Part of Trilogies, Part 2 and The BRD Trilogy
Maria (Hanna Schygulla) marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only to have him disappear in the war. Alone, Maria uses her beauty and ambition to prosper in Germany’s “economic miracle” of the 1950’s. Fassbinder’s biggest international box-office success and the first part of his “postwar trilogy,” THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is a heartbreaking study of a woman picking herself up from the ruins of her own life, as well as a pointed metaphorical attack on a society determined to forget its past.
“Only Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the prodigiously talented young West German director…would dare begin a movie about total dissolution with a sequence dramatizing the end of the known world. Where can one go from there? Mr. Fassbinder's THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN goes on in epic — and epically funny — fashion to trace the rise of postwar Germany in the story of the single-mindedly faithful Maria Braun who becomes, in the words of one of her friends, ‘the Mata Hari of the economic miracle.’ Never underestimate the power of a woman who loves her husband.” —Vincent Canby, New York Times (Oct 14, 1979) “Fassbinder himself was cruel and distant to those around him, particularly those who loved him, and in Maria Braun, he created an indelible monster who is perversely fascinating because she knows exactly what she is doing and explains it to her victims while it is being done.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times “Fassbinder always wanted to make 'German Hollywood films' and invariably insisted that his greatest desire was popular success… He was half infatuated and half repelled by Hollywood, and the film's form shows that. But it could never have been made in America, since it takes a highly political account of a period in German history and, on almost every frame, he stamps his sour opinion of the downside of that country's post-war economic miracle.” —Derek Malcolm, Guardian (UK)
