Directed by
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Starring: Margit
Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, Irm Hermann. Drama, Germany, 1972, 124mins,
Cert 15.
I’ll be completely
honest, when I saw the title on the disc my first thought was: is this an obscure
early 70s Italian-German co-produced giallo that I’ve never heard of? A quick
search on IMDb dampened my initial enthusiasm when I discovered it was no such
thing, but instead some serious art cinema from German auteur Rainer Werner
Fassbinder. Now whilst I’m more than familiar with the films of Michael Fassbender,
I’m a Fassbinder virgin (or at least I was until popping my cherry with Petra).
Adapted from
Fassbinder’s own stage play, the entire film takes place in the bedroom of
Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen), a successful fashion designer who lives
with her assistant/maid/general dog’s body/slave, Marlene (Irm Hermann). Masochistic
subservient Marlene doesn’t utter a single word during the course of the film,
but still manages to convey the inner turmoil bubbling away within when she
realises the object of her devotion has fallen in love with Karin (Hanna
Schygulla) a young would-be model. Plot wise, essentially that’s it. The film
is divided up into several distinct acts; each one defined by a change of
costume for Petra as Fassbinder forensically examines the emotional impact of
the relationship between Petra and Karin (and the mutely observing Marlene).
Given the
one-set location, Fassbinder infuses the mise-en-scène
with an abundance of detail, from the mannequin dolls passively observing the
goings-on in Petra’s bedroom to the visually dominating painting which covers
the wall. A floor-to-ceiling blow-up of Poussin’s ‘Midas and Bacchus’ (I looked
this up in case you mistake me for an art expert) it acts as a stunning
symbolic backdrop to the unfolding events before it.
I can
appreciate the meticulous design and precise camerawork which positively oozes
out of the screen in this superb blu-ray restoration. But I can’t say I was
ever fully engaged with or sympathetic to any of the characters, and I found
the overly-theatrical postures and mannerisms, no matter how painstakingly
well choreographed they undoubtedly were, too ripe of artifice to really care. In
truth it’s a very slow, very talky couple of hours. I did like the scene where
frustrated Marlene pounds furiously away on her typewriter in the background
whilst Petra and Karin engage in elaborate shadow and wordplay on the bed. I
found myself wondering what Marlene was actually typing: ‘All work and no play
makes Marlene a dull girl’ over and over again perhaps? Or maybe the actress
was really composing a letter of complaint to her agent demanding she gets at
least some dialogue in whatever role
she’s offered next? And I’d have given anything for a black leather-gloved hand
to have crept into frame wielding a cut-throat razor at some point, but alas
Fassbinder felt his art house musings didn’t require any such frisson of
excitement (shame).
If (unlike
me) you’re a connoisseur of
Fassbinder’s work, then I’m sure this title will be an essential purchase
(assuming you haven’t already forked out for the Criterion US import). The
picture quality is stunning given the film’s age and the comprehensive extras
add good value to the overall package. For me, whilst I can’t say after
watching it that I’m now a fully paid up member of the Fassbinder fan-club, I
can at least partially see why it’s held in such high regard in art cinema.
***(out of 5*)
Paul Worts
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