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	• The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla Fox Lorber, 2002 average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

She can dish it out, but she can't take it

It is always interesting watching a film where virtually every character (with the exception of Petra's daughter, an innocent victim in all this) is more or less dislikeable. More than one person has found this film inaccessible due to the fact that nearly everyone has mixed motives & hidden agenda.

This also makes it impossible to take satisfaction in Petra's personal disintegration, since Karin is equally manipulative & self-serving. Petra's supreme arrogance makes it impossible for her to consider the notion that others might be able to exploit her just as she exploits others...while the viewer may see her comeuppance in the distance, it is a true shock to Petra when she is discarded. Ironically, it is when she has gotten what she deserves that she becomes the most sympathetic to the viewer.

Nobody should go into this movie expecting a lot of action or great cinematography...the claustrophobic nature of the film very much reflects the stage origins of this screenplay. Lots of dialogue, no action, a lot of not-very-nice characters...this movie will not be for everybody, definitely. However, this doesn't mean that it is not a very fine film.

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Be carefully what you've been asking for. You may have it!

THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972)

"Love is colder than death" (Other Fassbinder's early films from 1969), could be one of the epigraph of this movie. That show us that doesn't matter what sexual orientation are you directed to, love wasn't and easy task to live in.
Petra van Kant (Margit Castersen) is a Diva in fashion designer, a selfish narcissistic personality. She has a secretary and co-designer, Marlene (Irm Hermenn) that was also his lover, now is more a sado - masoquistic relationship, in the psychological arena. A beautiful girl that what to be a model was introduced by a friend. Karin a 23 years old (Hanna Shygulla), that did not know how to do really in life but to live in a parasitic way, using what mother nature gave to her.
Interestingly Marlene did not speak during the movie. She accepts her peripheral situation because she did need to decided about nothing. Except when Petra changed the way of dealing with her, after Karin dumped her. Then Marlene could not stand that and runaway from Petra's home. The desire and power, was a central issue in the film, and a gigantic painting in the wall address that: "Midas and Bacchus". Petra was born with a kind of gift for fashion design, but that is not enough for to be happy, Midas is asking for advice to a nude Baccus. So to be rich and famous it is not a receipt for happiness, a pleasure godess may have some other approach, as we will learn watching this drama.
This movie with his theatrical design and shooting, is a careful study about three female personalities, so Reinner displayed what he knew better about everything: The women soul.

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Simply Brilliant Work

This movie is everything opposite I like watching: a story of an upper-class dominating 35-old woman of Bremen, Germany - a popular fashion designer attracted to she-partners, rude to servants, hating both even memories of an ex-husband for him being a male and own teen daughter for growing gradually in a love-seeking female, while playing a pussycat with female acquaintances and mother she in fact either ridicules, hates and despises.

However, brilliant performing by actresses presenting this story of changing the roles, this factually a low-budget picture running in the same bedroom only, climaxed in losing everyone taken for granted, is to make difference in this particular case.

A naked truth of life embedded with a German repatriate character's few words-in Australia one could "get nothing without pushing", sustained the rest of the girly affairs to just trustworthy believe in.

This is a first disk of a Fassbinder Foundation three disc set (other pictures included: Fox and His Friends, A Year of 13 Moons), which costs a hand-and-a-leg price in Australia.

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Fassbinder's women: Petra von Kant.

"People need each other but haven't found a way to live with each other."

Adapted from his own play, film genius Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1972 film, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant), tells the story of a gifted, self-absorbed fashion designer (Margit Carstensen), whose marriages ended in death and divorce. "He stank of man," Petra says about her ex-husband. Petra now lives in Bremen with her slavish personal assistant Marlene (Irm Hermann), but falls in love with a beautiful, 23-year-old model, Karin Thimm (Hanna Schygulla, the radiant star of Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun). To say that Petra falls head-over-heels in love with Karin would be an understatement. Wheras Petra dominates Marlene with her demands, Karin dominates Petra with her insolent temperament. Karin tells distraught Petra that she has just enjoyed sex with a well-endowed black American, and eventually both Marlene and Karin abandon Petra, leaving her to her bitter tears. This intriguing film (Fassbinder's 13th of the 33 films he made) delves into Fassbinder's fascination with doomed love, and confronts common themes of obsession, dominance and submission, and social taboos. The entire film, divided into five acts, is shot in Petra's luxurious apartment, using long camera takes. It is probably not the best starting place for the Fassbinder unitiated.

G. Merritt

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 06/19/2007 Run time: 124 minutes Rating: Nr

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