Rent The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972)

3.6 of 5 from 125 ratings
1h 59min
Rent The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (aka Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant) Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen), with two marriages behind her and an absent daughter, is a successful fashion designer. She lives with her secretary, the repressed and subservient Marlene (Irm Hermann), who will form the second point in a tragic ménage à trois when Petra meets and falls hopelessly in love with a confident young model named Karin (Hanna Schygulla).
Actors:
, , , , ,
Directors:
Producers:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Fengler
Writers:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Aka:
Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant
Studio:
Arrow Films
Genres:
Classics, Drama, Romance
Collections:
21 Reasons to Love, 21 Reasons to Love... Ingmar Bergman, A Brief History of Lesbian Cinema, A History of Cinemas in Films, All the Twos: 1972-2012, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Top 10 Films of 1972, Top 10 Golden Bear Winners, Top Films
Countries:
Germany
BBFC:
Release Date:
07/08/2006
Run Time:
119 minutes
Languages:
German Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles:
English
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • End of the Commune (47 min documentary)
  • Interview with Harry Baer
BBFC:
Release Date:
04/04/2016
Run Time:
124 minutes
Languages:
German Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
Subtitles:
English
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.37:1
Colour:
Colour
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Commentary by filmmaker and lecturer Diane Charleson
  • Life Stories: A Conversation with R.W. Fassbinder, a 50-minute interview with the director conducted for German television in 1978
  • Role-Play: Women on Fassbinder, a 1992 documentary containing interviews with four of the director s leading ladies, Margit Carstensen, Irm Hermann, Hanna Schygulla and Rosel Zech

More like The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant

Reviews (1) of The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant

Great Pretenders - The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant review by CH

Spoiler Alert
14/11/2021

Ecology concerns apart, is there any more disagreeable a form of travel than by airplane? The thought comes to mind when when watching again Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972). This takes place upon the ground, in the large bedroom of a Bremen flat, one of its walls adorned by a huge, bare-fleshed classical mural. Fassbinder, perhaps inspired by the claustrophobia of an aircraft cabin, wrote this play between one side of the Atlantic and the other, and soon turned it into a film.

This makes Coward's writing Private Lives one weekend in a Far-East hotel appear tardy. Both men were prolific, and some of their work can be easily overlooked. How well is this film known five decades on? The two-hour traffic of its stage can bring to mind the threesome which Coward depicted in Design for Living.

The eponymous rôle is taken by Margit Cartensen. Much given to lolling upon her big brass bed, this fashion designer continually issues instructions to her forever-silent assistant Marlene (Irm Hermann), which makes one speculate about everything which underlies their relationship in these curiously-appointed premises (Fassbinder and his time make such tremendous use of colour and camera angles that it never stales into a filmed play).

Before long, a puzzling situation is complicated. There appears on the scene Hanna Schygulla as Karin, who - as is Petra - proves to be separated from a man. They fall for each other, or so it seems. One of the film's well-nigh invisible act-breaks shows that they have remained together some while, presumably watched all that time by the mute Marlene.

It is another taunting relationship, one which provokes Karin to say that – true or not - her overnight absence was owing to the arrival elsewhere of a well-hung black man. Talk, throughout, is not so much dialogue as the declamations of a power struggle, all of which is inflamed by the arrival of Petra's equally vociferous daughter and mother.

Everybody is wary of one another, trust is elusive as the room appears to darken, while The Walker Brothers and The Platters rise on the soundtrack. One can well imagine that Scott Walker would have relished the angst of all this if he saw it (and perhaps he did so). What remains of us is hate.

To watch this on a cinema screen is to experience that Bremen room as a life-size reflection of the auditorium; oddly enough, at home that effect is lost upon a flatscreen, but the drama is more than sufficient to make one crave to fill one's gaps in viewings of Fassbinder's other work (Hitchcock-fashion, he appears here in a newspaper photograph passed between this otherwise all-female cast).

For those who have not seen it, make time for the dozen hours of his version of Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz.

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Unlimited films sent to your door, starting at £15.99 a month.