Derek Winnert

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This article was written on 03 Nov 2017, and is filled under Reviews.

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The Marriage of Maria Braun [Die Ehe der Maria Braun] ***** (1979, Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny) – Classic Movie Review 6184

Co-writer/ producer/ director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s polished 1979 German gem The Marriage of Maria Braun won Hanna Schygulla the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1979 for her startling, eye-opening performance as Maria Braun, a poor young German woman who founds a huge business conglomerate corporation in postwar Germany.

One of the pinnacles of the Seventies New German Cinema, it is one of the wayward, maverick director Fassbinder’s best films and arguably shows off Schygulla’s greatest performance.

Fassbinder boldly tackles the issues of postwar Germany, and directs this remarkable, triumphant movie in his most commanding style, while Michael Ballhaus’s stylish colour cinematography is superlative.

The film also won the Silver Berlin Bear for Outstanding Single Achievement, presented to the whole team, no doubt as a consolation prize for not winning the Golden Berlin Bear. The London Critics Circle Film Awards 1981 voted it Foreign Language Film of the Year, though tied with Angi Vera (1979).

Also in the cast are Ivan Desny, Gottfried John, Klaus Lowitsch, Gisela Uhlen, Günter Lamprecht, Hark Bohm, George Byrd [George Eagles], Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Isolde Barth, Peter Berling, Volker Spengler, Lilo Pempeit, Claus Holm, Anton Schiersner and Michael Ballhaus.

The Marriage of Maria Braun is written by Peter Martesheimer, Pia Frohlich and Fassbinder, and scored by Peer Raben.

It is the first in a trilogy from Fassbinder, preceding Lola and Veronika Voss.

The 1975 film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (also with Schygulla) and The Marriage of Maria Braun are landmarks of European cinema, giving Fassbinder an undisputed place as film artist.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6184

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

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