DIE BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT (1972)
dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer: arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. Some time ago, she divorced the husband she no longer loved, and, until recently, she has been in a fairly satisfactory S and M relationship with Marlene, her secretary, maid, and co-designer, whom she mistreats frequently. Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin almost instantly, and invites her to move in. As Petra's obsession with the young model grows, things become far more complicated in this tale of intermingled love and hate.
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Petra Von Cunt (Self-Sabotage guru)
To get this out of the way; I think this is the best cinematography to ever come out of a 2 hours film shot in a single room, the camera acted like an extension to the gigantic Nicolas Poussin's 1629 painting "Midas and Bacchus" in the set, with the frames resembling renaissance artworks.
I personally think the main theme Fassbinder wanted to convey in the bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant is the way in which many people are addicted to a certain kind of suffering, it explores that part of love that's not beautiful but rather utterly humiliating, it absolutely captures the claustrophobic sense of perfect loneliness, we see this unfold many times, first with Petra's relationship with her husband, what Karin did to Petra, and how Petra in return treats Marlene; the bitter cycle of eternal return.
What I found fascinating is although Marlene doesn't say a single word in the film -a side of the way she was figuratively screaming for 20 minutes throw the sound of the typewriter- is actually how by the end of the film I realized she was my favorite character and the one i related to the most.
There are many other memorable moments in this film, like the brilliant use of music, specifically In My Room by The Walker Brothers played during the first conversation between Petra and Kerin, where the opera-esque of the song’s composition reflects the theatrical aspect of the film, and the lyrics hauntingly foreshadows the scene in the fourth act of Petra on her birthday, another segment which masterfully depict rigid despair.
I also couldn't help but think of one of my favorite films which is Peter Strickland's 2015 film; Duke of Burgundy, I think it tackled the same themes and overall left me feeling the same heavy weight of tormented love.
Masterpiece.
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The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
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The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
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The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant (1972) Rainer Werner Fassbinder
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THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972) dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
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The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972
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