Rainer Werner Fassbinder/West Germany/1972/124 Minutes
Rainer Werner Fassbinder is a fascinating German film director with a vast filmography to his name. He died at the relatively young age of 37 and left a catalogue of films, stage plays and television shows. The Filmhouse in Edinburgh is showing a selection of six feature films from Fassbinder’s prolific career, staring with The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant.
Arrogant and self important Petra Von Kant (Margin Carstensen) is a fashion designer who falls in love with the aspiring model Karin Thimm (Hanna Schygulla). Petra verbally abuses her assistant Merlene (Irm Hermann), neglects her Mother and Daughter and only cares for her one obsession – the young and beautiful Karin. The movie is a close and personal look at Petra’s and Karin’s complicated relationship and fully depicts the melodrama of this tremulous same sex partnership. Love, lust and loss are depicted on screen as the director focusses his camera on the psychological turmoil of Petra.
The movie relies heavily on Fassbinder’s experience as a theatre director. It is shot in one location (the expansive apartment building of Petra), and the narrative is driven forward by the honest and passionate dialogue of the characters. Despite using the tropes of theatre, Fassbinder is an excellent cinematic storyteller and fully understands the medium of film and the power of the camera. Throughout the duration of the movie the lens has a voyeuristic approach and remains transfixed on the characters. At times these shots linger and the viewer feels like a fly on the wall during the heartfelt and passionate conversations that Petra and Karin exchange. At other times the camera slowly weaves it’s way around the room and the single location feels like an expansive landscape in which Petra expresses the joys of love. At other times the camera is up close and the apartment building becomes a prison in which Petra has found herself contained. The effect is mesmerising and takes the drama to a heightened level and draws the viewer into Petra’s claustrophobic and tragic existence.
The Fassbinder Season continues throughout the first three weeks of June at Filmhouse Edinburgh. Highlights include Fox and His Friends, The Marriage of Maria Braun and Despair, with each movie further enforcing the fact that Fassbinder is a resolute auteur whose work still feels fresh and exciting in 2017.