Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1975 • Germany
Starring Brigitte Mira, Ingrid Caven, Margit Cartensen
One of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s most provocative (the Berlin Film Festival banned it) variations on the Sirkian melodrama takes subversive, darkly comic aim at the media, politics (both right and left), and family. After her factory-worker husband kills his boss and himself in reaction to a round of layoffs, working-class housewife Emma Küsters (Brigitte Mira) finds herself the unwitting center of a media firestorm while both members of the German Communist party and then a group of anarchists attempt to use her as a symbol of their cause. As always, Fassbinder concerns himself with the dynamics of power and exploitation to paint a damning portrait of a corrupt and alienated society.
Up Next in Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
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Chinese Roulette
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1976 • West Germany
A husband and wife lie to each other about their weekend travel plans, only to both show up at the family's country house with their lovers.
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Satan’s Brew
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1976 • Germany
A famous poet who hasn't written a word in two years unconsciously plagarizes the work of Stefan George, he comes to believe he is the reincarnation of the dead writer.
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The Marriage of Maria Braun
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1978 • West Germany
Starring Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan DesnyMaria (Hanna Schygulla) marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. Alone, Maria puts to use her beauty and ambition in order to find...
