The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant <Br>The Merchant of Four Seasons

"By consensus, Fassbinder's masterpiece"—J. Hoberman,
The Merchant of Four Seasons

These early melodramas rank among the director's best, pushing the envelope of the genre in terms of style, subject matter, and substance. Hanna Schygulla and Margit Carstensen star in The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant as a young model and older fashion designer battling each other for power and each other's affection. The combat unfolds in front of manniquins, fashion props, and frescos, prompting Feminist critic Molly Haskell to describe the movie as "a tragic-comic love story disguised as a lesbian slumber party in high-camp drag." Critic David Thomson writes that it "still has no equal in its simultaneous delight in 'style' while pouring acid over the image." (1972; 124 mins.)

In the touching, slice-of-life melodrama The Merchant of Four Seasons, a working-class peddler watches his life disintegrate into drinking, violence, and despair. As film critic Andrew Sarris wrote in the Villiage Voice, it "may be the most exquisite achievement in cinema to reach these shores from Germany since the Golden Age of Murnau, Lang, Pabst, et al...The Merchant of Four Seasons manages to break the heart without betraying the mind." (1972; 89 mins.)