Martha (I) (1974 TV Movie) User Reviews

Martha

[random_avenger · 7/10 · 21 August 2010]

Martha Heyer, a librarian in her thirties (Margit Carstensen), is completely oppressed by her high-strung parents but receives a lot of attention from different men, all of whom she turns down because of her family. After the sudden death of her father (Adrian Hoven) and the suicide attempt of her unstable pill-popping mother (Gisela Fackeldey), she is approached by a handsome engineer named Helmut Salomon (Karlheinz Böhm) and agrees to his marriage proposal. He turns out to be a complete sadist and torments her in various ways, from isolating her from her former life to having her skin burnt in the sun and then roughly having sex with her. Martha doesn't know how to cope with the situation and just takes it all in without knowing how to put her anxiety into words, even though a friendly colleague Mr. Kaiser (Peter Chatel) would be willing to listen. Eventually things escalate dramatically.

The film's outlook of marriage is definitely bleak; besides Martha's private hell, the marriages of her friends are also presented as shallow and dishonest. The question of why Martha is so helpless and unable to defend herself against Helmut goes back to her old life with her overbearing parents: even though she shows signs of sarcasm and emotional detachment from them, she ultimately cannot leave their influence behind – the devastating power of upbringing and lifelong submission is one of the main themes of the film.

The technical direction of the story is done brilliantly; the long shots with moving cameras and the use of mirrors in the mise-en-scène are all enjoyable to examine throughout. Especially the spinning shot of Martha and Helmut's first encounter in Italy dizzies the mind in a good way and catches the feel of instant attraction well. Nevertheless, however skilfully presented, at almost two hours the parade of emotional cruelty feels a little too long and gets slightly repetitive towards the end. Over all, the development from the Ingmar Bergman-style family hell to the melodramatic last scenes helps to create a memorable and effective story arc for the tale though, and the actors suit their roles fine, especially the mousy, red-haired Carstensen. At the time of writing this review, I have yet to see many Fassbinder films, but Martha has certainly gotten me enthusiastic about seeing more as soon as possible. I eagerly recommend the film to anyone interested in R.W.F.'s work or the nature of oppressive relationships.

Great Strange Beautifully filmed movie

[yasminette · 8/10 · 14 April 2005]

I was so amazed by this genius, the way that Fassbinder holds his camera as if it was his own child. I've rarely seen somebody mastering the art of camera as much as Fassbinder does. He's all over it, he sees beyond the human eye. The shot where Martha meets Helmuth for the first time in Roma is amazing... my heart stopped for about 3 seconds... I couldn't believe what I just saw...I saw this shot many times but I was afraid that I might loose interest in it if I kept playing it again and again. But I didn't. As for the story, it is very beautiful indeed, strange and disturbing. It's one of the best filmed movie ever done in my opinion. Don't miss it.

Outstanding character study

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 2 July 2015]

And that does not only include the title character, but also the co-lead played in a truly sinister manner by Katlheinz Böhm. 1974 was a great year for Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He made this 110-minute film here, but he also directed the equally brilliant "Angst essen Seele auf" and it's almost impossible for me to pick my favorite Fassbinder out of these two. I am generally not the biggest fan of the director, but these two are excellent pieces of filmmaking. In "Martha" we see one of the best combinations of writing and acting in the history of movies when it comes to sadist characters. And an equally brilliant portrayal of masochism. And still Carstensen's character occasionally tires to break free. This inner contradiction is probably also what got her the German Film Award nomination (she lost to Brigitte Mira from the movie I mentioned previously). No awards recognition for Karlheinz Böhm though although he was so so good If you have seen him in the Sissi movies, you can basically imagine the exact opposite and you will have his Helmut Salomon, a true psychopath.

There are so many memorable scenes in this film, the one about wishing the title character dead, another one about Salomon's favorite food or also the beginning with Martha's father dying. In that situation, she was weak anyway and it would not have been a challenge for Salomon to break her entirely. That's why he just didn't go for it back then. Basically, there are so many great scenes in here that I cannot list them all: the way he insults her constantly, for example during their meeting at the party, the way he talks about her music, about her hair, the way how he forces her to read the book about his job after what he did to her with her job, the cat scene. He will not even share her with a pet And finally, another scene that stands out very much is the sunburn scene (keep in mind how he did not wake her up when she fell asleep, maybe even gave her pills) and how he has sex with her despite her being in huge pain. That was really really painful to watch. He is absolutely turned on by her when she is at her weakest, her most fragile and there are more examples of that how he really wants her the most when she is suffering. A textbook sadist.

And then the ending: She flees from him and he is as collected and in control as always. Finally, she has a car accident that not only takes away the only person who sort-of helped her and with whom she could talk about her marriage, but it also takes away her ability to walk and that is how she becomes pretty much completely dependent on her husband. She cannot leave the house anymore as there is no way he will make it barrier-free for her and this is what he wanted from the start. In general, after such an accident it is often a reason people split and it can be considered as a true confession of love if a person does confess his love to his wife despite her new disability. But that's what he does and here it is not positive. It is love yes, but in the most sadistic manner one could imagine and I guess I really don't wanna see all the horrible things that will happen after this film from over 40 years ago ends. This is a very cruel movie. And at the same time, it is a triumphant character study about two people who are (not) made for each other. Highly recommended.

The Expropriated Consciousness

[hasosch · 10/10 · 10 April 2008]

"Martha" is part of a series of movies by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in which he treated different kinds of decrease of mind. In "Merchant of the four seasons" (1972), Fassbinder portrayed the former police officer Hans Epp whose carrier is ruined by a prostitute, whose girl-friend is unreachable for him and whose wife shows no affection to him. After a long time in depression, interrupted by alcohol, he decides to kill himself. In "Martha" (1975), a young woman, hardly released out of the hands of her passed away father, marries a brutal and psychopathic engineer who isolates her from her family, forces her to quit her job, imprisons her in their apartment, cuts down the telephone connection and controls her money. He seems to have reached his goal when Martha, after trying to escape with one of her coworkers, has an accident that paralyzes her, letting her in a wheelchair. In "Fear of Fear" (1975), housewife Margot, pregnant with her second child, starts to suffer from hallucinations while neither her husband nor her mother- and sister-in-law are willing to listen to her. After a physician prescribes her Valium, she increases the dose. When she cannot get enough anymore, she helps herself with alcohol. After having been "healed" in a psychiatric clinic, from which she is released under the promise to take regularly her medication, she is typing addresses on envelopes, pretending to be happy.

All of these movies by Fassbinder to which also belong, for instance, "Why does Herr R. run amok" (1970), "In a year with 13 moons" (1978), "Despair" (1978), "Veronika Voss" (1982) and certain episodes of "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980), have in common that what turns a human insane is, according to Fassbinder, basically the society in which he or she lives. Neither Hans Epp, nor Martha nor Margot have an emotional support from their family. Let alone by their closest relatives, these individuals are inclined to make false decisions, that lead to decrease of mind and often to suicide. Although Fassbinder repeatedly pretended not to be an intellectual, it is important to point out that we know from the several interviews he gave as well as from his theoretic studies that he was well familiar with the works of the Frankfurt School around Adorno, Horkheimer and Habermas as well as with the psychiatry of Lacan. Therefore, I ask everybody who watches "Martha" to have a close look at the book she is reading in the scene where she sits on the balcony of the hotel in which she stays during her honeymoon. The title of this book is "Das enteignete Bewusstsein", written by Hans Kilian, a sociologists from the Frankfurt School, and appeared in 1971. It turns out that the "expropriated consciousness" – a process committed in society - is the real reason that is responsible for the decline of Hans Epp, Martha, Margot, Peter, Herr R., Erwin/Elvira, Hermann Hermann, Veronika Voss, Hans Biberkopf and many others whose fate has not been subject of any film.

a study about how to make someone dependent (exaggerated)

[knb · 24 November 2002]

Two days ago I have seen this movie. Lead actor Karlheinz Boehm and famous filmmaker Volker Schloendorff were present in the audience, and then discussed it after the screening. This was part of (or spontaneously turned into) a fund-raising effort for the humanitarian organization that K.H. Boehm founded.

Boehm said that Fassbinder was an expert or at least naturally gifted in judging people. In the discussion it was also mentioned that in his theater group at that time he had also built a network of dependencies. Boehm was very impressed by a quote from Fassbinder, saying approximately: In general you have to exaggerate something to unleash the full power and achieve maximum artistic effect, however it is important to do it correctly (do not exaggerate too much). Here this principle has been applied to demonstrate the (one-sided) struggle for power and dominance in a marriage. At the beginning the husband is very male, that is outspoken, direct, almost blunt. Martha seems to be in love for quite a while. Later, the requests of the dominant, violent husband become increasingly over the top, so that watching the sadist makes you feel uneasy. The same holds for Marthas friends and relatives which are unable to help or, with the exception of Herr Kaiser, even realize the truth about Marthas personality being gradually ruined. This is criticism of an emotionally degraded society.

However, from a aesthetic standpoint, camera and light are marvelous. The set locations (typical for wealthy people) have also been carefully selected and are amazing in their false, pompous colorfulness. In places, there is also quite a bit of black humor mixed in, and at the beginning it seemed like a mystery story (the black guy chasing Martha)or a love story.

Aside from that , the movie also reminded me of a 1950s Bergman marriage movie. Worth seeing.

Soap Opera with style

[anordall · 8/10 · 24 November 2014]

A great movie, made in a special way. Not only was it made for TV, it has the style of a soap-opera. Those who have seen it must have noticed that there are a number of "episodes", separated by a gradual darkening of the screen (till completely black, then lightening up again). The acting, the decor and so on are pure soap-opera. Some reviewers have seen a touch or two of Douglas Sirk, but there's more than that to it: when Martha gives her German address in the embassy, the name of the street is "Douglas Sirk"! Pure melodrama, but with great results. Fassbinder gives the movie the necessary pace to portray a convincing tragedy resulting from fatality mixed with individual characteristics. The final words appropriately are "When God takes a step, man cannot change it".

Unhappy marriages--Fassbinder elicits commendable performances and cinematography

[JuguAbraham · 6/10 · 25 March 2020]

Fassbinder made films on unusual topics--this one on unhappy marriages based on Cornell Woolrich's story "For the rest of her life". (Another Woolrich tale was the basis of Hitchcock's famous film "Rear Window'; like Hitchcock, Fassbinder essentially relied on existing novel/short stories rather than original stories written by himself). The main tale is of Martha (Margit Carstensen) and Helmut Karlheinz Bohm). The supplementary tale is of Martha's parents involving her mother who is on sleeping pills and addicted to liquor for 20 years, though outwardly loving her rich and cultured husband. The husbands in both marriages are cultured, desirable and caring. The wives seem to be driven mad by their outwardly wonderful loving husbands. The film includes an unusual situation where a man proposes to his future wife to get a positive response: when she feeling sick and has just thrown up!!!

The film may not be as sophisticated as "Querelle" but is notable for the performances of Ms Carstensen and Mr Boehm. Ms Carstensen came from stage acting to cinema and her capabilities are evident in the closeups. Mr Boehm was an unusual actor capable of playing positive roles in family films such as "The Wonderful world of Brothers Grimm" (1962) and darker roles such as this one. Another highlight of this film is the late cinematographer Michael Ballhaus whose camerawork is a treat to watch in this film as he was in the German films "Summer guests" (76) and several of Fassbinder's films.

(review written after second viewing, with a gap of 40 years in between)

Quite good Fassbinder

[zetes · 8/10 · 3 April 2005]

Good, nearly great Fassbinder about an adult woman who passes from the care of her controlling parents to the even tighter control of a bizarre husband. Margit Carstensen plays the woman and Karlheinz Böhm (whom you probably remember as the protagonist of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom) the husband. This is one of Fassbinder's better films. Jonathan Rosenbaum, who doesn't seem to be much of a Fassbinder enthusiast, cites it as his very favorite. It would rank as one of my favorites, too, but for a couple of reasons. It kind of makes its point fairly early on, especially after the marriage takes place. Then it gets a tad repetitive, and goes on for nearly two hours. The next year, Fassbinder made an even better film dealing with similar themes called Fear of Fear, which also starred Margit Carstensen. Carstensen's performance is exceptional in Martha (and just as good in Fear of Fear), and Böhm is quite good, too.

A study in weakness

[timmy_501 · 6/10 · 31 December 2009]

Martha, the titular character of Rainer Fassbinder's 1974 made for TV (but nonetheless acclaimed) film Martha is the kind of character I detest more than any other. If there is one characteristic that defines her it is weakness. Her weakness can be seen from the very beginning, as an early scene shows her as she runs away from an emergency situation. Later, shortly after the death of her father, she begins to try things that her father had forbid her to do; thus it becomes clear that her will has been subsumed by that of her parent. Nonetheless, Martha leads a fairly happy life until she marries a domineering sadist. A good portion of the film portrays her sickening subservience to this petty tyrant and the pitiful efforts she makes to change her situation inevitably worsen it because they are so passive and ineffectual. The plot of this film makes for a maddeningly unpleasant viewing experience.

At the same time, Fassbinder's film-making powers are never less than formidable, particularly in some of the earlier sequences here. Fassbinder sets the early, happy scenes in vast, richly decorated interiors. There are a lot of interesting juxtapositions created through the use of mirror images and unusual angles. Exterior scenes are also visually sumptuous, a bit like the work of French New Wave director Eric Rohmer, Academy ratio and all. Later, as the film turns more miserable the interiors seem to shrink and their uniform lack of design reflect Martha's new hopelessness. The exteriors seem to grow into vast wildernesses at the cost of their former beauty. Needless to say, Fassbinder is adept at using a character's surrounding (and the mise en scene) to suggest that character's mood.

This is the third Fassbinder film I've seen and I must say that while I haven't been blown away by any of his films, his direction remains a strong point in each one. No doubt I'll eventually see one where the other aspects of the film are just as satisfying as the direction. Martha is not that film but it does increase my appreciation for Fassbinder's artistry.

How a young housewife is trapped into submission by her husband.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 20 June 2007]

No one can deny the poise,finesse and grace with which Fassbinder has directed some of the most charming women characters. This quality is currently being imbibed by some of the most talented filmmakers like Todd Haynes in USA and François Ozon in France. In this particular melodramatic film,Fassbinder is at his best and there is strong belief in the minds of true cinema admirers that "Martha" would surely rank as one of his best films.Initially the setting in Italy helps the film to build its momentum but it reaches feverish pitch once the events start to unfold in Germany. The two main actors are captivating. Karl Heinz Boehm has given a chilling performance as a bizarre husband. Looking at him no one can make out whether he truly loves his wife or troubling his wife sadistically remains his past time. Margit Cartensen is great too as the wife suffering humiliation at the hands of a man she thought loved him. To my mind, Martha would be of higher interest to all those who are keen on learning more about the depiction of women in new German cinema.

'Bluebeard's Castle' as directed by Douglas Sirk

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 16 April 2017]

Some of Fassbinder's best work (notably 'Ich will doch nur, daß ihr mich liebt', 1976) was made for TV, of which 'Martha' is a prime example. It was unfortunate that the credits came at the end, as it would have been useful to have known at the start that 'Martha' was drawn from a story by Cornell Woolrich, since I would have been paying more attention, and better prepared for what develops.

'Martha' is nearly two hours long and takes an inordinately long time to get going. (The presence in the opening scenes of El Hedi ben Salem from 'Fear Eats the Soul', for example, proves a red herring.) The lack of a music score also contributes to making the early scenes feel creakingly tinny & pedestrian.

But when Carstensen finally returns with Böhm from their honeymoon (which includes one of the most comical and excruciating - but sexy! - nude scenes ever filmed) the film undergoes a dramatic transformation as Michael Ballhaus's camera moves in closer and closer and the colours get brighter and brighter to observe her increasing subjugation to his whims. At first I was wondering if he was simply gaslighting her; later, when he criticises her taste in music and puts his own choice on the record player, 'Bluebeard's Castle' would have been appropriate. As the film progresses it also recalls the Buñuel of 'El' and - at its conclusion - of 'Belle de Jour'.

nope

[treywillwest · 4/10 · 12 September 2018]

Fassbinder reminds me a bit of Michael Haneke. There is a frosty bit of misanthropy in all of both director's works. At their best, these filmmakers use that negative energy to deliver blisteringly honest depictions of human beings and their frailties that are not always fun to watch but are ultimately very worth while. Every once in a while, though, I think both Fassbinder and Haneke simply use their medium to bear their teeth at the world, and make it feel bad about itself for no constructive reason. This film, it seems to me, is an example of Fassbinder doing just that. True, the quality of the filmmaking is solid and Fassbinder draws an excellent lead performance from Margit Carstensen. But all in all, I found this a pointlessly nasty piece of work.

no use for tears, darling

[andrabem · 5 May 2007]

Martha is disturbing yet very interesting. It's a psychological drama portraying a complex sadomasochistic relationship in which a man, Helmut (Karlheinz Böhm) slowly destroys his wife Martha (Margit Carstensen). There's no background music to underline the emotions of the characters and the camera concentrates on the people (the landscape - be it beach, sky, land, house - remains in the faraway background). As Helmut slowly shuts his wife out of the world outside, so as to have her solely for his own use, the claustrophobic feeling of the film grows in such a way as to become unbearable. There'a moment in which Martha realizes dimly what is being done to her, and there's the last flight to freedom, doomed to failure.

"Martha" doesn't explain everything - it gives hints and is open to interpretations. Many questions remain unanswered. I've surprised myself thinking about the film (Martha, oh why?) days after having seen it.

The interpretations are excellent (especially Margit Carstensen as Martha). This is not a comfortable film to watch but it's a memorable study of human relationships.

love and marriage, love and marriage... not

[Quinoa1984 · 8/10 · 3 April 2017]

What makes Martha a difficult sit may be hard to communicate in words as the entire atmosphere that Rainer Werner Fassbinder creates is suffocating and strange and deliberately uncomfortable. It's his take on what one might see today actually in Fifty Shades of Grey to an extent, though there's no BDSM (some sex though, and extremely the rough kind), or also to a larger extent Gaslight. The thesis is this: when a woman meets a man who is completely incapable of really being a caring, empathetic person, one of two things will happen - the woman will leave the man (or, perhaps conversely, the man will leave the woman), or the woman will deal as was sort of indoctrinated into certain kinds of women (especially those who wanted a finer life and upper class mobility), and may have to go back and forth on whether to have any independence or to be a figurative door mat for the husband to step on.

The emphasis in Martha, which was apparently a made-for-TV movie that Fassbinder happened to squeeze out in the same year of his crushingly sad (and great) Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, is on, like in many of his films, the woman and how she has to somehow simply survive in the world of men and her circumstances. There may even be a slice of Bunuel here too, which I may be inferring with my critic hat on, as it's about this kind of perverse push-and-pull between this couple - Martha meets Helmut (frequent Fassbinder collaborator and muse during this melodrama period of films Margit Carstensen and Karlheinz Böhm respectively) after what is the first of many quasi- absurdly sad moments where her father dies of a heart attack on some steps in Rome - and how there's a slightly sado-masochistic side of things where it shouldn't make sense how she can stand him treating her... and yet, she does, and there's a perversely satirical edge to everything.

One should remember that Fassbinder during this time was submerged in Sirk influence too, though I don't know if I detected that so much, aside from some of the heightened melodramatic touches (and the ending, which is really TOO much, but hey, we're already there, why not). There's this underlying subtext to this all that made me think about rich, domineering men *and* the women who become subservient to them. Bohm, also from a few Fassbinder films as well as Peeping Tom, has the face of a man who may be a sadist, but in his mind does he think he's being *fair*? He has the attitude and demeanor of someone who probably would've been right at home in the Nazi party - not that his character espouses racist language so much - it's all in the demeanor and how he treats his wife. A key aspect though is we don't really see what he's like outside of Martha's purview: does he cheat on her (probably), does he act like this when he's off on his, uh, engineering gigs that he forces down Martha's throat (so he can, you know, talk with her about things that interest him), and what about that sexual appetite?

The moments where Helmut has his 'way' with Martha is telling, and it's the moments of the film (aside from when Martha really gets hysterical, per the hysteria of the script itself) where there's that Bunuelian sense of... oh, you rich folk, you're so wacky- depraved (and also, as part of the satire, lacking any compassion or soul). He is basically raping Martha to an extent - there's one scene where he kind of makes Martha sit out in the sun so she can 'tan', but her pale skin burns, she lies out naked, and he forces himself on her anyway. And what about Martha? Has she become traumatized by all of this behavior? The gas-lighting part shouldn't be overlooked, though that's only an element of the behavior he puts on her; when I mention 'Fifty Shades', obviously it's not as much a comparison in quality (this is Fassbinder in 1974 for godsakes AND Michael Ballhaus on camera) or in awareness. If 50 Shades knew what images it was really portraying and understood the pitch-black, barely traceable and might as well be a cold heartless drama worldview, it would look like Martha.

Oh, and Margrit Carstensen: like some of her work (though not all) for this filmmaker, at times she has a face where there's much more being said in the eyes, tension and fear and confusion and obedience and something that the character may be mistaking for love (or those few bits where it may be clear her father's death f***ed her up more than she's ever dealt with, not to mention her mother and her issues). What's remarkable is that Fassbinder, per the style he's going for which has some cold detachment and a provocation of the audience often to feel for the characters despite the coldness of the tone, still leaves room for Carstensen to make this woman all her own, and that she can find the unfolding tragedy (or tragedies) as each moment of this disaster of a marriage unfolds.

The story takes a little time to get going really - that scene at the amusement park on the roller coaster is what hooked me in - but once it does, Martha reveals itself as one of the sickest "comedies" about marriage ever made.

Selfishness and sadism in the German bourgeoisie

[a-cinema-history · 8/10 · 5 January 2001]

A selfish, immature and hysterical woman is progressively destroyed psychologically by a sadistic husband. In line with other Fassbinder movies, such as die Ehe der Maria Braun, this movie depicts a bourgeoisie only interested in money and keeping up appearances, where love is impossible. Beautifully filmed in particular in a baroque house, the effect of the movie is reinforced by the apparent kindness of the husband and its constant reference to love.

Stay single!!!

[meathookcinema · 9/10 · 17 November 2020]

More Fassbinder goodness with this 1974 film as we see the central character start out as a happy go lucky woman who feels pressurised to find a man, settle down and adjust to married life. Her own parents are revealed to be in a loveless marriage until Martha's father collapses and dies when he is with his daughter on holiday in Italy.

I'm not going to give away too much about the plot and what happens during the course of the movie as I don't want to blunt the impact of the film but all I'll say is that this is a dark piece of cinema! And I mean DARK!

As the concept of coercive control is just starting to be spoken about in the popular media, Fassbinder had made a film about it 1974. And gaslighting. And marital sadism.

A special mention needs to go to Margit Carstensen in the lead role whose performance is nothing short of astonishing as we see her character's spirit and very existence being destroyed and disintegrating before our very eyes.

I also didn't know that Karlheinz Bohm had ever depicted a darker character than his star turn in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. I was sooo wrong! His character here is a sadistic psychopath/narcissist and acted to grimy and reptilian perfection.

I remember when I saw the movie Threads for the first time. I thought to myself that it couldn't get any darker but then saw that that it was only halfway through it's running time. I then saw that it could get MUCH darker! The same happened when I watched Martha.

This does for marriage and societal expectations for women what Jaws did for sharks. When I watched this I kept thinking to myself 'I'm so glad that I'm gay. And that I'm happily single!'

hysterical

[jimi99 · 11 June 2005]

Yes, hysterical as in exaggerated comedy, and hysterical as in the title character freaking out over her bizarre, ever-degenerating marriage. This is great Fassbinder film-making--the performances, cinematography, and dialogue are brilliant. As in many of his films, Fassbinder takes a perverse joy in keeping the audience balanced between comedy and melodrama, the laughs always tinged with apprehension. The colors are dominated by lurid reds. The arc of the story keeps one queasy as to how horrible the outcome might be.

The famous Sirk influence is very obvious in this as in many of RF's early 70's films, but what struck me is the equally obvious influence of Bunuel on Fassbinder's movies. "Martha" owes a great deal to "Belle du Jour" and "Tristana" among many other of the Spanish master's films about the natural perversity of male-female relationships.