AFTER HIS UNTIMELY DEATH IN 1982, AN ENTIRE MICROECONOMY OF GERMAN FILMMAKING COLLAPSED OVERNIGHT
QUEER CINEMA MEETS NEW GERMAN CINEMA
Writer/director/producer/ Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s examination of the dynamics of a lesbian love triangle was shot, in true Fassbinder fashion, over a few hours in der Wunderkind’s apartment. However, “Petra von Kant” remains as influential today as it was in 1972.
Based on Fassbinder’s play, it takes place entirely in the home of its eponymous heroine, an outrageously spoiled fashion designer. When a new sexually fluid young thing arrives from Australia (Hanna Schygulla), Petra (Margit Carstensen) begins to turn her attention away from her loyal friend and caretaker, Marlene (Irm Hermann), leading the viewer down avenues of emotional codependency you never knew existed.
If the plot sounds familiar, it was remade in 1998 by Lisa Cholodenko as “High Art” with Ally Sheedy, Patricia Clarkson, and Radha Mitchell.
SORRY TOM ROBINSON. BOTH “BITTER TEARS’ AND “TAXI ZUM KLO” ARE IN COLOR NOT B&W!
Singer/songwriter Tom Robinson immortalized the movie in his song “Atmospherics” (co-written with Peter Gabriel) from his 1984 album “Hope and Glory.” He pairs it with another gay classic, Frank Ripploh’s “Taxi zum Klo,” from 1981 (see separate review). Presumably, for the purpose of rhyming, Gabriel and Robinson say that both movies are in black and white. Sorry, guys, they are both in color.
Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus. Production Design by Kurt Raab. Maja Lemcke designed the costumes, and they are astonishing.
NOW STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME, APPLE TV+, MAX (YOUTUBE)
https://thebrownees.net/fassbinder-revisited-a-cinematic-journey/
Sixty-Eight Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code (1934-1967)
https://thebrownees.net/sixty-nine-queer-films-of-the-new-hollywood-1967-1981
https://thebrownees.net/8-legendary-foreign-actresses-who-did-not-make-it-in-hollywood/
https://thebrownees.net/taxi-zum-klo-1981-film-review/
https://thebrownees.net/fassbinder-revisited-a-cinematic-journey/
