The Marriage of Maria Braun

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's account of postwar Germany through one woman's life. Maria marries in the last days of the war; her husband Hermann leaves for the front two days later. The war ends, he does not return and is presumed dead. Maria has to survive: she works on the black market, finds a job in a bar frequented by American soldiers and begins a relationship there with Bill. Then Hermann comes back. The rest of the film is Maria's rise. She enters business, moves quickly, makes money, and does it entirely on her own account. But the whole ascent rests on a waiting, and while building her own life she disregards the thing that actually holds it together. Fassbinder's idea is plain: Maria's story is the postwar German economic ascent itself. The country did the same; it grew rich fast and did not talk about its past. Hanna Schygulla plays Maria, and the part became the work she is known for. The film is the first part of Fassbinder's Germany trilogy and his first large production to draw international attention. One of the foundational works for anyone who likes German cinema and political allegory. For a viewer looking for a warm narrative, the film is cold and distant, and the ending is deliberately left open to argument.