An almost accidental romance is kindled between a German woman in her mid-sixties and a Moroccan migrant worker around twenty-five years younger. They abruptly decide to marry, appalling everyone around them.
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Brigitte Mira,
El Hedi ben Salem,
Barbara Valentin
In post-war West Germany, the charming Von Bohm is appointed a city's new Building Commissioner. His morality is tested when he unknowingly falls in love with a brothel worker, Lola, the paid mistress of a corrupt property developer.
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Barbara Sukowa,
Armin Mueller-Stahl,
Mario Adorf
Jorgos, a migrant worker from Greece, joins a group of young people in Munich usually hanging around. This foreigner incites hostility and jealousy among them, and he is insulted as a "... See full summary »
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Hanna Schygulla,
Lilith Ungerer,
Rudolf Waldemar Brem
Hans Epp is a self-destructive man who lives a dissatisfied life. He tries to find meaning as a fruit vendor, but a heart attack impedes his ability to work, which turns his dissatisfaction into despair.
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Hans Hirschmüller,
Irm Hermann,
Hanna Schygulla
Both the parents of a young teen who walks with crutches, goes on each their secret meeting with lovers, both surprising each other at the family's county home. The daughter arrives and initiates a guessing game of "Chinese roulette".
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Anna Karina,
Margit Carstensen,
Brigitte Mira
In Switzerland, German singer Willie falls in love with Jewish composer, Robert, who offers resistance to the Nazis by helping refugees. But his family thinks Willie is a Nazi and may be a ... See full summary »
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Hanna Schygulla,
Giancarlo Giannini,
Mel Ferrer
In the nineteenth century, seventeen year old Effi Briest is married to the older Baron von Instetten and moves into a house, that she believes has a ghost, in a small isolated Baltic town.... See full summary »
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Hanna Schygulla,
Wolfgang Schenck,
Ulli Lommel
This drama follows the last few days in the life of Elvira (formerly Erwin) Weisshaupt. Years before, Erwin told a co-worker, Anton, that he loved him. "Too bad, you aren't a woman," he ... See full summary »
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Volker Spengler,
Ingrid Caven,
Gottfried John
On a film set there are two things missing, the film material and the director. So the actors and actresses as well as the crew try to make the best out of the situation. When the director ... See full summary »
Director:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars:
Lou Castel,
Eddie Constantine,
Marquard Bohm
This movie follows the life of a young German woman, married to a soldier in the waning days of WWII. Fassbinder has tried to show the gritty life after the end of WWII and the turmoil of the people trapped in its wake.Written by
Neel V Kumar <neelvk@iname.com>
For the last seven minutes of the film, the last seven minutes of the 1954 World Cup final in Berne between Germany and Hungary is heard above and behind the Maria-Hermann dialogue. See more »
Quotes
[Karl Oswald begins kissing Maria Braun]
Maria Braun:
I thought we were having dinner first.
Karl Oswald:
A good businessman knows how to adapt to circumstances.
See more »
Crazy Credits
At the very end of the credits the following persons are 'credited' by their picture: Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Helmut Schmidt and a disconnected phone line can be heard. See more »
While it's never less than interesting, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's allegory about the post-war economic German Miracle is somewhat slow and stifling, designed to constantly remind the viewer that an allegory is indeed what it is and to discount the notions of love that the writers (there are several, including Fassbinder) push to the fore. Hanna Schygulla is good as the lead symbol, a war bride whose calculated sexual aggressiveness (a symbol of West Germany's rapaciousness) brings her to prominence in industry while she pines for her husband, who is imprisoned for murder. The points Fassbinder's trying to make are a bit obtuse and perhaps not designed for American viewers (those are his prerogatives, after all) but the early scenes of the country immediately after the war are fascinating and he's aided immensely by the great Michael Ballhaus' restless camera. After prosperity begins, Fassbinder relies more on words and the visuals become more traditional and blander and it's also here where the melodrama escalates, sometimes pretentiously.
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While it's never less than interesting, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's allegory about the post-war economic German Miracle is somewhat slow and stifling, designed to constantly remind the viewer that an allegory is indeed what it is and to discount the notions of love that the writers (there are several, including Fassbinder) push to the fore. Hanna Schygulla is good as the lead symbol, a war bride whose calculated sexual aggressiveness (a symbol of West Germany's rapaciousness) brings her to prominence in industry while she pines for her husband, who is imprisoned for murder. The points Fassbinder's trying to make are a bit obtuse and perhaps not designed for American viewers (those are his prerogatives, after all) but the early scenes of the country immediately after the war are fascinating and he's aided immensely by the great Michael Ballhaus' restless camera. After prosperity begins, Fassbinder relies more on words and the visuals become more traditional and blander and it's also here where the melodrama escalates, sometimes pretentiously.