The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

The Haifa Festival celebrates the 50^th anniversary of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, the 1972 masterpiece of New German Cinema icon Rainer Werner Fassbinder, with a screening of the classic film alongside a critically acclaimed remake by Francois Ozon.

Featuring an all-female cast, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant charts the emotional turmoil of Petra, an alcoholic, reclusive fashion designer who has fallen madly in love with a beautiful ingénue and has a disturbingly codependent relationship with her maid.

Fassbinder confines the hyper-stylized chamber piece to Petra's apartment, and the film swells to bursting within its claustrophobic confines, setting the stage for a study in romantic obsession that bears the influence of Douglas Sirk's Hollywood melodramas.

Filmography: Lola (1981), Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Effi Briest (1974), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974).

Screened as part of a double feature with the film Peter von Kant by François Ozon