Marriage Of Maria Braun

Year: 1979

Grade: B-

Country: Germany

Director: Fassbinder

Review

acclaimed as fassbinder’s best film, but i preferred “ali: fear eats the soul.” maria braun is a more well-made film…it does a lot of the same things within the frame and with the camera that ali does, but is more refined. it also is a more intricate story that is ripe with discussion material. that said, it’s just not as captivating a film. it’s two hour runtime felt more like three hours and that can be construed as tight filmmaking – getting a lot into a small space – or as filmmaking that doesn’t entertain. i thought it was more of the latter, though there certainly is a lot of ground covered in the film. maria braun was likable to a certain extent, but the woman in ali had my sympathy even more. by the end of the film i wasn’t sure how i was supposed to feel about the whole thing. i felt bad to a certain extent, but i was never really sold on the “i’m doing this all for us” thing. i was more touched by the husband’s side of the story. i can certainly respect this film, but i can’t say that i enjoyed it all that much.