The Marriage of Maria Braun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Marriage of Maria Braun | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
|
| Directed by | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| Produced by | Michael Fengler |
| Written by | Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pea Fröhlich, Peter Märthesheimer |
| Starring | Hanna Schygulla, Ivan Desny, Klaus Löwitsch |
| Music by | Peer Raben |
| Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus |
| Distributed by | New Yorker Films (USA) |
| Release date(s) | February 20, 1979 |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Language | German |
| Budget | ~ DEM1,975,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Marriage of Maria Braun (German title: Die Ehe der Maria Braun) is a 1979 West German film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It was nominated for "Best Foreign Film" in the 1980 Golden Globe Awards. The film is the first in Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy, followed by Veronika Voss (BRD 2) and Lola (BRD 3).
[edit] Plot
The film opens with a close-up of a picture of Adolf Hitler being blown off of a wall during an Allied bombing raid on Berlin in the later stages of World War II. Amidst the chaos, protagonist Maria is married to Hermann Braun in a rushed ceremony where Maria has to run down the official needed to sign their marriage contract. After only "half a day and a whole night" together, Hermann returns to the front.
After the war ends, Maria and her friend Betti visit the train station where other women go to seek word of their soldier husbands, but Maria's friend's husband returns home with news that Hermann has been killed. The film shows the daily privations and black market commodity exchanges that characterized West Germany in this era; it also shows how debased Germany's proud cultural heritage has become. Fassbinder, in a cameo, uses Beethoven's fifth as a signal to a lookout before he offers Maria the collected works of von Kleist, which she refuses because they burn too quickly; she instead takes a black dress and some liquor. The distraught Maria begins to work in a bar frequented by American soldiers, where she becomes the lover of an African-American soldier whom she calls Mr. Bill; when she meets him, she quips "better black than brown," in a reference to his ethnicity, her name, and possibly the Nazi brown shirts. The relationship between the two is tender and loving until Hermann unexpectedly returns home to find Maria and the soldier naked together. During the ensuing scuffle, Maria hits the soldier over the head with a bottle and kills him.
Hermann takes the blame for the crime and is sentenced to prison. In the meantime Maria gives birth to Mr. Bill's stillborn baby; it's possible that a family friend, a doctor who has become addicted to morphine, helped to abort the baby. On the way home, she meets a French businessman named Karl Oswald, who fled Germany during the war but is now returning to rebuild his business in the shattered post-war economy. Through the good English that Maria "learned in Bed," she becomes Oswald’s assistant and lover, and a successful senior manager in his firm, becoming the self-confessed "Mata Hari of the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle)".
Although she surrounds herself with furs and buys her own home, she grows distant from her family, and threatens her secretary (played by Fassbinder's mother) and her clients for breach of contract. Oswald, who unknown to Maria has a terminal illness, secretly visits Hermann in prison and makes a deal: if, on his release, Hermann stays away from Maria until after Oswald's death, Oswald will leave him his company.
When Hermann is released from jail, he fulfils his promise to Oswald and goes to Canada, sending Maria a rose every week. He returns on Oswald's death, shortly before the executor arrives to read the will, and Maria discovers the two men in her life have struck a deal behind her back. The film's final sequence, which includes radio commentary on the 1954 World Cup soccer final, ends abruptly in a gas explosion that presumably kills the couple. The scene is ambiguous as it is unclear whether Maria deliberately leaves the gas stove running, leading to the explosion just as the sports announcer is celebrating West Germany's World Cup victory and shouting "Deutschland ist wieder was!" (Germany is something again). The film ends with a series of film negative portraits of West Germany’s post-war chancellors (excluding Willy Brandt).
[edit] Cast
- Hanna Schygulla – Maria Braun
- Klaus Löwitsch – Hermann Braun
- Ivan Desny – Karl Oswald
- Gisela Uhlen – Mother
- Elisabeth Trissenaar – Betti Klenze
- Gottfried John – Willi Klenze
- Hark Bohm – Senkenberg
