The Marriage Of Maria Braun 1978 DVD

The Marriage Of Maria Braun [1978] [DVD]

Price (New): £5.45
Price (Used): £4.49
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ASIN/ISBN: B000GRU8TK

Customer Review
If you are new to the Post-war world of Ggerman cinema this is probably the film to start with. It is beautifully shot and very interesting telling the story of life in Germany after the war from a woman's point of view. They are less weii known than Italian and French films of the same era but are fascinating and very worthwhile.
Customer Review
The idea that an individual's personal story can be a metaphor for the fate of their country is not a new one, and at least one other play/film has come from it (David Hare's equally pretentious Plenty). This is a well made film, with well-judged performances, but I can't help but feel that Fassbinder's central idea is a bit precious. And the ending of the film feels both contrived and overblown (pardon the unintentional pun).
Customer Review
I was so happy to find a dvd copy of this masterpiece and to watch it again, almost 28 years after I saw it first time.
Fassbinder makes of his heroine a real metaphor of post V day Germany.
I still remember the last episode, real masterpiece.
And Hanna Schygulla is unique !...
Customer Review
On learning of the death of her husband at the close of World War II, the young and brilliant Maria Braun pulls herself together and begins an upward climb in the economically-booming capitalist world of post-war Germany. Devastatingly sexy and formidably intelligent, she stops at nothing in her quests for power and wealth. Yet it always remains difficult for the audience to cast judgement on her: this is no crudely-drawn femme fatale caricature, but rather a superbly-acted and highly believable resourceful woman who has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

While the film is clearly a political allegory, it is by no means a simple condemnation of the builders of the new Germany. Fassbinder is much too subtle for that kind of didacticism. Although the shock ending of the film does offer a definite moral for the audience, the film offers a tentative but probing exploration of the post-war mentality. It is particularly evocative in its presentation of the gender roles that were developing at that time. All of this means that, as the credits scroll up, we are asked to re-examine our own society and indeed ourselves. One can imagine that this self-examination process would have been especially relevant to Fassbinder's contemporary audience, but even today and outside Germany, this well-crafted and moving film has much to offer.