The Marriage of Maria Braun: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Director / Edition 1

by Joyce Rheuban

Overview

The Marriage of Maria Braun is the fourth volume in the Rutgers Films in Print Series and the most contemporary of those to appear in it thus far. Because of the enormous influence of New German Cinema and the importance of Fassbinder himself, the film is already considered a classic. "Maria Braun" is its director's attempt to recount and assess postwar German history through the personal example of his main character, played brilliantly by Hanna Schygulla. It is also a tribute to the Hollywood directors of the women's movies of the thirties and forties. Maria, and in the loose allegory Fassbinder has constructed, Germany itself, in their cold acquisitiveness and materialism, melodramatically rise from the ashes of World War II only to veer toward an inevitable doom that takes the film full circle, recalling the film's opening shots of a city reduced to rubble.

This volume contains the editor's introduction, a chronology of the the years 1943-1954, a biographical sketch of Fassbinder, the full transcript of the film as released, notes on the shooting script, interviews with the scriptwriter and director, commentary on Douglas Sirk by Fassbinder, reviews, commentaries by Thomas Elsaesser and Sheila Johnston, a filmography, and a bibliography. —This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813511306
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1986
Series:	Rutgers Films in Print series , #4
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

JOYCE RHEUBAN is the author of Harry Langdon: The Comedian as Metteur en Scene and translator of Fassbinder's screenplay for In a Year of Thirteen Moons. 

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Contexts
Reviews and Commentaries
Filmography and Bibliography