Marriage of Maria Braun

"The Marriage of Maria Braun" is the fourth volume in the Rutgers Films in Print Series and the most contemporary of those to appear in it thus far. Because of the enormous influence of New German Cinema and the importance of Fassbinder himself, the film is already considered a classic. "Maria Braun" is its director's attempt to recount and assess postwar German history through the personal example of his main character, played brilliantly by Hanna Schygulla. It is also a tribute to the Hollywood directors of the women's movies of the thirties and forties. Maria, and in the loose allegory Fassbinder has constructed, Germany itself, in their cold acquisitiveness and materialism, melodramatically rise from the ashes of World War II only to veer toward an inevitable doom that takes the film full circle, recalling the film's opening shots of a city reduced to rubble.Fassbinder, Rainer Werner is the author of 'Marriage of Maria Braun' with ISBN 9780813511290 and ISBN 0813511291.