Summary:
Shortly after the end of World War II, a newly married woman in post-war Germany struggles to survive without her husband.
My Thoughts:
Over the past few months, Rainer Werner Fassbinder (“Fox and His Friends”) has been a director that I’ve really gravitated towards. Though his films are often quiet dramas about the everyday occurrences happening in the lives of everyday people living in West Germany, I’ve found that Fassbinder has a way of bringing forth truths about human nature and behavior that other people would rather leave unacknowledged. Every character in this movie, from the ones whom only have a few minutes of screen time to our protagonist Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla, “The Merchant of Four Seasons”), is dynamic and complex; they feel as real and tactile as if they were standing before me in the flesh. They have moody moments; moments of shining tenderness and bitter hopelessness; moments where they’re forced to compromise their morals and moments when they stand their ground.
Though I will admit the first thirty or so minutes of this film are rather predictable, after that, it’s impossible to tell where Maria’s life is headed. Her journey is one that paints a sad portrait of Germany immediately after the fall of the Third Reich (a world in which Fassbinder himself grew up). The world as they know it feels akin to purgatory; Germany is no longer in the hellish grips of war, but it is far from feeling heavenly.
I find it difficult to do much analysis of this film without revealing some spoilers. Most of the spoilers I reveal in the following paragraph take place within the first forty-five minutes of the film. If you’re just looking to know how this compares to other Fassbinder films, I’d say it’s one of his better ones; more analysis follows, but so do spoilers; you’ve been warned.
“Now isn’t a good time for feelings. But that suits me.”
In the last days of World War II Maria and Hermann Braun (Klaus Lowitsch, “World on a Wire”) are married, but Hermann is soon sent away on a mission. Months later, Maria has not heard from Hermann and presumes him dead. After she gets a job at a bar for Americans, she meets an American soldier named Bill (George Eagles) whom quickly falls in love with her. Eventually, Hermann returns, and, in a heated moment between the three of them, Maria kills Bill. When she stands trial, she professes that while she had an affair with Bill, she never loved him, she truly only loved her husband, and Hermann, hearing this, comes forward to say that it was he who killed Bill, thus taking Maria’s place in prison. As Hermann waits for his sentence to end, Maria searches for work, eventually landing a position under an industrialist named Karl Oswald (Ivan Desny, “Lola (1981)”).
I think the thing that I love most about Fassbinder films in general is the themes that he pushes. He was a man who seemed to truly believe that no matter who you were- your race, nationality, age, weight, gender, sexual orientation, or religion- none of that mattered; if you were human than you deserved to be treated as an equal. He was an incredibly forward thinking individual, and that comes through in all of his work.
What I like most about this film specifically, however, is it’s brilliant commentary on life in Germany after World War II. This is the first film in Fassbinder’s BRD trilogy (Bundesrepublik Deutschland Trilogy); the other two films in the trilogy being “Veronika Voss” and “Lola” (I plan to watch the other two films within the next week, so watch for those reviews soon!). All of the films in this trilogy focus on woman in Western Germany after the fall of the Third Reich. But while Maria Braun is our protagonist, Germany is one of the main characters, and the country is more compelling, dynamic and moody than almost every human character in the film.
When we start the film, Germany is in ruin. Maria spends her days scrounging for meager supplies and waiting at the train station for news of her husband. We hear fragments of news broadcasts crackling across the radio-waves, telling about how the Allies want to divide up Germany into farmland, get rid of its military, and punish the country in other ways for it’s actions in WWII. This hopeless situation for the general populous of German civilians is juxtaposed by the Americans that wander jovially through the city, passing out packets of cigarettes (a rare commodity in post-war Germany) like they’re nothing. Germany’s dire situation is illustrated by those that live in it; at the start, nigh everyone seems to be at their wits end. Maria bargains with her own mother for the small pleasures in life (two packs of cigarettes for an antique brooch); Maria’s doctor (Claus Holm, “Berlin Alexanderplatz”), we learn, has developed a drug problem during the war; there’s a growing black market for simple things like dresses and liquor (the goods peddler is played by Fassbinder himself). There doesn’t seem to be room in the world for love anymore, which is why the relationship between Maria and Hermann feels so unique.
Maria’s love for Hermann is incredible. There’s a scene near the beginning of the film when a woman comments that Maria hadn’t even really had a marriage, for they never really even spent time together, but Maria responds that she had enough time to know she loved him completely: “Half a day, and one whole night” and that was enough for her. That kind of sweeping unconditional love is often portrayed in films (“Titanic”, “Romeo + Juliet”), but it oftentimes feels tawdry; in this film, it doesn’t. The love Maria shows Hermann flows out of her, even though there are times when she must sleep with someone else in make ends meet; there are times when she can’t seem him for months on end for circumstances beyond his control; and there are times when he doesn’t want to see her because of the choices she’s made in order to survive. Despite that, she doesn’t stop loving him; though her love might be unconventional and, from an outward perspective, doomed before it began, she doesn’t know how to do anything else but love him. Even if, in the end, that love might be her downfall.
Verdict:
I still have yet to see a Fassbinder film I’ve disliked. This film had all of his usual brilliant character observations, wonderfully complex writing, and darkly humorous moments, but it also provided an eye-opening commentary on a world and people lost to the sands of time. Fassbinder knows how to craft a world that feels balanced: there are scenes of sadness and happiness; scenes of tenderness and also those of coldness; but never once does any of the drama in this movie feel stretched or unrealistic. Fassbinder was truly a cinematic treasure, and if you’ve yet to check out any of his work, this is as a good place to start as any.
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