Film Screening: Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Martha"

Speakers): Andr茅 Fischer
Loosely based on Cornell Woolrich鈥檚 novel 鈥淔or the rest of her life鈥 and produced for German television Fassbinder鈥檚 film tells the story of the middle-aged librarian Martha (Margit Carstensen) who, after the death of her dominating father, marries the engineer Helmut (Karlheinz B枚hm). Her new husband turns out to be a sadist who torments the na茂ve Martha and isolates her from the rest of the world. The film impresses with a rich and beautiful cinematography by Michael Ballhaus, whose use of space reflects Martha鈥檚 and Helmut鈥檚 tense psychological relation, and features a legendary 360-degree tracking shot. Shifting between horror and satire Fassbinder pushes his sadomasochistic vision of marriage to the limit in this generally underrated gem.