THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN) Guest Artistic Director

For the shrewd Maria Braun, whose soldier-husband is feared dead and then – very much alive – is sent to prison for a murder he didn’t commit, learning the ruthless ins and outs of business is her means of survival. – Beth Hanna

Hannah Schygulla offers an extraordinary performance. She is wounded, strong, smart, fragile, beautiful. Fassbinder makes us follow her sinuous path. We cannot judge. We are caught in the stream of her destiny. Some scenes in the film are printed in my memory: Maria is half-lost among a crowd at a train station, asking about Herman Braun, in case somebody has seen him at war. We know that they were married for only a day-and-a-half. Maria is in love with an American, a big, black, strong, beautiful man. He is naked in the room when Herman – whom everybody thought was dead – returns. A unique version of ‘the returning soldier’ story, gone wrong! Later, Maria becomes the mistress of a rich industrialist, and we feel the way she rebuilds herself from the ruins of the war to a comfortable situation is an allegory of post-war Germany. – Agnès Vard