Fassbinder offers up an extremely bleak work here, even for him, but ultimately the film works mainly as the diatribe against marriage that it is.
Martha (1973)
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Reviews Counted:6
Fresh:5
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.7/10
Synopsis: Rainer Werner Fassbinder's MARTHA presents a case study in abuse, terror, and victimhood in the form of its main character, the aging spinster Martha (Margit Carstensen). Suffering a constant... Rainer Werner Fassbinder's MARTHA presents a case study in abuse, terror, and victimhood in the form of its main character, the aging spinster Martha (Margit Carstensen). Suffering a constant stream of verbal abuse and domination of her life by both by her father and mother, Martha feels little remorse when her father dies suddenly while on vacation in Rome. Upon her return home, Martha chooses to escape from her mother by marrying Helmuth (Karlheinz Bohm). She soon finds, however, that Helmuth provides not rescue, but a further descent into terror. [More]
Starring: Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Böhm, Barbara Valentin, Peter Chatel
Starring: Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Böhm, Barbara Valentin, Peter Chatel, Gisela Fackeldey, Adrian Hoven
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Story: Cornell Woolrich
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Reviews for Martha
Easily the most twisted film of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s career, Martha (a favorite of his frequent cinematographer Michael Ballhaus) catalogs the tyrannical hold a bourgeois husband has over his wife.
A horrific black comedy -- a devastating view of bourgeois marriage rendered in a delirious baroque style.
You don't have to agree with its premise -- that middle-class marriage equals sadomasochism -- to respond to the bravura comic glee with which the director lays it out.
The ornate sets and colorful camerawork only belie the disturbed nature of this truly sick film.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
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