The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant centres on a successful fashion designer who lives with Marlene, her secretary and assistant, whom she treats with casual cruelty. When a friend introduces her to Karin Thimm, a much younger woman from a modest background who hopes to become a model, Petra falls in love and moves her into the household. What Petra wants is possession; what Karin wants is a way into the fashion world. Karin's husband, returning from abroad, gives her a reason to leave, and Petra is left to confront the difference between loving someone and holding on to her.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed and wrote the film, which was released in 1972 and is the third of the ten features listed for him, arriving between Katzelmacher and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. He also produced it with Michael Fengler. Margit Carstensen plays Petra, Hanna Schygulla plays Karin, and Irm Hermann plays the largely silent Marlene, with Katrin Schaake, Eva Mattes and Gisela Fackeldey in supporting roles.

The film is rated 7.5 on IMDb from over twelve thousand votes and 7.4 on TMDB, and it holds a critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from 34 reviews, so critics rate it slightly above the general audience on IMDb. Set largely in a single apartment and built around long, stylised confrontations, it remains one of the director's best-known works from the early 1970s.