"Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant" or "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" is a West German film from almost 45 years ago and chronologically it is in the middle of writer and director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's prolific, but short-lived career. The cast is exclusively female. Men are only seen on photos or as naked statues. 3 of the 6 actresses in here were nominated or won German Film Awards for their roles here and these winners include lead actress Margit Carstensen, who plays the title character. Unfortunately, I personally did not find these 125 minutes too convincing. All this awards recognition is a bit of a joke. The actresses seem really lackluster, which is generally a problem with several of the directors' works. Of course, it can be one character's way to speak so boringly, but here everybody does it. And that is not realistic anymore. No passion, no enthusiasm, even in emotional moments. It surprises me to see that this is among Fassbinder's most known works. It is not a disaster by any means, but I felt it dragged on several occasions and the characters simply weren't interesting enough to watch for such a long time. The good thing with Fassbinder is always that he goes for realism instead of forced happy developments and endings, but even from the perspective of this being an early gay-themed film, I cannot see a lot of value.
There are some Fassbinder films I like and some I do not like. This one here falls among the latter and I do not recommend checking it out if you plan on getting into the man's work. Instead, a good start may be "Martha", another Fassbinder movie starring Margit Carstensen from a couple years later. This was a great watch. As for this one here, I believe the material is more fitting for a stage adaptation really if they add a bit more focus, cut out the many irrelevant moments and give it a more modern touch. This 1972 version does not do too much for me and that is why I think you should watch something else instead. Thumbs down. The only aspect that convinced me in here was the set decoration, which is almost always good in Fassbinder's films and this one is no exception.
There are some Fassbinder films I like and some I do not like. This one here falls among the latter and I do not recommend checking it out if you plan on getting into the man's work. Instead, a good start may be "Martha", another Fassbinder movie starring Margit Carstensen from a couple years later. This was a great watch. As for this one here, I believe the material is more fitting for a stage adaptation really if they add a bit more focus, cut out the many irrelevant moments and give it a more modern touch. This 1972 version does not do too much for me and that is why I think you should watch something else instead. Thumbs down. The only aspect that convinced me in here was the set decoration, which is almost always good in Fassbinder's films and this one is no exception.