Filme von Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Martha

Martha (Margit Carstensen) is in her early thirties, single and quite attractive. She spends her vacation with her father (Adrian Hoven) in Rome. While they stroll through the city, her father suffers a heart attack and dies. Outside the German embassy in Rome, Martha meets a stranger in his mid-forties. Both are fascinated by the encounter. Back in Germany, she sees the stranger from Rome again at a wedding. His name is Helmut Salomon (Karlheinz Böhm). Martha soon falls for his charisma and his dominant personality. The two get married. On the honeymoon, Helmut begins with his tender but unforgiving “education” measures towards Martha. After their return he rents a fabulous mansion for the two of them and thereby initiates Martha’s isolation. After only a few days, he gets rid of the telephone and resigns from her the job in the library for her. Martha is supposed to give up all outside contacts in order to be there exclusively for him. His tenderness – in fact not free from Sadism – is more like rape. When Helmut is traveling on business, Martha secretly meets Herr Kaiser (Peter Chatel), a young colleague from the library, so she has at least one person to talk to. Helmut gets suspicious. Martha feels threatened and fears that Helmut wants to kill her. During a car ride with Kaiser she suddenly suspects that her husband is following them. In total hysteria she urges Kaiser to go faster. The car skids and dashes downhill. Kaiser is dead. Martha survives the accident but is paralyzed. Helmut collects her from the hospital in a wheelchair. Now he has her all to himself and she him.

Weltvertrieb
Kinowelt

Verleih (D)
Kinowelt

Produktionsjahr
1973/74
Regie
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Buch
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, after the short story For the Rest of Her Life by Cornell Woolrich
Kamera
Michael Ballhaus
Musik
Bruch, Donizetti, Orlando Di Lasso
Schnitt
Liesgret Schmitt-Klink
Ausstattung
Kurt Raab
Besetzung
Margit Carstensen (Martha Heyer, later: Martha Salomon) Karlheinz Böhm (Helmut Salomon) Gisela Fackeldey (mother) Adrian Hoven (father) Barbara Valentin (Marianne) Ingrid Caven (Ilse) Ortrud Beginnen (Erna) Wolfgang Schenck (boss) Günter Lamprecht (Dr. Salomon) Peter Chatel (Kaiser) El Hedi Ben Salem (hotel guest) Kurt Raab (secretary at the embassy) Rudolf Lenz (head porter) Rudolf Waldemar Brem (telephone technician) Elma Karlowa (cleaning woman) Herbert Steinmetz (Dr. Hauff) Liselotte Eder (woman at the wedding ceremony) Karl Scheydt (man at the wedding ceremony) Michael Ballhaus (obtrusive guy)
Produktion
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Format
35mm (filmed in 16mm), Color, 116 min.