Richard Chatten Some of Fassbinder's best work (notably 'Ich will doch nur, daß ihr mich liebt', 1976) was made for TV, of which 'Martha' is a prime example. It was unfortunate that the credits came at the end, as it would have been useful to have known at the start that 'Martha' was drawn from a story by Cornell Woolrich, since I would have been paying more attention, and better prepared for what develops.'Martha' is nearly two hours long and takes an inordinately long time to get going. (The presence in the opening scenes of El Hedi ben Salem from 'Fear Eats the Soul', for example, proves a red herring.) The lack of a music score also contributes to making the early scenes feel creakingly tinny & pedestrian. But when Carstensen finally returns with Böhm from their honeymoon (which includes one of the most comical and excruciating - but sexy! - nude scenes ever filmed) the film undergoes a dramatic transformation as Michael Ballhaus's camera moves in closer and closer and the colours get brighter and brighter to observe her increasing subjugation to his whims. At first I was wondering if he was simply gaslighting her; later, when he criticises her taste in music and puts his own choice on the record player, 'Bluebeard's Castle' would have been appropriate. As the film progresses it also recalls the Buñuel of 'El' and - at its conclusion - of 'Belle de Jour'.

hasosch "Martha" is part of a series of movies by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in which he treated different kinds of decrease of mind. In "Merchant of the four seasons" (1972), Fassbinder portrayed the former police officer Hans Epp whose carrier is ruined by a prostitute, whose girl-friend is unreachable for him and whose wife shows no affection to him. After a long time in depression, interrupted by alcohol, he decides to kill himself. In "Martha" (1975), a young woman, hardly released out of the hands of her passed away father, marries a brutal and psychopathic engineer who isolates her from her family, forces her to quit her job, imprisons her in their apartment, cuts down the telephone connection and controls her money. He seems to have reached his goal when Martha, after trying to escape with one of her coworkers, has an accident that paralyzes her, letting her in a wheelchair. In "Fear of Fear" (1975), housewife Margot, pregnant with her second child, starts to suffer from hallucinations while neither her husband nor her mother- and sister-in-law are willing to listen to her. After a physician prescribes her Valium, she increases the dose. When she cannot get enough anymore, she helps herself with alcohol. After having been "healed" in a psychiatric clinic, from which she is released under the promise to take regularly her medication, she is typing addresses on envelopes, pretending to be happy.All of these movies by Fassbinder to which also belong, for instance, "Why does Herr R. run amok" (1970), "In a year with 13 moons" (1978), "Despair" (1978), "Veronika Voss" (1982) and certain episodes of "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980), have in common that what turns a human insane is, according to Fassbinder, basically the society in which he or she lives. Neither Hans Epp, nor Martha nor Margot have an emotional support from their family. Let alone by their closest relatives, these individuals are inclined to make false decisions, that lead to decrease of mind and often to suicide. Although Fassbinder repeatedly pretended not to be an intellectual, it is important to point out that we know from the several interviews he gave as well as from his theoretic studies that he was well familiar with the works of the Frankfurt School around Adorno, Horkheimer and Habermas as well as with the psychiatry of Lacan. Therefore, I ask everybody who watches "Martha" to have a close look at the book she is reading in the scene where she sits on the balcony of the hotel in which she stays during her honeymoon. The title of this book is "Das enteignete Bewusstsein", written by Hans Kilian, a sociologists from the Frankfurt School, and appeared in 1971. It turns out that the "expropriated consciousness" – a process committed in society - is the real reason that is responsible for the decline of Hans Epp, Martha, Margot, Peter, Herr R., Erwin/Elvira, Hermann Hermann, Veronika Voss, Hans Biberkopf and many others whose fate has not been subject of any film.

jimi99 Yes, hysterical as in exaggerated comedy, and hysterical as in the title character freaking out over her bizarre, ever-degenerating marriage. This is great Fassbinder film-making--the performances, cinematography, and dialogue are brilliant. As in many of his films, Fassbinder takes a perverse joy in keeping the audience balanced between comedy and melodrama, the laughs always tinged with apprehension. The colors are dominated by lurid reds. The arc of the story keeps one queasy as to how horrible the outcome might be.The famous Sirk influence is very obvious in this as in many of RF's early 70's films, but what struck me is the equally obvious influence of Bunuel on Fassbinder's movies. "Martha" owes a great deal to "Belle du Jour" and "Tristana" among many other of the Spanish master's films about the natural perversity of male-female relationships.

Yasmine I was so amazed by this genius, the way that Fassbinder holds his camera as if it was his own child. I've rarely seen somebody mastering the art of camera as much as Fassbinder does. He's all over it, he sees beyond the human eye. The shot where Martha meets Helmuth for the first time in Roma is amazing... my heart stopped for about 3 seconds... I couldn't believe what I just saw...I saw this shot many times but I was afraid that I might loose interest in it if I kept playing it again and again. But I didn't. As for the story, it is very beautiful indeed, strange and disturbing. It's one of the best filmed movie ever done in my opinion. Don't miss it.