The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)

Synopsis

Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marianne (her secretary, maid, and co-designer).

Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in. The rest of the film deals with the emotions of this affair and its aftermath.

Fassbinder tells his story in a series of 5 or 6 long scenes with extended uses of a single camera shot and deep focus. 



Cast: Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, Katrin Schaake, Eva Mattes, Gisela Fackeldey, Irm Hermann

Petra's story is told in a theatre-esque fashion in four acts, each depicting her state of mind hinted visually by her clothes and hair. The film was entered into the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival.

Solitude, love, and the claustrophobic feelings generated by emotional codependency are key themes explored by Fassbinder in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. The solitary setting of Petra's bedroom maximizes the dramatic tension while serving as a mirror for her own entrapment.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and The Marriage of Maria Braun are considered landmarks of European cinema. The two films have secured Fassbinder an undisputed place as film artist and auteur.

The 2014 film Clouds of Sils Maria revolves around a remount of a play called Maloja Snake about an intergenerational lesbian relationship. Olivier Assayas (writer/director of Clouds of Sils Maria) acknowledged the link between The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and the fictional play Maloja Snake.

Peter Strickland has cited The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant as a major influence on his 2015 film The Duke of Burgundy.

In 2022 French film director François Ozon released Peter von Kant, a reinterpretation of the film centred on a male film director. --Wiki

Read about this film

Country: Germany
Language: German
Color: Color
Runtime: 124 min.