Rainer
Werner Fassbinder, 1979
Starring:
Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny
Maria
and Hermann Braun are married as bombs are falling on Berlin. They have barely
any time together before he must return to the front. Though she is devoted to
Hermann, Maria is told he has been killed and merely tries to find a way to
survive in postwar Germany. She works as a hostess in a club for American
soldiers and begins an affair with one of them, while also learning English.
Hermann comes home to find she and the soldier undressing and they get into a
fight. Maria accidentally kills the man, trying to break it up, but Hermann
takes responsibility and goes to prison. Meanwhile, still trying to survive,
Maria begins working for a wealthy industrialist who soon falls in love with
her.
One
of Fassbinder’s most difficult and expensive productions beset by going over
budget (allegedly due to the director’s costly cocaine habit that kept him
working all hours of the day and night) and legal trouble with his long-time
producer who oversold shares of the film, The
Marriage of Maria was also his most popular film to date. It struck a
balance between art house style, accessibility, and popular themes that led to
international appeal and much sought acclaim from German audiences and critics.
Thanks to its success, he went on to make three more triumphs: Berlin Alexanderplatz and the two other
films of his BRD (Bundresrepublik Deutschland or the Federal Republic of
Germany) trilogy, Lola and Veronika Voss.
In
addition to the fact that they are all set in the immediate postwar period,
this trilogy has a number of things in common. Each film follows the decay and
destruction of a successful woman. Maria Braun and Lola, a version of Lola Lola
from The Blue Angel, are incredibly
similar: they are both hardworking women building towards a better future and
financial independence, and they are not ashamed to use their sexuality as a
resource or a weapon. Both women essentially sell fantasies and illusions, in
particular the illusion of love. Both flirt with prostitution. While Lola is a
cabaret singer and dancer who occasionally entertains wealthy gentlemen, Maria
trades sex for things of increasing value: cigarettes, stockings, a secretarial
job, a respected position in the company, expensive clothing, and a large
house.
Where
Lola and Maria differ is that while Lola deludes others, Maria deludes only
herself. The nature of romantic fantasy leads to tragedy as Maria persists in
her self-delusion. She is obsessed with Hermann, despite barely knowing him, and
holds him as an ideal for a true, pure love. On the other hand, she treats
Oswald cruelly and makes it clear that she is using him for money, social
advancement, sex, and even entertainment… but never love. Fassbinder frequently
examined themes of emotional cruelty and what could be described as a sort of
insidious, personal fascism at work in daily society. As she becomes more
successful, Maria certainly exhibits this. She treats Oswald, the office secretaries,
the accountant, and even some of their clients abysmally, like a stereotype of
the professional “dragon lady,” a corporate femme fatale that will go to any
ends to achieve financial and personal success. Because of this, she is
something of an anti-heroine, a figure that is flawed, if not outright tragic,
but also sympathetic.
SPOILER
ALERT: Maria is unable to ultimately succeed not because she is doomed or evil,
but because of the inherently corrupt nature of society. Hermann, the love of
her life, accepted a deal from Oswald where he essentially sold Maria – he agreed
that he would leave the country until Oswald’s death, at which point Hermann
and Maria would become the sole heirs of Oswald’s considerable estate. When
Maria discovers this news, she kills them both, blowing up her beautiful house
by leaving the gas on and lighting a cigarette. Even before she learns this
news, Hermann’s homecoming is awkward and anxiety inducing. He wants to kiss
her – or consummate their marriage – but she insists that he eat or bathe, that
she change her clothes first, seemingly desperate to avoid a moment of real
intimacy. In the film, their deaths are ambiguous, but in the original script,
she intentionally drove them both off of a cliff.
This
original ending is taken almost directly from Otto Preminger’s film noir Angel Face (1953), though Fassbinder’s
original inspiration was Mildred Pierce (1945),
another film about a woman who learns to survive and becomes successful in the
postwar years. She is also separated from her husband, but her betrayal comes
from her money-hungry daughter. Mildred Pierce is obsessed with her daughter’s
advancement and effectively turns the child into a spoiled femme fatale, a
selfish being with no regard for consequences for human life. In The Marriage of Maria Braun, a film that
begins and ends with explosions, the axis rotates around Hermann and Maria’s
obsession with him. This enigmatic figure symbolizes her hopes and dreams for a
better, brighter future, but when he is shown to echo her greed and ambition,
it destroys everything.
The Marriage of Maria
Braun
comes with a high recommendation and if you’ve never seen a Fassbinder film, this
is a great place to start. Hanna Schygulla, one of his regular stars, gives the
performance of her career, a nuanced portrayal of a complex woman trying to
survive in a changing, postwar world, amidst the rubble of war. The only way to
really see the film is in the Criterion
box set of the BRD trilogy, which is a critical collection of three
important films. Due to Fassbinder’s early death, he was never really able to
fulfill his dream of a German Hollywood, but here he comes closest.
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