THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972) C 124m dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

w/Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, Katrin Schaake, Eva Mattes, Gisela Fackeldey, Irm Hermann

From the Turner Classic Movies website, www.tcm.com, this article about the film by Sean Axmaker: "The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972) began life as a play written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder for actress Margit Carstensen. Staged in 1971 in the Frankfurt Theater Experimenta, the original play is a chamber piece that takes place in a single room with an entirely female cast. The original stage production was poorly received but Fassbinder quickly adapted it into a feature film released just a year later. 

"Fassbinder made minimal changes in his adaptation. Like the play, the film plays out entirely in the apartment of fashion designer Petra Von Kant, an open-plan home where bedroom, living room, dining area and kitchen all flow into one another, and the script divides the action into five clearly delineated acts. Margit Carstensen, whom Fassbinder had directed in stage productions of Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House, reprises her role as the narcissistic, controlling Petra, who becomes besotted with a callow, shallow, young beauty Karin (Hanna Schygulla). Irm Hermann is Marlene, Petra's live-in secretary and Girl Friday, who silently serves her abusive boss and hovers on the periphery of the drama. Eva Mattes, Katrin Schaake and Gisela Fackeldey complete the cast. 

"Fassbinder drew from his own experience for inspiration. He had become infatuated with actor Gunther Kaufmann, whom he met on the set of Baal (1970), and he turned that dynamic into the relationship between the domineering Petra and the glamorous Karin, playing the Kaufmann role. Schygulla, a self-described acting school dropout, was a longtime collaborator that Fassbinder imagined turning into his own glamorous star. The part of Karin was a natural. Hermann, another longtime member of Fassbinder's troupe, held a position in the group much like Marlene in the film, according to film critic and historian Ronald Hayman, and Fassbinder himself confessed in an interview that their relationship informed the play. Initially Fassbinder's lover, she had taken the role of the devoted helper, eager to please even as his treatment of her became more abusive, and Fassbinder delighted in giving Hermann the least glamorous roles in his films. 

"For the film version, he brought in additional inspirations. The single set, designed with a mix of classic and modern sensibilities, recalls the busy frames of Josef von Sternberg. The screen is filled with decorative bric-a-brac, shag carpet and a massive reproduction of Nicolas Poussin's painting 'Midas and Bacchus' (featuring fleshy nude and semi-nude male figures) taking over one wall, the sole representation of men in a film of women. The dress dummies sprawled through each scene add a note of alienation. 

"Fassbinder had also recently discovered the films of German-born filmmaker Douglas Sirk, who made a series of glossy Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s that quietly offered social commentary behind emotionally oversaturated stories. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus recalled Fassbinder referencing Sirk in the visual approach to the film, with soft, glamorous lighting, images composed in depth, and fluid camerawork. Ballhaus embraced the challenge, giving Fassbinder not just glamor but the Sirkian devices of frames within the frame and reflections of the characters in mirrors, visual devices that Fassbinder embraced and experimented with in his subsequent movies. 

"The film was shot over ten days on location entirely within the confines of a house outside of Bremen. The choice was made partly to accommodate Carstensen, who was acting in a stage production in Bremen. Fassbinder scouted the house and the production moved in, using the largest room as the multi-level set and other rooms for make-up, wardrobe and equipment. The shooting space didn't have a lot of depth, which made lighting and camera movement a challenge, and actress Eva Mattes recalled the cramped quarters as they crammed the equipment and crew into the room with the actors. 

"The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant made its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1972 and became a critical hit both in Germany, where it won awards for actors Margit Carstensen and Eva Mattes and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus at the German Film Awards, and abroad. It helped bring international attention to the filmmaker and is now considered a landmark in Fassbinder's career and one of his finest movies. 

"Sources: 
"Fassbinder, Film Maker, Ronald Hayman. Simon & Schuster, 1974. 
"Love is Colder than Death, Robert Katz. Random House, 1987. 
"'The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant: The Great Pretender,' Peter Matthews. Criterion Collection, 2015. 
"Outsiders, documentary produced by Jason Altman and Robert Fischer. Criterion Collection, 2015. 
"Michael Ballhaus on The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, video interview produced by Jason Altman and Robert Fischer. Criterion Collection, 2014. 
"IMDb 
"Role Play: Women on Fassbinder, documentary directed by Thomas Honickel. Sudwestfunk (SWF), 1992."