Beauty vs Beast: Fashion, Disasters
Monday, August 13, 2018 at 1:00PM Jason from MNPP here with another edition of "Beauty vs Beast" -- the year 1972 is the "Year of the Month" at TFE for August and coincidentally I'd just listed my favorite films of 1972 over on my own site recently. There I chose five fave films but it's not hard for me to narrow it down further and choose my absolute favorite from that bunch - Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant is my favorite Fassbinder (which is saying quite a bit given my love for Fassbinder) and it stars my favorite Fassbinder actress (I'm Team Margit from way back) in a lesbian bed death match with Everybody Else's Favorite Fassbinder Actress (Hanna Schygulla as the beautiful user Karin)... which makes it perfect for one of these polls!
PREVIOUSLY We wish The Fugitive a happy 25 last week and y'all tossed your lot in with the man accused, unlike the Oscars, giving Harrison Ford's Dr. Kimble a 63 to 37 percent edge over Tommy Lee Jones and his Oscar statue. Said Suzanne:
"Only one of these men has Ralph Fiennes's Oscar for Schindler's List, and it isn't Harrison Ford!"
Reader Comments (4)
I'm Team Margit too.
Team Petra/Margit ALL THE WAY! Karin is a vampire, feeding and sucking on the life force of whoever she's with until she's full, and then starts looking elsewhere. Petra is kind of awful in her way too, but she doesn't quite deserve how terrible Karin is to her. And Margit Carstensen's performance is one of the greatest ever given.
Team Petra as well. This was the first film of Fassbinder that I saw and it left an impression on me for years as every time I hear the Platters' "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". I think of that film.
Just caught this film for the first time recently thanks to a mention about it on this site and had one of those WHERE HAS THIS MOVIE BEEN ALL MY LIFE??!! moments. Stunning across the board. What Fassbinder, Ballhaus, and these women accomplished in a single room is really movie magic.