The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (German: Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant) is a 1972 West German psychological romantic drama film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, based on his play of the same name. Featuring an all-female cast, the film takes place entirely in the home of fashion designer Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen), following the changing dynamics in her relationships with other women. The film was entered into the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival. It is regarded by many as Fassbinder’s magnum opus and a classic of New German Cinema.

Plot

Petra von Kant is a prominent fashion designer based in Bremen. The film is almost totally restricted to her apartment’s bedroom, decorated by a huge reproduction of Nicolas Poussin’s Midas and Bacchus.

Petra’s marriages have ended in death or divorce. Her first husband, Pierre, her great love, died in a car accident while she was pregnant; her second marriage ended in disgust. Petra lives with Marlene, another designer, whom she treats as a slave.

First act

Marlene wakes Petra. She begins her day and gets dressed while Marlene attends to her. Petra makes a phone call to her mother, makes demands of Marlene (including slow-dancing), and dons a brown wig just before her cousin Sidonie visits.

Petra talks to Sidonie about their marriages while Marlene works and acts as hostess. Sidonie’s friend Karin Thimm joins them. Newly returned to Germany after residing in Sydney for five years, Karin is an attractive but shallow 23-year-old woman. Immediately attracted to Karin, Petra suggests she become a model. Karin agrees to return the following day.

Second act

The next day, with Marlene showing signs of frustration, Petra, wearing a larger, dark wig, offers to support Karin while she trains to be a model. Petra learns that Karin is married (her husband has remained in Sydney) but is only momentarily put off by this revelation. The women discuss their differences. Petra had a happy childhood and came from a home where the good things in life were always stressed, while Karin’s father was a toolmaker and she always felt neglected by her parents. Petra loved mathematics at school, but Karin could never understand algebra. Petra has a daughter she rarely sees, but she reassures herself that her daughter is at the best possible boarding school.

Karin’s parents are dead. She says people reject her when they learn her history, but Petra says that her affection for Karin is even stronger after learning about her past. Petra orders Marlene to get a bottle of Sekt. Karin reveals how her parents died: her father was laid off because of his age, killed his wife, and then hanged himself in a drunken stupor. Karin feels she has drifted in life; her husband treated her like a slave and offered no reprieve from her past. Petra says this is about to change. Marlene returns with the bottle of Sekt and silently returns to her typing as Petra and Karin toast. Petra promises to make Karin a great model; Marlene stops typing and glares at Petra. Petra says that life is predestined, people are brutal and hard, and everyone is replaceable. Discovering that Karin is staying at a hotel, she suggests she move in with her. Petra admits to being in love with Karin, but Karin can only say she likes Petra.

Third act

About six months later, Petra, in a red wig, is getting dressed, while Karin is in bed reading a magazine. Petra cancels a flight reservation to Madrid for the two of them over the telephone. Karin says Marlene is strange, but Petra says Marlene loves her. Upon Petra’s insistent questioning, Karin says that she slept with an African-American soldier the previous night. Freddy, Karin’s husband, telephones from Zurich; it emerges that they have been in contact by letter, and that Karin is rejoining him. Petra calls her a “rotten little whore”, and Karin responds that being with her is less strenuous than working the streets. She asks Petra to book a flight to Frankfurt, where she is to meet her husband, and asks for 500 marks; Petra gives her 1,000. A drunken Petra has Marlene drive Karin to the airport.

Fourth act

On Petra’s birthday, the bedroom is almost empty. Lying on the floor and wearing a blond wig, Petra drinks heavily and waits for Karin to call. Her daughter, Gaby, arrives. Petra tells her little; Gaby says she has fallen in love with a young man, but that it is unrequited. Sidonie appears with a birthday present: a doll with blond hair like Karin’s. She mentions that Karin is in Bremen. Petra’s mother, Valerie, arrives. Petra accuses her of being a whore who never worked, living off first her husband and then Petra. Petra tramples on a china tea service and smashes glasses against the wall. Previously unaware of Karin, Valerie is shocked that Petra is in love with a woman. Petra says she hates Gaby and never wants to see Sidonie again, but Gaby stays.

Final act

Later that night, Petra lies in bed without a wig. Valerie tells her that Gaby cried herself to sleep. Petra apologizes to her mother, and says she did not love Karin but merely wanted to possess her. Karin calls, and Petra amicably declines to see her before she leaves for Paris, suggesting that perhaps they will meet again sometime. Petra turns to Marlene after her mother has left and apologizes for treating her badly. She promises that all will be different between them and that she will share her life with her. Marlene, who has satisfied her masochistic desire in submitting to Petra, packs her belongings, including a pistol, in a small suitcase and leaves, taking the doll as she walks away.

Cast

Margit Carstensen as Petra von Kant

Irm Hermann as Marlene

Hanna Schygulla as Karin Thimm

Gisela Fackeldey as Valerie von Kant

Eva Mattes as Gabriele (Gaby) von Kant

Katrin Schaake as Sidonie von Grasenabb

Themes

Solitude, love, and codependency are key themes explored in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. The solitary setting of Petra’s bedroom maximizes the dramatic tension while mirroring her entrapment. The items in Petra’s room and the positioning of the camera relative to the reproduction of Midas and Bacchus are manipulated to reflect and comment on the action.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 84% approval rating from 31 reviews. The site’s consensus reads: “A thoughtful drama that grows even more powerful in retrospect, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant sensitively depicts a woman’s tortured search for connection.”

Operatic adaptation

The text of the play, in its English translation by Denis Calandra, was employed by Gerald Barry as the libretto for his five-act opera, commissioned by RTÉ and English National Opera and premiered in Dublin and London in 2005. The opera is also available on CD featuring the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.

Legacy

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is considered a landmark of European cinema that secured Fassbinder’s status as a respected auteur.

The 2014 film Clouds of Sils Maria revolves around a remount of a fictional play, Maloja Snake, about an intergenerational lesbian relationship. The film’s director, Olivier Assayas, acknowledged a link between The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and Maloja Snake.

Peter Strickland has cited The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant as a major influence on his 2015 film The Duke of Burgundy.

In 2022, director François Ozon released Peter von Kant, a reinterpretation of the film centred on a male director.

See also

Sadism and masochism in fiction

References

External links

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant at IMDb

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant at Rotten Tomatoes

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant: The Great Pretender an essay by Peter Matthews at the Criterion Collection