THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN

THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN), 1978
German | HDD, Color, 120’ | German, English, French
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny

In Fassbinder’s first major international success, Mariaand Hermann Braun marry in the last days of World War II; they are able to spend half a day and night together, then he returns to the frontand goes missing. Alone, Maria puts to use her beauty and ambition to become a successful business woman and finds prosperity during Germany’s “economic miracle” of the 1950s. Fassbinder chronicles Adenauer's era, the period of reconstruction and the beginning of the economic miracle with contrast and irony. The film is a study of a woman picking herself up from the ruins of her own life, as well as a heartbreaking love story for a society determined to forget its past.