The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, one of Fassbinder's best movies (though I haven't seen all of them) is stuffed with odd moments and bleak dialogue. A designer, Petra, lives in an apartment with her slave-like servant Marlene. Marlene, to whom the film is dedicated, hovers over the film with her silent presence. We see her tending to Petra's every need, we hear her typewriter. At crucial moments, Marlene's statue-like gaze is a necessary contrast to the animated behavior of the other characters.
The film's characterization of human relations is, to say the least, bleak. At first, Petra is the one patronizing others. Then she meets beautiful Karin, with whom she has a relationship of dependency and self-depreciation and -glorification. Karin, on the other hand, is dependent on Petra's business reputation. The story is beseal by the insight that a turning away from the strict rules of dependency will have drastic consequences.
Everything in The bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is stylized, from Petra's apartment to the outrageous clothes all characters are dressed in to the mask-like facial expressions. Some have criticized the film for being to melodramatic. But within this formalized setting, the melodrama becomes something else altogether, less a psychological prop than an attempt - I suppose - to turn away from a certain grasp of what psychological realism is supposed to look like. "Psychological realism" might contain some not-so innocent presuppositions about how human life is to be depicted. Fassbinder's films, by turning to the intentionally overblown or formalistic or stylized, resist the temptation of false naturalization.
But I don't know. This is how I understand Fassbinder and this is also the reason why I appreciate his work.
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