The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant [Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant ] ***** (1975, Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, Irm Hermann) – Classic Movie Review 6056

Writer-producer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s weird though utterly compelling 1972 German film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant about love, power and lesbian passions is one of his finest movies, now a much acclaimed classic.

The all-women film is hermetically sealed to a single set of the heroine’s bedroom, but it is mesmerisingly acted by his three stars, Margit Carstensen as Petra von Kant, Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann, acting out a fine, provocative text. Fassbinder’s screenplay is based on his own play. It may seem to have a long running time at 124 minutes but it is riveting throughout. It is based on Fassbinder’s own play, and the story unfolds in four acts (plus a final act) as in the theatre, showing Petra von Kant’s changing state of mind, also visually by her clothes and hairstyle.

Carstensen plays the narcissistic Petra von Kant, a divorced fashion designer who has a sado-masochistic relationship with her assistant Marlene (Irm Hermann), which is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of the desirable but shallow 23-year-old Karin Thimm (Schygulla), who becomes her young upstart model protégé.

Shooting in just ten days, the 27-year-old Fassbinder films in long, confident takes, bringing out the best in his actresses, who in turn bring out the best in his screenplay. Irm Hermann has no lines as main character Marlene.

Michael Ballhaus’s stylised and stylish cinematography is a major asset.

Where else will you hear Giuseppe Verdi, the Platters and the Walker Brothers on one film’s soundtrack?

Also in the cast are Katrin Schaake, Eva Mattes and Gisela Fackeldey.

Fassbinder hand-wrote the screenplay on one 12-hour flight from Berlin to Los Angeles.

The film entered the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and the 1979 The Marriage of Maria Braun (also with Schygulla) are landmarks of European cinema, giving Fassbinder an undisputed place as film artist.

In 1972, Fassbinder is supposed to have said to Schygulla: ‘I can’t stand the sight of your face any more. You bust my balls.’

Fassbinder was only 37 when he died of a drug overdose on 10 June 1982 in Munich.

Acclaimed, three-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who worked on Gangs of New York and GoodFellas, died on 11 April 2017, aged 81. Ballhaus worked closely with Fassbinder on 16 films. Ballhaus said: ‘Fassbinder was not an easy director. He was very hard on me and he was very pushy. He always cracked the whip to be fast and not to spend too much time. So I learned to be fast and still tried to be good.’

Casting (2017) is a German comedy based around the idea of filming a remake of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.

In 2022 French film director François Ozon reinterpreted the film as Peter von Kant, with a male film director protagonist.

The cast are Margit Carstensen as Petra von Kant, Irm Hermann as Marlene, Hanna Schygulla as Karin Thimm, Gisela Fackeldey as Valerie von Kant, Eva Mattes as Gabriele (Gaby) von Kant and Katrin Schaake as Sidonie von Grasenabb.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6056

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