The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant  

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The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (German: Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant) is a 1972 German film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, based on his own play. This film has an all female cast and is primarily set in a wardrobe at the home of the protagonist, Petra von Kant.

Featuring an all-female cast, the plot takes place entirely in the home of narcissistic protagonist Petra von Kant, her silent personal assistant, and follows the changing power dynamics in her relationships with other women.

It is a witty tragedy of lovesickness and one of Fassbinder’s most powerful plays and films.

French film director François Ozon reinterpreted the film as Peter von Kant (2022), centered on a male film director rather than a female fashion designer.

Plot

Overview

Petra von Kant is a famous fashion designer whose marriages have ended in death and divorce. The first was a great love, the second began as that and ended in disgust. Petra lives with her assistant and reveals her sadistic side to her, making a some kind of codependent relationships. Now, through a friend, Petra meets Karin, a desirable, ruthless 23-year-old recently separated from her husband. Petra persuades Karin to become a model and very quickly falls madly in love. But Petra's obsessive love gets eventually rejected. Karin leaves Petra. Petra eats her own heart out. Turning over a new leaf, she talks to her assistant in the tender accents of love. But the assistant, who has satisfied her personal masochistic desire by submitting to Petra, leaves her, too. Petra is left alone to give way to tears and despair.

First act

Petra is shown being awoken by Marlene. She begins her day and gets dressed while her assistant 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 she receives a visitor.

Petra talks to Sidonie (Schaake), her cousin, about her male relationships. Meanwhile, Marlene does the work and acts as hostess. Karin Thimm (Schygulla), Sidonie's friend, joins the women. Karin, newly returned to Germany after residing in Sydney for five years, is a desirable but shallow 23-year-old woman. Petra, immediately attracted to Karin at this first meeting, suggests Karin become a model. Karin agrees to return the following day.

Second act

Petra quickly falls madly in love with Karin. The next day, with Marlene showing clearer signs of frustration, but still typing, Petra, now wearing a larger and dark wig, offers to support Karin while she trains to be a model. Karin's husband has remained in Sydney, though Petra is only momentarily put off by this revelation. The women soon show their incompatibility. Petra had a happy childhood and came from a home where the good things in life were always stressed. Karin's father was a toolmaker, and she always felt neglected by her parents. Petra loved mathematics and algebra at school, but Karin could never understand algebra and the point of substituting letters for numbers. Petra has a daughter, whom she rarely sees, but reassures herself that her daughter is at the best possible boarding school.

Karin's parents are now both dead. She says people reject her when they find out about her history, but Petra now admits to a great affection for her, even stronger after having heard her family history. Petra orders Marlene to get a bottle of Sekt. Karin goes into more detail about her parents' death. Her father was laid off because of his age. In a drunken stupor, he killed Karin's mother and then hanged himself. Karin feels she has drifted in her life; her husband in Sydney treated her as a slave and offered no reprieve from her past, but Petra insists this is about to change. Marlene returns with the bottle of Sekt in a cooler, silently returns to her typing, and the other two women toast each other. Petra promises to make Karin a great model. Marlene, previously hidden by a curtain, stops typing and glares at Petra. While listening to a record, Petra says life is predestined, people are brutal and hard, and everyone is replaceable. Petra, discovering the expense of Karin's hotel, suggests she move in with her. Marlene resumes her typing, but after Karin agrees to move in with Petra, she is ordered to bring more Sekt. While Petra admits to being in love with Karin, Karin herself can only say she likes Petra. Six months or so pass.

Third act

Petra, resplendent in a red wig, is getting dressed, while Karin is in bed reading a colour magazine. Petra cancels a flight to Madrid over the telephone, a habit which Karin thinks is pointless, and Petra orders Marlene to find her shoes. Karin thinks Marlene is strange, but Petra reassures her that Marlene loves her. Karin still cannot say she loves Petra. Karin's own capacity for cruelty emerges while the two drink gin and tonic together. The previous night, Karin had been out until 6am, and admits to having slept with a man, though she keeps changing her precise story. Petra is jealous and shouts at Marlene. Freddy, Karin's husband, telephones from Zurich. It emerges they have been in contact by letter, and Karin is no longer planning on getting a divorce, and she is rejoining her husband. Petra calls her a "rotten little whore", and Karin responds that being with Petra 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 500DM from Petra, though Petra freely gives her twice that. Marlene drives Karin to the airport; Petra is now too drunk to drive.

Fourth act

On Petra's birthday, the bedroom is almost empty. Petra, lying on the floor and now wearing a blond wig, is drinking heavily while assuming that Karin, her object of love and hate, will phone. Her daughter Gaby (Eva Mattes) arrives. Petra tells her little; Gaby admits to being in love with a young man, though so far it is unrequited. Sidonie appears with a birthday present: a doll with blond hair like Karin's. She admits to knowing Karin is in Bremen that day. Petra's mother Valerie (Gisela Fackeldey) is subjected to abuse in her turn. Petra accuses her of being a whore who never worked and lived off her husband. Petra tramples on the china tea service Marlene had brought in; she insists on smashing anything she has bought. She insists she is not crazy about Karin, but loved her. She claims Karin's little finger is worth all of them put together. Her mother, previously unaware of Karin, is shocked at the thought of her daughter being in love with another woman. Petra rejects Sidonie and hopes not to see her again, but Sidonie stays.

Final act

Later that same night, Petra lies in bed without a wig, her natural auburn hair on display. She is apologetic to her mother, and realizes she wanted to possess Karin rather than love her. Karin rings and Petra amicably declines seeing her before she leaves for Paris. Petra instead offers the chance that they will meet again in the future. Petra turns to Marlene after her mother has left, and admits she has to apologize to her for many things. It will be different from now on, Petra promises, adding that she will share her life with Marlene. But Marlene, who has satisfied her personal masochistic desire in submitting to Petra, packs her meager belongings (including, notably, a pistol) in her small suitcase, and leaves, taking the doll with her.

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 von Kant
• Katrin Schaake as Sidonie von Grasenabb

See also

• Sadism and masochism in fiction
• Midas devant Bacchus (appelé aussi parfois Midas et Bacchus) est un tableau du peintre français Nicolas Poussin. Peinture à l'huile sur toile réalisée entre 1624 et 1630, elle mesure 98 × 153 cm, et est conservée à l'Alte Pinakothek de Munich.