The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant • 2h 4m
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1972 • West Germany
Starring Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, Katrin Schaake
In the early 1970s, Rainer Werner Fassbinder discovered the American melodramas of Douglas Sirk and was inspired by them to begin working in a new, more intensely emotional register. One of the first and best-loved films of this period in his career is THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT, which balances a realistic depiction of tormented romance with staging that remains true to the director’s roots in experimental theater. This unforgettable, unforgiving dissection of the imbalanced relationship between a haughty fashion designer (Margit Carstensen) and a beautiful but icy ingenue (Hanna Schygulla)—based, in a sly gender reversal, on the writer-director’s own desperate obsession with a young actor—is a true Fassbinder affair, featuring exquisitely claustrophobic cinematography by Michael Ballhaus and full-throttle performances by an all-female cast.
Up Next in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
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Michael Ballhaus on THE BITTER TEARS ...
The following interview with THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT cinematographer Michael Ballhaus was conducted in Berlin in 2014.
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Jane Shattuc on THE BITTER TEARS OF P...
This interview with Jane Shattuc, professor of visual and media arts at Emerson College and author of “Television, Tabloids, and Tears: Fassbinder and Popular Culture,” was conducted in September 2014.
