the class walked out as well. The relief felt when he/she finally commits suicide was not worth the utter hell of watching the protagonist's torment for two hours. The remaining students actually cheered when death finally ended not only his suffering but our own.

Call me insensitive and closed-minded, but only after you have experienced this ordeal for yourself. This is the worst film this film instructor has ever seen.

Middle-of-the-road Fassbinder
My first response to '13 Moons' is that it is not a great Fassbinder film. I'll admit, though, that maybe it's just too tragic to be "enjoyable" in the normal sense.

Volker Spengler is an excellent actor, and the chance to play a character like Elvira must have been fascinating for him. Ingrid Caven is as seductive as ever, although not quite as intriguing in this film as she is in 'Merchant of Four Seasons' or 'Mother Kusters.' The biggest treat is Gottfried John as Anton Saitz -- a real hoot of a character. It's a shame that not all corporate hot-shots can be as outrageous and fun as Saitz. We see him and his hirelings playing what is apparently a daily game of a shoot-out (with blanks, of course) in the company parking lot. You also get the sense that Saitz wears those white tennis shorts to work every day. Saitz is the real high point of the film.

But '13 Moons' is ultimately a tragedy, and a deeply affecting portrait of a transvestite's humanity. You'll be shocked by the horrid slaughterhouse scenes; and also by the irony that a sensitive character like Elvira could work in such a bloody place. A metaphor of a feeling soul in a sublimely horrible world? Worth a look, but still not one of Fassbinder's greatest. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

Wild Boys
An ambitious and original movie, Rainer Werner Fassbider`s "Querelle" is an interesting effort with some compelling moments but ends up being too flawed as a whole. This experimental release presents a surreal and dreamy mood that showcases Querelle`s (a marine played by Brad Davis) search for himself and his true nature. His search will lead to some risky relationships with a couple of his mates, presenting a movie that combines campy moments with some introspective and symbolic ones. What we have here is a film that explores human desire, narcisism, homo(sexuality) and seduction in an unique and peculiar way, even if the characters are too self-absorbed and the plot drags in many scenes. "Querelle" is too ambiguous and ethereal to deliver a convincing resolution, even if it delivers an unusual dark atmosphere with compelling settings and brilliant direction (the photography is also good, displaying excellent colours and textures). The acting is not very intriguing and the weird characters turn this into an unusual yet cold cinematic experience. Fassbinder presents some good ideas here, still this effort is to sparse and disjointed to become a solid movie.

Not bad, just too uneven to convince.

Rub a Dub Dub
First of all when you get the DVD version, you have the opportunity to watch the film as it was originally filmed - in English. Anyone who speaks French and can read lips knows that the film was dubbed into French (and not just bad sync-sound) - the film was later released back in the states with English subtitles under the French dub (talk about a triple threat).

I must say that I love this movie for tackling issues that 20 years ago were definitely still taboo in the mainstream. Although not a masterpiece in terms of plot development, I believe it stays true to the development of Jean Genet's characters - and of course the cinematography is stunning. Like watching a live action Tom of Finland cartoon directed by David Lynch at times... Wonderful.

Wings Of Querelle? Little To Desire?
These comments refer to the DVD edition. First of all and for the record, this flick was obviously filmed in English (!) as anyone who watches lip movements can readily detect. Of course, if you only saw it on VHS or a VHS derivative, you probably couldn't see any lips, much less lip movements.

This flick is so bad that it rapidly becomes a parody of a cheap porn flick without the porn part. HEALTH WARNING TO PROSPECTIVE VIEWERS: The ubiquitous voice-overs, presumably reflecting the deepest and innermost feelings of the particular character involved in a given scene, can send viewers into uncontrollable spasms of laughter! Just when one expects some profound reflection by a character on the current state of affairs (no pun intended) what emerges are increasingly banal sexual descriptions that, were they to be quoted here, would be canned by the censors along with the rest of this review. If you could somehow cross this flick's "thought-bubbles" with those in Wm. Wender's fatally dull and unimaginative "Wings Of Desire", you would have the instantaneous creation of not one, but two cult classics!

Wooden acting by Brad Davis and others makes this flick a parody. Stay away from this turkey unless you want to liven up a party with the X-rated unintended hilarity, where caustic comments by the audience can greatly add to the fun. A zero-star flick if ever there was one.

sorry, this is not a good farewell for Fassbinder
It's very sad that this film became his last. I too love Fassbinder's work and Brad Davis is great, but you can't say that by watching this piece. Please see this after you went through all other movies from this master otherwise you would get wrong impression about his talent.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
This movie truly made me rethink my pompous blow-hard nature: that is to say, I'm fanatical about Jean Genet, madly in love with Brad Davis, and I even MOSTLY like Fassbinder. But for some reason, I can never seem to get through the first half of this movie.

Jean Genet's forbidden story of Querelle was, simply put, never meant to be translated into a movie. The internal struggles of Querelle were too innate, too complex...to ever be categorized and flow-charted and minced down into two hours of a panel-by-panel film script.

Now, with that said, I think Fassbinder made an excellent attempt to put you right up inside the taboo story of our favorite murderer/hero. The scenery is luscious, the costumry finely detailed, the casting superb. Not to mention the delicious sailor booty of a certain leading man, Brad Davis.

Still, I find this movie left me with much to be desired. After the torrid affair of Querelle and Nono, I wanted to roll over and go to sleep (no underlying meaning meant). Even THEN, there was only so much tension up until that point, and the plot manuevering that Fassbinder undertook did nothing to appease me. For example, the lusty leiutenant who writes of Querelle in the novel, keeps, instead, a tape recorded diary. With any horribly tedious passages taken directly from the text. In terribly stiff monologues.

Scary stuff.

All in all, I rated this movie with four of five stars. It perfectly compliments any Genet collection and makes for wonderful ornamentation on your DVD shelves. But if you've never heard of Jean Genet or never saw a Fassbinder movie, you should probably buy a different homoerotic brothel-lined story of metamorphoses and love. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Hanna Schygulla was a true star in this remarkable, semi-allegorical drama by Rainer Werner Fassbinder about a woman whose new marriage soon becomes a long history of waiting for reunification with her husband as he goes off to war, gets lost on the Russian front, ends up in prison, and goes to America. Meanwhile, the phantom marriage suspends the title character in a destiny that leads to power and wealth while still anticipating his return. One of several cinematic metaphors by Fassbinder for the identity and experience of post-war Germany, this 1978 film looks more than ever like a masterpiece. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (7)

"It's not a good time for feelings."
I've heard a lot of criticism of this film, but whether one likes it or doesn't like it, it definitely is a masterpiece and a landmark of German cinema.

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is clearly political and Fassbinder took every opportunity he could to show us how much he despised and disapproved of the politics and economics of post-World War II Germany.

Outwardly, the plot of THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is rather simple. It is post-World War II Germany and the country is in ruins. Fassbinder focuses on Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla) and her actions as being representative of those of the nation as a whole. Apathy, hopelessness and despair abound, and certainly those are the emotions Maria is feeling. She lives in poverty and, though married, she finds herself alone when her soldier husband is reported missing in action and presumed dead. Maria is a person who does what she needs to do, however, and when an American GI asks her to move in with him (and action that leads to his death), Maria wastes no time in doing so.

As things turn out, Maria's husband is more missing than dead, but circumstances in his life and in Maria's land him in prison. Although, at this point, it might seem that Maria is right back where she started from, this isn't the case. Things have changed. Maria now has a productive job at a textile mill and an affair with her boss. More has changed, though, than Maria is aware of, and the outcome of it all will be something very different than what she'd planned.

I've read criticism of Hanna Schygulla's performance as Maria as being cold and superficial. Of course, it is, at one point in the film. That's how it's supposed to be. Personally, I think Schygulla's performance was brilliant. She displays a range of emotions from naïve and vulnerable to competent and self-confident with tremendous believability. Maria was corrupted, but she was corrupted because life, itself, is corrupt, not because she's an inherently bad person.

With THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, Fassbinder, one of my favorite filmmakers, shows us that even good people, with the purest and most honorable of intentions can be corrupted when they're reduced to abject poverty and neediness.

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is a film not to be missed for those who love European cinema or art house films.

"A Mata Hari of the economic recovery."
Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla) is Fassbinder's most fascinating and complex heroine. She's cold yet passionate, generous at times but miserly upon occasion, and an unfaithful yet devoted wife. The film "The Marriage of Maria Braun" begins in WWII on the day of Maria's marriage to German officer Hermann Braun. They have a total of an afternoon and a night together before he's shipped off to the front. When the war is over, and Hermann doesn't return, Maria begins to haunt the railway station with a placard bearing his photo. She joins other desperate women who hope that someone has news. In time, Maria receives news that Hermann is dead.

The end of WWII finds Maria living in a nation in a state of chaos. The bombed-out shell of her home is the only shelter she has, and food is in short supply. Maria's tough confidence ensures that she will have a place in the new Germany, and she concludes that her "time is just beginning." She suspends grief, and as a realist, she gets on with trying to succeed in the new social structure. In time, she grows colder-- "It's not a good time for feelings, but that suits me, and that way nothing really affects me." The film examines Maria's relationships with men against the backdrop of a changing Germany. Believing she's a widow, Maria uses her female wiles to survive as a dance hostess in post WWII occupied Germany. A relationship with a black GI ends in murder, but Maria capitalizes on her newly acquired knowledge of English by manipulating her way into a corporate position during Germany's economic recovery. Soon she is the capricious mistress of an ailing industrialist. Somewhere along the way, in her determination to survive and prosper, Maria Braun loses her soul and any chance of happiness. Maria is a symptom of social and economic change in Germany. The only acknowledgement of her past suffering and lost self is seen when Maria makes pilgrimages to old bombed-out buildings. They become shrines to her past.

Many critics consider "The Marriage of Maria Braun" to be Fassbinder's masterpiece. Fassbinder is one of my all-time favourite directors, and I have to agree that this film is simply outstanding. If you haven't watched a Fassbinder film, and are interested in his work, "The Marriage of Maria Braun" is an excellent place to start. Keep an eye open for director Fassbinder in a small role as a black market vendor--displacedhuman

The Marriage of Maria Braun
You have got to be kidding. This film is a waste of time unless you like to view softcore porn of the interracial flavor. Sure, she wants to be successful, but why is it important to show all the sick details? To get the "full emotional impact"? So you can really feel what she went through? The psuedo-intellectual (this review makes no claim at intellectual) arguments and reviews simply don't hold water. What is this film trying to say? It simply tries to show what one woman went through during and after the war in her attempts to become propsperous while"waiting for her love". What a load of crap. While "waiting for her love", whom she hears is dead, she engages in love affairs, in which she simply claims to have detatched emotion from...well...er...motion...Again, what a load of crap. She is simply trying to make herself look good, and trying to lose herself by giving in to every (so-called) "guilty pleasure" she can to avoid feeling or experiencing what is really going on around her. This movie is a waste of time, and I would place it in the same category as a Clint Eastwood film for its gratuitous and unnecessary "love" scenes.

Stunning, Brutally Realistic, Historical Fiction Masterpiece
First and best of Fassbinder's Post-WWII "Wirtschaftswunder" films. His lead character, a young woman, determined to emerge out of Germany's WWII ruins as a success, literally "walks over corpses" to get what she wants. Marrying a man doomed to be among the last to "fall" for the Fuehrer and the German Reich, Maria is now "Frau" instead of "Fraulein". Initially searching for her MIA husband, she eventually gives it up and moves on.

Climbing the ladder, Maria Braun has her share of good times. Showering her impoverished family with lavish presents and lifting everone's life-style up by a notch, Maria becomes the celebrated "Wunderkind" who gets whatever she wants. Although her uppidy attitude isn't always popular, and there is plenty of talk about Maria (and her "ways"), Maria Braun laughs it all away. The Marlene Dietrich-like heroine always has the last laugh, as the shocking ending proves.

This is a Modern Classic, one of the very best films to come out of the 1970s/80s German Cinema. Much stronger than "Veronica Foss" and in the league of "Das Boot", "The Marriage of Maria Braun" is a product of Modern German Dramatic Cinema's golden age. No sugar coating, just pure, unadulterated truth as seen through the rear-view mirror of people who have lived the horrors and survided into new tomorrows. A true gem of a film!*****

Fassbinder's Best Film
Without a doubt this is Fassbinder's best film. Many of his others are too whacked or just have poor acting and plot, but with this one he was on target. This movie provides a shattering view of what it was like for a woman in post war Germany. Often we have seen movies that show what it was like in occupied europe during or after the war, but few movies have provided what the German civilian experience was like.

Fassbinder provides his usual chaotic and striking images, which can sometimes be a little odd and weird, but work well here. From the nutty marriage in the beginning to the final tragic end, this movie provides a tour-de-force of what the ruin and devastation of the war was like for Germany and its people.

Hanna Schygulla is an impressive and sexy actress! Her forward style combined with her good looks makes for a fascinating combination. She lights up every scene in this movie. There are some controversial moments in this film, which considering that it was done in the 1970s are pretty avant-garde. Interracial activities may be considered standard now in US movies, but 30 years ago this was very much a taboo subject. While this only comprises a small segment of the film, we can see that Fassbinder loved to deal with this kind of forbidden fruit.

There is probably a lot of German cinematic technique that I am glossing over, which a film student would go ape over. I see the movie as a social-historical epic and thus my perspective is different. On many different levels this movie has interest, but I think its portrayal of the human cost of the Second World War on the German pysche is the most revealing. Even though a people may survive a devastating conflict, the emotional scars can linger for generations. Germany is still not a complete country pyschologically today because of the legacy of Hitler and the war, even with recent unification. Hence what appears on the surface to be Germany's almost bizarre aversion toward any kind of war today, even if justified. Those who have seen holocaust films like "Schlinder's List" should compare this film to see the other side of the coin (If they can). It might certainly prove educational. You won't see this kind of movie being made in Hollywood, ever! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

One of Fassbinder's Best
"Veronika Voss" is the noir\melodrama Hollywood never made, or is it the noir\melodrama Hollywood did make but Fassbinder borrowed from it?

I'm not quite yet a strong admirer of Fassbinder's work, though I'm getting there. I've seen a few of his films and they have all pleased me on different levels, but, "Veronika Voss" is one of the best films I've seen from Fassbinder. The other one is "The Merchant of Four Seasons" (easily one of the greatest films I've ever seen).

"Voss" immediately captures your attention with the beautiful black&white cinematography from Xaver Schwarzenberger.

"Voss" though may recall the classic Billy Wilder film "Sunset Boulevard", and maybe that's done on purpose. While it would be foolish to try and compare the two obviously "Veronika Voss" gets away with things Wilder's film could never have.

"Voss" tells the story of a once famous actress who was popular during WW2 and now finds herself a "has been". Whether she just has too much pride or is in denial I'm not sure, but she stands no real chance at a comeback. As it turns out Voss is addicted to morphine. It may even have been one of the reasons for her marriage to end. And just like "Sunset Boulevard" the former star finds herself attracted to a younger man. In this case Robert Krohn (Hilmar Thate). But the film, to me at least, isn't really a satire on the movie industry the way "Boulevard" was. "Voss" takes on the noir\melodrama. And does so in a very effective way.

Rosel Zech who play Voss does a great job. She maintains our interest for the entire lenght of the film and displays a wide range of emotions. And I also enjoyed Cornelia Froboess, who plays Robert's extremely understanding girlfriend. She adds some humor to the film.

If your just starting to get interested in Fassbinder's work "Veronika Voss" should win you over.

Bottom-line: One of the best films I've seen so far from Fassbinder. I loved the black&white cinematography and the performance from Zech. Fassbinder makes the film Hollywood forgot to.

"Men are just crazy about addictive women."
Set in Berlin in the 50s, "Veronika Voss" is the story of an aging, once-famous film star. Veronika's career, apparently, hit a dead-end at the conclusion of WWII. Rumours hint that she was the mistress of Goebbels, and yet other stories deny Veronika's involvement with the Nazi Party and maintain, instead, that Veronika was driven from the film industry by Goebbels. Now, 10 years later, no one remembers the truth, and it is impossible to entangle fact from fiction. In the years since WWII ended, Veronika Voss has faded from public view, and she isn't even a memory for most people.

One stormy evening after an evening spent watching and sobbing at her old films, Veronika leaves the cinema and meets sports reporter, Robert Krohn. He offers to share his umbrella, and Veronika is touched by his kindness. He doesn't recognize the fading film star and so has no idea who she is. Veronika, however, creates scenes wherever she goes, and so on the bus home, she accuses a number of passengers of 'recognizing her and not leaving her alone.'

Veronika fascinates Krohn, and Krohn soon abandons his long-suffering and patient girlfriend to begin a difficult relationship with the impossible Veronika. She states that she likes 'to seduce defenceless men', and it's clear that Krohn feeds a need for male attention. Krohn just can't seem to help himself. While most men would run from Veronika's neediness, Krohn can't seem to get enough. Veronika's self-destructiveness eventually leads Krohn to the clinic of the chilling, mercenary Dr Katz, and here Krohn becomes tragically enmeshed in a web of corruption and greed. Note the presence of an American serviceman in Katz's clinic. He wears his military hat in the most inappropriate circumstances (even when doing chores) to remind the audience that he is one of the inevitable sights in WWII Germany. Similarly, American music plays throughout the film, and American cultural influence seems another unavoidable legacy of the war.

"Veronika Voss" is part of the Fassbinder BDR (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) trilogy. "The Marriage of Maria Braun" and "Lola" are the other two films in the trilogy. All of these films are set in post WWII Germany, and focus on the economic development and corruption of the new Germany. It is not necessary to see the other films in the trilogy in order to enjoy "Veronika Voss." The BDR Trilogy is some of Fassbinder's best work, and even if you've given up on other Fassbinder films, you might like these three. "Veronika Voss" is a black and white film and Fassbinder uses bright whites and shadows to emphasize Veronika's vampishness while creating an atmosphere of decay and impending doom. Katz's clinic is so white, it seems almost sterile. Scenes with Veronika had a definite 30s decadence to them. Armin Mueller-Stahl (a Fassbinder favourite) plays Veronika's husband. The film is supposed to be loosely based on the life of actress Sybille Schmitz--displacedhuman

not so melodramatic as Sunset Boulevard
Veronica Voss is shot beautifuly.

The plot is similar to Sunset Boulevard...aging has been film star, still trying to live in her previous glory, with an all encompassing pride that won't let them let it go.
Veronica Voss is much more realistic than the hysterical Sunset Boulevard..but they are both good in their own style.

Veronica hooks up with a younger sports reporter for her outings from a "clinic" that she lives in. He finds out the "clinic" is in actuality a scam to keep wealthy patients addicted to morphine, as a guise for treatment, while the patients pay with all their belongings, properties, antiques jewelry.etc until they are destitute and can no longer pay, at which point they go cold turkey or are offered sleeping pills.
The sports writer tries to expose the scam, but finds that he is up against powerful people with connections.

Altho I enjoyed this movie, I liked The Marriage of Maria Braun much better. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Domesticity against freedom!
The stifling domesticity of the german society is superbly adapted by Rainer Werner Fassbinder supported by the novel of Theodor Fontane.
A teenager (17) tries to escape from a hell marriage with a count too much older than her , when she decides to establish a love affair with a soldier.
Once more the simultaneous views with other similar themes such as Madame Bovary , Anna Karenina or Tess is the best proof that the prejuices of the european society didn't change too much . The adultery is the only way : and the prize you 've to pay deserves in much the masquerade of trying to convince herself and the society an imaginary hapiness.
We know this story believe or not , still lives : the situations may be different but the meaning essence is real. There are so many unhappy couples not necesarily married who prefer to keep united instead to give a jump to a unknown universe . They prefer the security before the emotional independence .
A latinoamerican writer told once : * The love when it doesn't exist , you need to invent it *.
Fassbinder seems to walk in the border of the soap melodram , but it never falls in it . This is the first movie who shows the huge admiration felt by Fassbinder through Douglas Sirk.
Warning for instance the unexpected casualities among these two brilliant film makers. Both of two lived in a febrile existence and certainly lived faster his biologic time . Sirk made twenty nine films in just sixteen years : while Fassbinder made thiry six pictures in eighteen years.
However Fasssbinder was a more human film maker : he never made a judgement about any of his characters : he loved them instead his faults : the humanity and the huge perception of the female soul is supported in an interview given for the lovely and gifted actress Hanna Shygulla where she stated that they never agree about the tragic pathos who loaded the soul of Fassbinder , she thought that it was possible in a couple , go beyond all the circunstances and deserve the triumph, while he always denied it. She afirmed that this point of view was due the homosexual condition of Fassbinder.
This film is a gem of thousand carats. 140 min run before the viewer without you realize.
This work is an artistic triumph! and one of my top favorites of this german film maker.
After you watch it , you'll remember this sentence of Erich Fromm : The man has achieved undeniable technological progress but emotionally , he still keeps in the age stone.

"And always the sound of the sea."
Every year, I hold a Fassbinder film festival. A friend of mine who loathes Fassbinder films for their depressing and morose qualities says that "Fassbinder Festival" is a contradiction in terms, but it doesn't matter because I'm the only one who attends my film festival anyway.

"Effi Briest" is one of Fassbinder's better films and is based on the novel by Fontane. The film is set in the 1800s, and the story begins with Effi (Hanna Schygulla), a 17-year-old girl who is about to embark on an arranged marriage to the Baron Innstetten. Innstetten is a much older man--in fact, many years before, he courted Effi's mother, but was considered unsuitable. Innstetten is now an upwardly mobile civil servant about to move into the heady realm of politics, and the fact that he is old enough to be Effi's father, doesn't seem unreasonable to the Briest family. Effi accepts her parents' wishes that she marry a man she doesn't know, and the marriage is considered to be socially and financially advantageous. Effi leaves her childhood behind and travels with her new husband to the remote town of Kessin, and here she leads a drab existence. Effi doesn't really fit in with the locals, and her husband--although a good man--is boring, remote and cold. Consequently, life for Effi in Kessin is boring and stifling. Soon Effi falls into the arms of the effete Major Crampas, and Effi embarks on an adulterous affair that is not motivated by love--but boredom.

Many of the film's scenes begin with the characters already in place--but frozen as though awaiting the viewer to breathe life into them. This gives the film an almost play-like quality. Many of the scenes blur or simply explode into white as the story moves forward. This black and white film is long--140 minutes--and no doubt due to the slow unwinding of the story, it is not for all tastes. The French have "Madame Bovary" (with all the drama and passion), the Russians have "Anna Karenina" (with all the cruel indifference), and the Germans have "Effi Briest." The characters in this film could only be German. Some of the best scenes in the film involve philosophical debates between Innstetten and his friend, Wullersdorf. I found the conversations between these characters quite fascinating.

The women in the film (with the exception of Effi) are all quite monstrous. Johanna, the female servant has a face hard enough to be carved from marble, and Effi's mother has a heart of stone. Effi is made of softer stuff--she is warm, loving and full of life but seems destined for tragedy. Note director Fassbinder's use of mirrors and windows in the film. Effi often glances at her reflection, and this exposes her humanity and vanity--both tragic flaws that contribute to her ultimate downfall. I think this film is almost perfect, and I enjoy it more each year-displacedhuman.

wham bam thank you mam
I love how this film more than any of his others recalls the days when we didn't have to fight for our right to party.all the clothes match with the dialog.the star's eyes don't seem as red as they do in other films because I heard she didn't drink rum on the set of this one.it really rocks and doesn't fart you out with long speeches.I like the title cause it sounds really fancy.it's like when you first hear the phrase wham bam thank you mam..it makes you feel like that and I love that.

Deceptively exquisite masterpiece
Coming at the midpoint of his 43-film career, Effi Briest is one of Fassbinder's greatest, and most universally acclaimed, films. The DVD transfer of Effi Briest is flawless.

Theodor Fontane's 1895 novel, about the consequences of betrayed love, was long a favorite of Fassbinder's. Effi Briest was so important to Fassbinder that he not only wrote the screenplay (which was customary), but in his extensive role as the offscreen narrator he literally became Fontane's voice, and sometimes even Effi's. Adding yet another personal layer, he also cast his own mother, Lilo Pempeit, as Effi's mother.

Although I believe this is one of Fassbinder's most intricate masterpieces, as suggested below, it is also one of his most accessible films. On its most basic level, it features an engrossing melodrama about adultery, albeit one purposefully shorn of histrionics. Set in the closed, repressive Prussian society of the Bismarck era, it shows what happens when teenage Effi Briest (Hanna Schygulla, who appeared in twenty of Fassbinder's films), with prodding from her parents, makes an expedient marriage to a rising politician twice her age, Baron Geert von Instetten, and later has an affair with the charming Major Crampas. The film is marked by performances of exceptional nuance and depth; rich period detail and production design; and striking black and white cinematography. But it also works on many more levels - not only as Effi's wrenching story but as Fassbinder's profound involvement both in the social implications of her tale and in his probing of the expressive possibilities of film itself.

Fassbinder (sometimes accused of being a "stagy" director) here shows his mastery of the expressive possibilities of image. To take one example, just over an hour into the film, there is a scene with Effi and Instetten in their boudoir, which follows the scene where Instetten spied on his wife and her lover (although Effi does not know this). Vsually, Fassbinder plays off of our knowledge of the fraught context by creating a beautiful but telling emblem for Effi's married life. We see her in a nightgown, looking towards the camera, cosseted behind a lace net which fills the frame; her eyes downturned, she sinks into a luxurious feather bed, sippin coffee. Behind Effi sits her stiff husband in a suit, his head bracketed by a grille, trying to trick her into revealing her infidelity. Both of them are watched over by a praying plaster cherub, ironically suggesting the role religion plays in their lives. This one shot - gorgeous yet tense (both compositionally and dramatically) - tells us so much about Effi, her life, and the social/political nature of her world.

On a narrative level, Fassbinder uses the film's formal construction to explore the very repression in Effi's life and world. Like agitprop playwright Bertolt Brecht (some of whose works Fassbinder staged at his theatre), Fassbinder wants to give us distance from the action so that we can better contemplate its social, and perhaps even personal, implications. At one emotionally charged moment, the narrator tells us that Effi "threw herself on Instetten." But we see no such thing. The couple is offscreen, and we are left in the kitchen watching the servants desultorily preparing a meal. This defuses the melodrama, which produces a fascinating double effect. On the one hand, it thwarts our expectations - hence giving us aesthetic distance; but on the other hand, it forces us to imagine the scenes for ourselves - which, paradoxically, draws us even further into Effi's life.

In Effi Briest, Fassbinder brings together image, emotion, and idea in extraordinarily rich and complex ways, even as he tells an engrossing story. To take just one more example, it is no accident that this film is filled with statues, which so uncannily parallel the stiff people who share the screen with them. This is a world in which the human figures increasingly recede into the background, where outdoors they are obscured by branches and bushes, while indoors their rigid forms are framed in narrow doorways and reflected - constrained and meaninglessly multiplied - in a series of ever more elaborate mirrors. Fassbinder has captured the poetry of repression: Exquisitely beautiful but enervating, and, ultimately, fatal.

A good voyage into morals of 19th century
This movie is probably more "conventional" of all Fassbinder's movies I have seen. However, I liked the way it was done. The story itself left an indelible impression of me, apart from its cinematographic strengths and weaknesses. I think it portrayed bourgeois Germany of 19th century with its hypocritical morals very well. The very reason why Effi was cast out of society and rejected by her parents seems to be absurd for a modern viewer, and I trust that Fassbider wanted to examine exactly that. The personal drama of Effi, the mother who comes to hate her own daughter, I think is very powerful. I believe it's a good tribute by Fassbinder into studies in German society and its culture. A very much worthwhile film, interesting to compare this handling of an issue with Bergman's dealing with similar issues. This is definitely not a Hollywood style movie. Recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder--Remember the Man and his Films
This could be a good introduction to the terse, emotionally-layered films of Fassbinder, who is becoming recognized as having had a great impact during his short 37 years (deceased in 1982). His films focus on human themes that transcend era or epoch. Here we find a fruit-peddler, who, although seemingly doomed in his early forays into the world and cursed by his mother, continues to work to find meaning in his relationships with women, men, and the world of commerce. Yet, this well-meaning man sinks further into despair and depression, as life goes on. A poignant tale that is timeless, and as visionary today as it was the day it was released. Very highly recommended!

Deeply moving film & superb DVD "Masterworks Edition"
MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS is the deeply moving tale of a German fruit-peddler searching for love and meaning in his life. Not only was this Fassbinder's first major commercial success, it is also one of his best films, and marks a crucial turning point in his career. Stylistically it both looks back to his earlier, more abstract "theatrical" films (like KATZELMACHER), and ahead to his unique melodramas (MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN). MERCHANT is an ideal film to begin exploring - or re-exploring - Fassbinder. Wellspring Media has created a superb "Masterworks Edition" DVD of the film, made from a gorgeously-restored print, with your choice of hearing either a new Dolby 5.1 soundtrack (which I recommend) or the original stereo. They also include two full-length documentaries about Fassbinder: Juliane Lorenz's 90-minute "Life, Love & Celluloid," a fascinating look at Fassbinder's legacy (featuring no film clips but staged scenes, in English, from his plays, plus many revealing interviews); and Alessandro Colizzi's "The Many Women of Fassbinder," which offers a good overview of Fassbinder's career - featuring extensive film clips - while deconstructing the myth of Fassbinder's "misogyny." There is also an insightful and entertaining optional full-length commentary track by Fassbinder's friend Wim Wenders (director of WINGS OF DESIRE, and co-founder with Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, and others, of the influential 1970s New German Cinema movement), and much more. This is an exceptional DVD release of a great film.

ASTOUNDING WORK FROM THE GREATEST
filmmaker of the German New Wave,Merchant of Four Seasons is a truly heartbreaking film about thesorrows of a misspent life, conducted in a beautifully joyous manner.Hirschmuller, and especially(as usual) the actresses, Irm Hermann and Hanna Schygulla, are stunning .One of Master Fassbinder's most quietly powerful films, a study in how a great character study is to be done. ... Read more