François Ozon’s ode to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play and cult classic takes us on a spellbound carousel ride going round and round in circles with one man at the centre. Denis Ménochet as Peter von Kant is easily recognizable as a stand-in for Fassbinder, whose private life inspired the plot of his 1972 masterpiece. The film featured Margit Carstensen as Petra von Kant, a fashion designer who falls madly in love with a younger model named Karin (Hanna Schygulla) while living with and abusing her silent secretary Marlene.
Ozon in this free adaptation adds another turn of the screw by making the three protagonists male again, reversing the fashion industry background to the film world and the infatuation to an actor. The costumes by Pascaline Chavanne in Peter von Kant are excellent, especially those creamy suits...
Ozon in this free adaptation adds another turn of the screw by making the three protagonists male again, reversing the fashion industry background to the film world and the infatuation to an actor. The costumes by Pascaline Chavanne in Peter von Kant are excellent, especially those creamy suits...
- 12/28/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Chinese Roulette (1976), a venomous marital melodrama, a character played by Margit Carstensen provocatively inquires, “Who would this person have been under the Third Reich?” In the generation removed from the dark shadows of WWII, a glut of 1970s spectacles grappled with the sinister aftermath of their parents’ atrocities, an inheritance which pushed well beyond the limits of a divided Germany.
Premiering the same year was Joseph Losey’s late period masterpiece, Mr. Klein, a Kafkaesuqe escapade about an amoral art dealer who receives karmic retribution for his aggressive ambivalence and opportunistic profiteering. As directed by Losey, the blacklisted American director whose native banishment resulted in one of the most interesting cinematic trajectories across periods and cultures, there’s a distilled sense of just desserts in his presenting a protagonist whose ruin seems not only inevitable, but welcomed.…...
Premiering the same year was Joseph Losey’s late period masterpiece, Mr. Klein, a Kafkaesuqe escapade about an amoral art dealer who receives karmic retribution for his aggressive ambivalence and opportunistic profiteering. As directed by Losey, the blacklisted American director whose native banishment resulted in one of the most interesting cinematic trajectories across periods and cultures, there’s a distilled sense of just desserts in his presenting a protagonist whose ruin seems not only inevitable, but welcomed.…...
- 10/4/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
More than 20 years after adapting a Rainer Werner Fassbinder play called “Waters Drops on Burning Rocks” into a movie, François Ozon has made this gender-flipped adaptation of one of Fassbinder’s greatest films, “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” in an attempt to understand Fassbinder’s real-life struggle with the power plays of love.
Fassbinder’s “Petra von Kant” was shot very quickly on a very low budget, and he used a lot of long takes; every camera movement in Fassbinder’s version of this material feels so ultra-controlled that watching it is like getting tied up in an S & M dungeon or getting slowly strangled by a python. Ozon shoots his own “Peter von Kant” with a casualness that can feel frivolous, and he uses very conventional short takes for shot/reverse shot conversations.
Fassbinder’s “Petra von Kant” revolves around a lesbian love triangle that consists of...
Fassbinder’s “Petra von Kant” was shot very quickly on a very low budget, and he used a lot of long takes; every camera movement in Fassbinder’s version of this material feels so ultra-controlled that watching it is like getting tied up in an S & M dungeon or getting slowly strangled by a python. Ozon shoots his own “Peter von Kant” with a casualness that can feel frivolous, and he uses very conventional short takes for shot/reverse shot conversations.
Fassbinder’s “Petra von Kant” revolves around a lesbian love triangle that consists of...
- 9/2/2022
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
Save Your Tears for Another Day: Ozon Revels in the Camp Mystique of R.W. Fassbinder
It’s clear François Ozon has long been obsessed with the cinema of New German Wave provocateur Rainer Werner Fassbinder, seeing as one of his first successes was 2000’s Water Drops on Burning Rocks, adapted from an unproduced screenplay of his idol’s. Over two decades later, and working at a similar breakneck pace, Ozon attempts something nearing sacrilege in Peter von Kant, a liberal reimagining of Fassbinder’s most hysterically excessive camp masterpiece, 1972’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (read review). Whereas the original was a femme-centric snake pit featuring three of Fassbinder’s usual muses, Ozon switches the queered perspective to male and transposes bits and pieces of Fassbinder’s own life into the von Kant prism about a monstrous artist who devours all those around him in the quest to quell his desires.
It’s clear François Ozon has long been obsessed with the cinema of New German Wave provocateur Rainer Werner Fassbinder, seeing as one of his first successes was 2000’s Water Drops on Burning Rocks, adapted from an unproduced screenplay of his idol’s. Over two decades later, and working at a similar breakneck pace, Ozon attempts something nearing sacrilege in Peter von Kant, a liberal reimagining of Fassbinder’s most hysterically excessive camp masterpiece, 1972’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (read review). Whereas the original was a femme-centric snake pit featuring three of Fassbinder’s usual muses, Ozon switches the queered perspective to male and transposes bits and pieces of Fassbinder’s own life into the von Kant prism about a monstrous artist who devours all those around him in the quest to quell his desires.
- 8/30/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
François Ozon is one of France’s most prolific filmmakers, directing 21 features and a handful of shorts since 1997. But his latest, “Peter von Kant,” is one of the most unique films of the director’s career. The playful spin on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” is more than just a gender-swapped remake of Fassbinder’s classic German film about an abusive fashion designer.
Ozon made waves by reimagining Fassbinder’s film as an experimental biography of the director himself, casting Denis Menochet as a thinly veiled allegory for the legendary director, and replacing other characters in the film with members of his inner circle. The resulting movie was a hit at the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival and is set to make its North American theatrical debut this weekend. Watch the exclusive trailer below.
“The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” starred Margit Carstensen as the eponymous fashion designer,...
Ozon made waves by reimagining Fassbinder’s film as an experimental biography of the director himself, casting Denis Menochet as a thinly veiled allegory for the legendary director, and replacing other characters in the film with members of his inner circle. The resulting movie was a hit at the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival and is set to make its North American theatrical debut this weekend. Watch the exclusive trailer below.
“The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” starred Margit Carstensen as the eponymous fashion designer,...
- 6/24/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
From the sure evidence of his filmography—and, yes, his legendarily turbulent private life—Rainer Werner Fassbinder should be quite tickled by the thought of another, younger filmmaker deifying him in their own work. Fassbinder’s is the cinema of the submissive power dynamic, and François Ozon, no slouch either, has come to play servant to the master. What’s more elusive in Peter von Kant, his slavish reimagining of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, is what’s gained from this entangling designed to be mutually fulfilling for both parties.
Ozon has always been a fleet, engaging storyteller, but he is overly fond of pastiche, though it’s unlikely his career would’ve been so prolific without letting outside material lead his creative impulses. Still Peter von Kant is a mismatch for his sensibilities, a piece of upmarket heritage cinema with none of the subversion, danger, or nervy politics of the forebear.
Ozon has always been a fleet, engaging storyteller, but he is overly fond of pastiche, though it’s unlikely his career would’ve been so prolific without letting outside material lead his creative impulses. Still Peter von Kant is a mismatch for his sensibilities, a piece of upmarket heritage cinema with none of the subversion, danger, or nervy politics of the forebear.
- 2/11/2022
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
It’s a neat conceit, making the directing colossus of 1970s German cinema into the star of his own show. Peter Von Kant, the opening film of the Berlin Film Festival, is “freely adapted” by French director François Ozon from The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s highly stylized 1972 story of three women locked in a toxic triangle of love, jealousy, domination and submission. The storyline and much of the dialogue, is the same; where Ozon shakes it up is by making the trio all men.
Ozon has tangled with Fassbinder before. His 2000 film, Water Drops On Burning Rocks, which also dealt with power struggles within sexual relationships, was adapted from a Fassbinder play. Taking on The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant, a recognized landmark of European cinema, is a bolder move, made at a different moment in Ozon’s career. This is maestro on...
Ozon has tangled with Fassbinder before. His 2000 film, Water Drops On Burning Rocks, which also dealt with power struggles within sexual relationships, was adapted from a Fassbinder play. Taking on The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant, a recognized landmark of European cinema, is a bolder move, made at a different moment in Ozon’s career. This is maestro on...
- 2/10/2022
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
François Ozon, the prolific and provocative French director who won the Berlinale’s 2018 Golden Bear Award with “By the Grace of God,” is returning to the festival with “Peter von Kant” which will world premiere on opening night. A twist on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s cult film “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” Ozon’s movie has Denis Menochet playing the tormented filmmaker, opposite Isabelle Adjani, who stars as his muse. Like the original film, “Peter von Kant” is about a film about love, jealousy and domination. It’s Ozon’s sixth movie in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Ozon’s Berlin films include 2000’s “Water Drops on Burning Rocks,” another adaptation of a Fassbinder work, and “8 Women,” which won the Silver Bear 20 years ago. The director discussed his artistic ambition for the “Peter von Kant” with Variety.
This is your second Fassbinder-based project. Why is Fassbinder...
This is your second Fassbinder-based project. Why is Fassbinder...
- 2/10/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Francois Ozon, one of France’s most prestigious and prolific filmmakers, will next direct Isabelle Adjani and Denis Menochet (“Custody”) in “Petra Von Kant,” a film adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s cult play “The Bitter Tears.”
“Petra Von Kant” will star Menochet as Fassbinder, while Adjani will play the German director’s muse, according to Satellifax, which was first to report the news.
“The Bitter Tears” was previously adapted into a film by Fassbinder himself in 1972. Titled “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” the film boasted an all-female cast with Margit Carstensen playing Petra von Kant, a prominent fashion designer with narcissistic tendencies.
Ozon previously adapted Fassbinder’s play “Water Drops on Burning Rocks” into a 2000 film with Ludivine Sagnier, which competed at the Berlinale.
“Petra Von Kant” will be produced by Ozon’s own production company, Foz Productions. The shoot is expected to kick off this week.
“Petra Von Kant” will star Menochet as Fassbinder, while Adjani will play the German director’s muse, according to Satellifax, which was first to report the news.
“The Bitter Tears” was previously adapted into a film by Fassbinder himself in 1972. Titled “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” the film boasted an all-female cast with Margit Carstensen playing Petra von Kant, a prominent fashion designer with narcissistic tendencies.
Ozon previously adapted Fassbinder’s play “Water Drops on Burning Rocks” into a 2000 film with Ludivine Sagnier, which competed at the Berlinale.
“Petra Von Kant” will be produced by Ozon’s own production company, Foz Productions. The shoot is expected to kick off this week.
- 3/17/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Webster University Film Series has become the location for many national tours of international cinema, often acting as the only such venue in Missouri. The Series is host to speakers and visiting artists who address the pertinent issues in films presented. In an effort to further integrate film with education, the Film Series provides workshops with artists and experts.
As part of the Film Series virtual Speaker Series, Fassbinder February focuses on the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the prolific LGBTQ+ film director of 1970s West Germany. Once a week, all throughout February, a guest speaker will give a talk on a different film of the trailblazing director. Each film is available on popular streaming services like The Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and/or Amazon Prime. Watch each ahead of time and then join The Webster University University Film Series all month long for interesting and thought-provoking discussions on the...
As part of the Film Series virtual Speaker Series, Fassbinder February focuses on the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the prolific LGBTQ+ film director of 1970s West Germany. Once a week, all throughout February, a guest speaker will give a talk on a different film of the trailblazing director. Each film is available on popular streaming services like The Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and/or Amazon Prime. Watch each ahead of time and then join The Webster University University Film Series all month long for interesting and thought-provoking discussions on the...
- 1/11/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Jason from Mnpp here ready to label this place "The Amy Adams Experience" for the day, because not only are we discussing the latest episodes of Sharp Objects but we're wishing her a happy 44th birthday while we're at it with this week's edition of "Beauty vs Beast." Specifically we're looking back at her Oscar-nominated role as the watchful Sister James opposite her Oscar-nominated co-star some-Meryl-lady in John Patrick Shanley's 2008 film Doubt. Can you believe this movie's turning 10 in December? It doesn't seem that long ago, does it? Does the movie hold up, you think? But even besides that I need you to, heaven forbid, brush away your doubts long enough to come down with a vote on...
online polls
Previously My favorite Fassbinder was the subject of last week's poll and my favorite Fassbinder performance therein won - Margit Carstensen's Titular Role in The Bitter Tears of...
online polls
Previously My favorite Fassbinder was the subject of last week's poll and my favorite Fassbinder performance therein won - Margit Carstensen's Titular Role in The Bitter Tears of...
- 8/20/2018
- by JA
- FilmExperience
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Courtesy of Janus Film.On the occasion of a comprehensive retrospective the Tiff Bell Lightbox (October 28 - December 23), the need to summarize the thirty plus films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder seems not just daunting, but reductive. How to simplify someone who both evolved and contradicted himself? While typically turning out three films per year between 1966 and his death in 1982, the year 1974 seems like one of the German director’s most unified, at least in terms of one preoccupation: marriage. This particular year seems as possibly a mid-way between Fassbinder’s working out-the-kinks genre exercises (The American Soldier, Love Is Colder Than Death) and the later, lavish international co-productions based on esteemed literary works (Despair, Querelle). The diversity upon which the holy union is depicted can be detected if just judging by each of the three’s own source material; Ali: Fear Eats the Soul a...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
Award Winning Director Wolfgang Becker (“Good Bye Lenin!”) will open the festival at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre with “Me and Kaminski” bringing outstanding German cinema and its stars to Los Angeles from October 20 to 23rd.
Full Program Line Up Announced with a selection of the best new German, Austrian and Swiss Cinema
Celebrating its 10th year, German Currents features an expanded program including screenings of ten La premieres, conversations with prolific German directors, writers and actors, as well as the return of the free family matinee film screening for local schools.
“Me and Kaminski” starring Daniel Brühl and directed by Wolfgang Becker
2016 has been a successful year for German language cinema, not only in Europe, but across the globe. Beginning on Thursday, October 20th 2016 German Currents will open this year’s 4 day festival with the red carpet event Los Angeles premiere of Wolfgang Becker’s (“Goodbye Lenin”) five-time...
Full Program Line Up Announced with a selection of the best new German, Austrian and Swiss Cinema
Celebrating its 10th year, German Currents features an expanded program including screenings of ten La premieres, conversations with prolific German directors, writers and actors, as well as the return of the free family matinee film screening for local schools.
“Me and Kaminski” starring Daniel Brühl and directed by Wolfgang Becker
2016 has been a successful year for German language cinema, not only in Europe, but across the globe. Beginning on Thursday, October 20th 2016 German Currents will open this year’s 4 day festival with the red carpet event Los Angeles premiere of Wolfgang Becker’s (“Goodbye Lenin”) five-time...
- 10/4/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Throne of Loneliness: Kaurismaki Cartoons Christina
Considering it’s been forty years since her last notable on screen incarnation, the time has come for a new biopic on that other famous ‘virgin’ queen, Christina of Sweden. Iconically portrayed by Great Garbo in 1933’s Queen Christina, and then again in 1974 by Liv Ullmann in The Abdication, these are significant footsteps to follow, especially considering these productions are best remembered for their female leads and not their directors (Rouben Mamoulian and Anthony Harvey, respectively). Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki, the brother to world renowned auteur Aki Kaurismaki, aims to resuscitate her provocative legacy with The Girl King, though its use of archaic language concepts (such as ‘girl’ and ‘virgin’) hint at a certain ignorance of both femininity and lesbianism despite a screenplay penned by Michel Marc Brousard (Lilies; Tom at the Farm). A handsome costume drama, this international co-production is more often distracting than relevant,...
Considering it’s been forty years since her last notable on screen incarnation, the time has come for a new biopic on that other famous ‘virgin’ queen, Christina of Sweden. Iconically portrayed by Great Garbo in 1933’s Queen Christina, and then again in 1974 by Liv Ullmann in The Abdication, these are significant footsteps to follow, especially considering these productions are best remembered for their female leads and not their directors (Rouben Mamoulian and Anthony Harvey, respectively). Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki, the brother to world renowned auteur Aki Kaurismaki, aims to resuscitate her provocative legacy with The Girl King, though its use of archaic language concepts (such as ‘girl’ and ‘virgin’) hint at a certain ignorance of both femininity and lesbianism despite a screenplay penned by Michel Marc Brousard (Lilies; Tom at the Farm). A handsome costume drama, this international co-production is more often distracting than relevant,...
- 12/5/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
At long last, a worthy digital transfer has been granted the rather grim and horrific Tenderness of the Wolves, an obscure title from the extensive universe of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, here serving as producer. The fourth title assembled under Fassbinder’s production company Tango-Film, Ulli Lommel takes on directorial duty for what stands as the his most notable title. But Lommel’s contributions take a back seat to leading star and screenwriter Kurt Raab. Both members of Fassbinder’s extensive cinematic troupe, having starred in 1969’s Love is Colder Than Death, along with several future affiliations, the film’s production history proves to have its own potent elements dictating the final memorable outcome.
Padded out with a ton of notable Fassbinder faces, it’s a wonder this title isn’t more well-known, even as a cult favorite. But its explicit homosexual content, derided as harmful and negative at the time,...
Padded out with a ton of notable Fassbinder faces, it’s a wonder this title isn’t more well-known, even as a cult favorite. But its explicit homosexual content, derided as harmful and negative at the time,...
- 11/10/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The catalyst behind Ulli Lommel's perverse horror masterpiece might be writer-actor-art director Kurt Raab. He's almost too convincing as Fritz Haarmann, an infamous real-life serial killer of young men who masks his abominable activities behind a snitch relationship with the police. He's an obscene cross between Peter Lorre's child-murderer and the ghoul Nosferatu. Tenderness of the Wolves Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD Arrow Video (UK) 1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 80 min. / Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe / Street Date November 2, 2015 / £12.99 Starring Kurt Raab, Jeff Roden, Margit Carstensen, Ingrid Caven, Wolfgang Schenck, Brigitte Mira, Rainer Hauer, Barbara Bertram, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Cinematography Jürgen Jürges Production Design Kurt Raab Makeup Elfie Kruse Editing Thea Eymèsz Original Music Peter Raben Written by Kurt Raab Produced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Fengler Directed by Ulli Lommel
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Movie horrors can't compete with real life any more, in an overcrowded, often hostile world that seems to encourage terrible crimes.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Movie horrors can't compete with real life any more, in an overcrowded, often hostile world that seems to encourage terrible crimes.
- 11/10/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stars: Kurt Raab, Jeff Roden, Margit Carstensen, Ingrid Caven, Wolfgang Schenck, Brigitte Mira, Rainer Hauer, Barbara Bertram, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Heinrich Giskes, Friedrich Karl Praetorius | Written by Kurt Raab | Directed by Uli Lommel
Normally films about serial killers focus on the creation of a monster, often focusing on the hero hunting them down and stopping them. What if the serial killer is somebody we become sympathetic to? That is the focus of Tenderness of the Wolves, aka Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe, the latest film to get the Arrow Video Blu-ray treatment…
Tenderness of the Wolves is based on the real life story of Fritz Haarmann a known thief and known gay man, at a time when it was illegal to be in Germany. Given a special license by the police to act for them as an informer, his illegal actions were often ignored. When too many young men were going...
Normally films about serial killers focus on the creation of a monster, often focusing on the hero hunting them down and stopping them. What if the serial killer is somebody we become sympathetic to? That is the focus of Tenderness of the Wolves, aka Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe, the latest film to get the Arrow Video Blu-ray treatment…
Tenderness of the Wolves is based on the real life story of Fritz Haarmann a known thief and known gay man, at a time when it was illegal to be in Germany. Given a special license by the police to act for them as an informer, his illegal actions were often ignored. When too many young men were going...
- 11/1/2015
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
Novelist/screenwriter, Christian Kracht, gives a Paddington hard stare before his conversation on Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas with Daniel Bowles and Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: David Netto
Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.
In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...
Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.
In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...
- 7/24/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Germany, 1972
“Fassbinder is Petra von Kant.” So says frequent star and muse Hanna Schygulla as she discusses Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s working methods and his identification with his characters, both male and female. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a notable case in point. Based on Fassbinder’s own complicated relationship with Günther Kaufmann, the genders are reversed for what became this tale of passion and despair between a successful fashion designer and the younger beauty who enters and upends her personal and professional life. Originally written for the stage, specifically for Margit Carstensen, who would take on the title role in the play and film, Bitter Tears is a fascinating examination of sexual intensity and infatuation gradually undercut by acrimony and deceit.
Though Fassbinder’s play was generally unsuccessful, he nevertheless moved full...
Written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Germany, 1972
“Fassbinder is Petra von Kant.” So says frequent star and muse Hanna Schygulla as she discusses Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s working methods and his identification with his characters, both male and female. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a notable case in point. Based on Fassbinder’s own complicated relationship with Günther Kaufmann, the genders are reversed for what became this tale of passion and despair between a successful fashion designer and the younger beauty who enters and upends her personal and professional life. Originally written for the stage, specifically for Margit Carstensen, who would take on the title role in the play and film, Bitter Tears is a fascinating examination of sexual intensity and infatuation gradually undercut by acrimony and deceit.
Though Fassbinder’s play was generally unsuccessful, he nevertheless moved full...
- 1/20/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in the summer of 1972, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant didn’t open to ecstatic reception. Treated with the sort of contempt that artistic endeavors later recuperated as being ‘ahead of their time’ are often subjected to, conservative audiences dismissed it as bleak and artificial, while queer audiences denounced it as an exploitational freak show. Decades later, time has come for a reexamination of one of Fassbinder’s finest achievements, arriving early on in his titles inspired by the works of Douglas Sirk, for which the title of this most certainly evokes. Shot in ten days, and presumed to have been written by Fassbinder by hand on a flight from Berlin to Los Angeles, it features three of his most beloved actresses, each with whom he shared a different type of relationship. Bitchy, catty, melodramatic and pretentious, it’s...
- 1/20/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Perhaps Criterion has been paying attention to my Best Movies posts. Next week sees the release of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita on Blu-ray, which was the first installment in my Best Movies feature and a title I'll be reviewing later this week, and now my third installment, Kihachi Okamoto's The Sword of Doom will be arriving on January 6 with a new high-definition digital restoration. Unfortunately the Sword of Doom release won't come with any new features, though the film, Hiroshi Murai's cinematography, Masaru Sato's score and an audio commentary from Stephen Prince will do for me as that is a title that simply must be part of my collection. Also coming in January is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant on January 13, Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg on January 20, Preston Sturges's 1942 comedy The Palm Beach Story starring Claudette Colbert...
- 10/15/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld co-written with Christian Kracht celebrates words of lore as well as colloquial rhythms and structures of non-communication.
In part 2 of my conversation with director Frauke Finsterwalder and co-sreenwriter Christian Kracht on Finsterworld, we go beyond Slavoj Žižek's The Pervert's Guide To Ideology, Klaus Theweleit's Male Fantasies, Berlin architecture, Joseph Beuys, Kubrick's The Shining, Adorno, the beauty of Margit Carstensen and the legacy of "Gesichtswurst".
Anne-Katrin Titze: Let's talk about Margit Carstensen. Did you take her work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder into account when casting her?
Frauke Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht on the legacy of Gesichtswurst: "Also, the image of that sandwich, that's a mutual obsession." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Frauke Finsterwalder: I was thinking of Fassbinder's TV movie Martha (1974). That's the one where she gets abused by Karlheinz Böhm. It wasn't released until much later. They have this abusive relationship and finally she escapes from him and crashes her car.
In part 2 of my conversation with director Frauke Finsterwalder and co-sreenwriter Christian Kracht on Finsterworld, we go beyond Slavoj Žižek's The Pervert's Guide To Ideology, Klaus Theweleit's Male Fantasies, Berlin architecture, Joseph Beuys, Kubrick's The Shining, Adorno, the beauty of Margit Carstensen and the legacy of "Gesichtswurst".
Anne-Katrin Titze: Let's talk about Margit Carstensen. Did you take her work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder into account when casting her?
Frauke Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht on the legacy of Gesichtswurst: "Also, the image of that sandwich, that's a mutual obsession." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Frauke Finsterwalder: I was thinking of Fassbinder's TV movie Martha (1974). That's the one where she gets abused by Karlheinz Böhm. It wasn't released until much later. They have this abusive relationship and finally she escapes from him and crashes her car.
- 6/25/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Finsterworld's Christian Kracht and Frauke Finsterwalder with Anne-Katrin Titze in New York
On a sunny morning on Broadway, high above Houston Street, I met with filmmaker Frauke Finsterwalder and her co-screenwriter, author Christian Kracht, to speak about their intricately constructed Finsterworld. We discussed why the film could only have been written from outside, childhood obsessions allowed to artists, fairy tale houses made of food and Wes Anderson's stylised truth.
Sandra Hüller as Franziska: "Actually, she wants to scream at him 'Can't you say something? I'm wasting my time'."
This is the Germany of the unconscious where Teutonic earth spirits coexist with pedicurist Claude (Michael Maertens), who, in a raspberry colored turtleneck, works foot-magic at a nursing home. Margit Carstensen, the star of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films, plays Maria Sandberg, the object of his special affections. In loosely connected strands we meet the different generations of the Sandberg family.
On a sunny morning on Broadway, high above Houston Street, I met with filmmaker Frauke Finsterwalder and her co-screenwriter, author Christian Kracht, to speak about their intricately constructed Finsterworld. We discussed why the film could only have been written from outside, childhood obsessions allowed to artists, fairy tale houses made of food and Wes Anderson's stylised truth.
Sandra Hüller as Franziska: "Actually, she wants to scream at him 'Can't you say something? I'm wasting my time'."
This is the Germany of the unconscious where Teutonic earth spirits coexist with pedicurist Claude (Michael Maertens), who, in a raspberry colored turtleneck, works foot-magic at a nursing home. Margit Carstensen, the star of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films, plays Maria Sandberg, the object of his special affections. In loosely connected strands we meet the different generations of the Sandberg family.
- 6/20/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Playing at the Museum of the Moving Image and the Quad Cinema in New York June 13-19 the Kino! Festival Of German Films returns for its 36th year. Once again, the festival continues to offer the best in German cinema produced in the last year. The program features documentaries and narratives that not only focus on the German experience but also on its filmmakers’ points of view on what happens around the world. Quality is always a given with Kino and these wide-ranging stories are no exception. Some revisit the country’s historical past, others travel to distant lands in search of images, and there are also those that feel specific to our time. Here are some highlights of what we've seen so far with some additions to come soon.
For more information on the festival visit Here
West
Dir. Christian Schwochow
In search of a more promising and free life for her and her son, Nelly Sneff (Jördis Triebel) a young East German chemist flees to the more modernized West side. Even though she speaks the same language and is as German as everyone else living in the communal living facilities for refugees, Nelly finds it difficult to adapt to the new system. Ironically, she comes to realize that she is seen as the enemy on this side of the wall. The constant questioning about the whereabouts and affiliation of her Soviet partner, who until now she believed dead, take a toll on her already complex life putting her in a state of paranoia. Her son Alexej (Tristan Göbel), who is bullied at school, befriends a neighbor, Hans ( Alexander Scheer) whose good intentions will put Nelly on the edge. Distrust is at the core of Schwochow’s film that plays as thoughtful answer to films like “The Lives of Others” and “Barbara.” While those examples condemned the system enforced by the Stasi, in “West” the tables are flipped. Nelly feels unsafe, watched, and harassed in a land that was supposed to be against those practices. Triebel's intense performance escalates from hopeful to enraged in a marvelously directed story about an unexamined subject within German history.
Nan Goldin : I Remember Your Face
Dir. Sabine Lidl
In a concisely executed documentary that runs just over 60 minutes, director Sabine Lidl manages to capture the essence of renowned photographer Nal Goldin. Given that her friendships are the inspiration and subjects for her work, the filmmaker follows the eccentric artist as she visits old friends and reminisces about their youth, her failed attempts at seducing attractive gay men, and their role in her career. Her photos are raw and vivid. They shine with colorful nuances that only intimacy can provide. Drunk, naked, and unique people experience sadness and joy in front of her camera. Goldin’s extravagant collections and her turbulent past with drugs and alcohol also make an appearance in this short portrait of a fascinating woman across her beloved Berlin and other European cities.
Art War
Dir. Marco Wilms
While shot by a German filmmaker, the film is very similar to the Academy Awards-nominated film “The Square.” It follows the revolutionary youth of Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that brought down the Mubarak regime. While the aforementioned film tries to depict a holistic picture of the events, the deaths, and the shaky political processes that followed, Wilms decides to focus on the artistic expression that emerged from the movement. Including politically charged rap songs, and more extensively graffiti, the documentary advocates for the youth’s effort to protests by peaceful means. However, it also points at the non-stop attacks by Islamist conservative groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Among their many undertakings, the art on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near the iconic Tahrir Square is of particular importance because it is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the carnage. Young Egyptians turned martyrs are immortalized on the city’s walls as constant reminder of an incessant struggle. There are clearly a great number of similarities between the two films, and though this is less achieved in scope, it can definitely work as a complementary piece.
Finsterworld
Dir. Frauke Finsterwalder
With a multi-story concept that scrutinizes modern German society, the tonally eclectic “Finsterworld” provides some vexed assumptions about the country’s history of violence. A high school class is taking a fieldtrip to a concentration camp, Dominik (Leonard Scheicher) and his unofficial girlfriend Natalie (Carla Juri) are enjoying the day despite having to deal with obnoxious spoiled kid Maximilian (Jakub Gierszal). Meanwhile Franziska (Sandra Hüller), an pretentious aspiring filmmaker wants to capture something profound, inevitably her egocentric personality crashes with her loving boyfriend police officer Tom (Ronald Zehrfeld), who is also a closeted “furry.” Then there is Claude (Michael Maertens), a lonely masseur specialized in feet, and his friendship with elderly woman Frau (Margit Carstensen). Lastly, there are the Sandbergs (Corinna Harfouch &Bernhard Schütz), a wealthy couple on the road who encounter a difficult situation. Touching on the subject of German identity having Hitler as only representative figure and being a nation defined by guilt, Finsterwalder’s feature is heavily provocative. It’s strange tone that shifts between absurd comedy and gruesome violence can come across as uncomfortable or even offensive, but there are a handful of brilliant moments that make the film rather compelling.
For more information on the festival visit Here
West
Dir. Christian Schwochow
In search of a more promising and free life for her and her son, Nelly Sneff (Jördis Triebel) a young East German chemist flees to the more modernized West side. Even though she speaks the same language and is as German as everyone else living in the communal living facilities for refugees, Nelly finds it difficult to adapt to the new system. Ironically, she comes to realize that she is seen as the enemy on this side of the wall. The constant questioning about the whereabouts and affiliation of her Soviet partner, who until now she believed dead, take a toll on her already complex life putting her in a state of paranoia. Her son Alexej (Tristan Göbel), who is bullied at school, befriends a neighbor, Hans ( Alexander Scheer) whose good intentions will put Nelly on the edge. Distrust is at the core of Schwochow’s film that plays as thoughtful answer to films like “The Lives of Others” and “Barbara.” While those examples condemned the system enforced by the Stasi, in “West” the tables are flipped. Nelly feels unsafe, watched, and harassed in a land that was supposed to be against those practices. Triebel's intense performance escalates from hopeful to enraged in a marvelously directed story about an unexamined subject within German history.
Nan Goldin : I Remember Your Face
Dir. Sabine Lidl
In a concisely executed documentary that runs just over 60 minutes, director Sabine Lidl manages to capture the essence of renowned photographer Nal Goldin. Given that her friendships are the inspiration and subjects for her work, the filmmaker follows the eccentric artist as she visits old friends and reminisces about their youth, her failed attempts at seducing attractive gay men, and their role in her career. Her photos are raw and vivid. They shine with colorful nuances that only intimacy can provide. Drunk, naked, and unique people experience sadness and joy in front of her camera. Goldin’s extravagant collections and her turbulent past with drugs and alcohol also make an appearance in this short portrait of a fascinating woman across her beloved Berlin and other European cities.
Art War
Dir. Marco Wilms
While shot by a German filmmaker, the film is very similar to the Academy Awards-nominated film “The Square.” It follows the revolutionary youth of Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that brought down the Mubarak regime. While the aforementioned film tries to depict a holistic picture of the events, the deaths, and the shaky political processes that followed, Wilms decides to focus on the artistic expression that emerged from the movement. Including politically charged rap songs, and more extensively graffiti, the documentary advocates for the youth’s effort to protests by peaceful means. However, it also points at the non-stop attacks by Islamist conservative groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Among their many undertakings, the art on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near the iconic Tahrir Square is of particular importance because it is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the carnage. Young Egyptians turned martyrs are immortalized on the city’s walls as constant reminder of an incessant struggle. There are clearly a great number of similarities between the two films, and though this is less achieved in scope, it can definitely work as a complementary piece.
Finsterworld
Dir. Frauke Finsterwalder
With a multi-story concept that scrutinizes modern German society, the tonally eclectic “Finsterworld” provides some vexed assumptions about the country’s history of violence. A high school class is taking a fieldtrip to a concentration camp, Dominik (Leonard Scheicher) and his unofficial girlfriend Natalie (Carla Juri) are enjoying the day despite having to deal with obnoxious spoiled kid Maximilian (Jakub Gierszal). Meanwhile Franziska (Sandra Hüller), an pretentious aspiring filmmaker wants to capture something profound, inevitably her egocentric personality crashes with her loving boyfriend police officer Tom (Ronald Zehrfeld), who is also a closeted “furry.” Then there is Claude (Michael Maertens), a lonely masseur specialized in feet, and his friendship with elderly woman Frau (Margit Carstensen). Lastly, there are the Sandbergs (Corinna Harfouch &Bernhard Schütz), a wealthy couple on the road who encounter a difficult situation. Touching on the subject of German identity having Hitler as only representative figure and being a nation defined by guilt, Finsterwalder’s feature is heavily provocative. It’s strange tone that shifts between absurd comedy and gruesome violence can come across as uncomfortable or even offensive, but there are a handful of brilliant moments that make the film rather compelling.
- 6/14/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
They range in age, amount of screen time, supporting or principle characters, and have previous (television work, stage and or bit parts in Hollywood/Indiewood productions or next to no film experience at all. In essence these folks have a special gift and have essentially broken out. I had the fortune of having a team of four journalists (Caitlin Coder, Jordan M. Smith, Nicholas Bell and myself) covering the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and when you got a small army covering a major fest it ensures that fine performances from a new crop of acting talents don’t go undetected. Michael B. Jordan, Robin Weigert and Miles Teller (who follows up The Speculator Now with a dramatically and physically charged perf in the marvelous Whiplash) were just some of the new faces included on our top list last year.Worthy mnetions that did not break into our Top 10 include Fishing Without Nets‘ Abdikani Muktar,...
- 1/30/2014
- by IONCINEMA.com Contributing Writers
- IONCINEMA.com
After doing the rounds on VoD for a few weeks, where many of you will have seen it, Sarah Polley's "Take This Waltz" starts to roll out in theaters from tomorrow, and we can't recommend it enough; it's a messy, sometimes frustrating film, but a deeply felt, beautifully made and wonderfully acted one, and we named it last week as one of the best of the year so far. It is not, however, recommended as a date movie, fitting into a long cinematic tradition of painful examinations of broken, decaying, collapsing or dead relationships.
After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...
After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...
- 6/28/2012
- by The Playlist Staff
- The Playlist
Because Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant is one of my favorites by the late German director, I’m reprinting here this email from Ira Sachs, whose IFC Center Queer/Art/Film series is screening the film tonight at 8:00 Pm. It’s being presented by choreographer Jack Ferver, who has written a fantastic intro to the film.
Dear Friends of Queer/Art/Film,
“That little girl’s finger is worth more than the lot of you.”
For this month’s August screening, we’re thrilled to finally be able to present a film by the visionary gay German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, especially one as rich and rewarding as the queer classic The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. Featuring the astonishing Margit Carstensen as a lesbian fashion designer who manipulates her assistant, daughter, mother, and lover– it’s beloved by our guest presenter,...
Dear Friends of Queer/Art/Film,
“That little girl’s finger is worth more than the lot of you.”
For this month’s August screening, we’re thrilled to finally be able to present a film by the visionary gay German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, especially one as rich and rewarding as the queer classic The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. Featuring the astonishing Margit Carstensen as a lesbian fashion designer who manipulates her assistant, daughter, mother, and lover– it’s beloved by our guest presenter,...
- 8/12/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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