The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

1972 / 124min / 35mm

Established fashion designer Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen) falls in love with working-class model Hanna Schygulla, and in doing so opens herself up to a hell of jealousy, resentment, and boozy self-pity in Fassbinder’s scourging, emotionally excoriating adaptation of his own stage play, which unfolds entirely inside Petra’s lavish studio apartment, yet brims at every moment with cinematic brio. Perhaps Fassbinder’s most concise statement on the intrinsic power dynamics at play in human relations, and the terrible struggle faced by anyone trying to move beyond them.