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Rating: Fassbinder's most successful film remains perhaps his most famous and important work, and is undoubtedly among the masterpieces of the new German cinema. The movement that brought German cinema back to international prominence thanks to great (and very different from each other) directors, born between the last years of the war and the catastrophic end of the conflict, such as Herzog, Wenders, Reitz, and, of course, Fassbinder himself.
Originally, it was supposed to be a large choral project, made by multiple directors, but Fassbinder eventually made it a film of his own and extremely personal. The protagonist's character, in fact, is inspired by the figure of the director's own mother (who also appears in a small role in the film), and her journey through post-war Germany.
It is worth remembering that Fassbinder was born on May 31, 1945, just eight days before the final surrender and the end of the most tragic era of the 20th century.
The Marriage of Maria Braun, the first film of a trilogy (the so-called BRD Trilogy, the trilogy of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland), which also includes Veronika Voss and Lola, is, above all else, an essay on Germany's recovery and reconstruction. The era which, in just a few years, brought an incinerated, defeated, and humiliated nation to the rebirth of the economic miracle. A miracle that, in fact, never really stopped.
It's a film about the German soul and capitalism, in a Germany where "it's not a good time for feelings" (if it ever was), and it focuses on a female character portrayed and characterized exceptionally, thanks also to the talent and screen-piercing beauty of Hanna Schygulla, Fassbinder's muse. Even though the role was originally meant for Romy Schneider.
The beginning of the film is already a masterpiece of direction and a declaration of intent, showing the civil marriage of the two spouses in the midst of a bombardment (one wonders if Zemeckis also thought of this opening for the memorable childbirth scene in Allied), and the signing of the contract among the ruins. The beginning and end are ideally connected, in moments of incendiary cinema and incredible power. In the middle, the personal and collective journey of social ascent and removal from the consciousness of the horrors perpetrated by a people. Horrors that, not coincidentally, no character in the film ever mentions. The corpse was still too warm, and there was a nation to rebuild and personal goals to achieve.
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