The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant showcases an intellectual sensation where sexuality blossoms to propel Werner Fassbinder work. The stylish cinematographic narration offers the film a sense of illustrious activity based on creativity. Probably, Fassbinder’s filmmaking explores the very foundation for which style makes cinematography exceptional. The film is rich in romantic quality; it explores typical love that makes life worth living. In the film, we meet the intrinsic deeply basest romance (Palmer par. 2).
It gives an aura of confession to the attraction of affection of modernity. In these scales, Fassbinder explores human affection and attraction to the new world. The new world order drives everyone nearer, and Petra von Kant is no exemption. In these machinations, she has been offering a startling charm of modesty.
Modernity moves the world, and everyone is drifting towards the new light. Markedly, the adventure of the new feeling is not easy to evade. Fassbinder summons his skills in filmmaking to crown his work with aesthetic value by using his characters reservedly to offer the viewers with the contemporary thinking trends that capture the life of the moment.
Several cinematic techniques in the film, according to Palmer (par. 3), help in underlining the plot of the film. Therefore, the use of costume, as well as the choice of weather, makes “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” an impressive account to watch. Virtually, the gradual change that takes place in Petra, as she progressively becomes an acquaintance of modernity is mirrored in her costumes and the type of quittances.
First, she starts as a renowned fashion designer with an unwavering business. A feminine dominated cinema, the tribulations in this film almost occur exclusively in Petra’s bedroom, an apartment with a heavy decoration that gives it the necessary importance. Petra’s room is also bedecked with various admirals such as mannequins from her very work. Petra has had a rich history of trivial marriages that have ended in either death or divorce. Petra seems unfortunate in marriage life having lost her first husband in a tragic road accident.
It is even sad that this premature death took place as Petra was nursing her first pregnancy. Petra’s second marriage begun soon afterward in an affectionate note but ended almost prematurely. Petra has been in other unsuccessful relationships that have ended up breaking her heart as they begin cordially, progress magnificently, but end in bleak bereft. Due to the nature of the suffering that has clouded her love life, Petra has made a sworn resolution to keep to her heart (Palmer par 3).
She decides to live a life of her own to attend to her business affairs. In her apartment, she lives with another woman – Marlene – whom she treats badly. Marlene revenges her mistreatment in Petra’s hands by revealing her immoral lifestyle. This does not reflect well in Petra and does not make her any better. She decides to destroy her love life. The change in Petra’s lifestyle, dressing, and imaging explore the effective use of cinematographic techniques in this film.
How a culture of the time affected the film
Virtually, “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” embodies the dynamics of the dominant German culture that is usually hard to ignore. Marriage is one of the fundamental privileges of any society in which the film seeks to project and explore. Marriage is such a laudable gift. Whenever marriage happens, it rightly receives the basic credit for the establishment of the family institution, which in essence is the foundation stone for a society.
Petra is a prominent fashion designer who prefers her business to take place in the bedroom apartment. Here, we meet different partially dressed and nude men. However, this is against society’s preserves. Therefore, she holds marital privileges with a lot of esteem such that whenever there are incidences of infringement to this highly cherished ideal, it raises a great alarm not only to the family unit but also to the wider society.
In this film, Fassbinder volunteers an insightful and extensive excursion of a culture of marriage and divorce that is predominantly characteristic of the twentieth century. Basing his premise on the idea of marriage as “work,” the playwright explores the interaction between marriage and divorce succinctly and divulges on how the concept of marriage requires a lot of work to cushion. It is the duty of the larger society’s collective consciousness to ensure sanctity in marriage (Palmer par.12).
Marriage, as the playwright notes, should not be the duty of a family alone, but it should be the preserve of the greater wider society. Moreover, Paul (69) opines that the supremacy of the marriage institution in our societies has evolved over time, and the clear indication of the collapse of this institution in this century seems to portend a worrying trend.
Given the benefits attributed to the family unit, it could be difficult to imagine how an individual could resist the beauty that marriage brings forth. Basing her opinion on interviews with newly married couples and extensive research on marriage in general, Pamela Paul, in her book “Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony,” explores why young couples keep on walking out of marriages, and what lessons are available out of their failures.
The author further suggests different ways of avoiding such starter marriages, and how to guarantee lifelong marriages for the current generation to live in stronger and promising families (Paul 74). This film focuses on the freedoms and limits of marriage to the role individuals should play in determining whether limitations should operate to curtail individual freedoms in a marriage union. The idea of “going Western” by Petra tells a lot about how hard it could be for Germans to let things go out of their ways.
The process of white dominion, self-discovery, and the renaming, as well as the adoption of individuals into the tribal German society, means a lot to the Germans just as it is perceived elsewhere. The Westerners can try to beat this notion anyway, but probably they may always find it hard beating the Germans at their game. Notably, the German society has perfected the art of proclaiming greatness, and this is usually under stern challenge based on sheer determination including superiority might and even propaganda.
As one watches the film, the screenplay tends to yield a unique perspective on German society and culture. However, at the center, its dramatic version is the physique of a disillusioned white man who is no doubt lost and is trying so hard to find himself. Regarding the underlying theme of the film, Petra may only accomplish her liberation by choosing absorption into the mainstream of the Native German society’s culture.
How the film influenced contemporary filmmaking
Arguably, to iron the magic of the film with a sense of cinematographic air, the producer ensured that Fassbinder’s literary flair permeated the movie. From this dimension, it is evident that the producer was mindful of all that the characters were to say in a different location with the kind of language and definite dramatic rules that keep the film alive throughout its duration.
There are certain repeated visual themes, expressing the fact that all happenings are originating from a single imagination of some sort. The same chromatic designs reflect the work of a well-intentioned costume designer whose designs are vital in enhancing the film’s chromatic overlay. Moreover, the producer understands the characters and uses this to their advantage to help them give even the best presentations given the visual backing.
As a mark of cinematic style in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, repetition has played an impeccable role in its success. As a technique, it helps to lengthen and follow a character’s voyage as the film progresses into the future. This stylistic device in cinematography gives the viewer an enhanced geographical orientation of the promise and the despair that characterize the struggle towards their betterment.
Whenever characters in the film are talking about their experiences, they kept on repeating their words to bring their point home, thus giving the film projections a musical lustier. The purposeful use of still cameras, natural lights, as well as the deft, are great enablement to the orchestration of a serene color pallet that grounds the texture to a harmonious gleam.
The rural topography, the transient of the city view, and the costumes of the yesteryear German orientation supplement the films as well as the soulful songs and dances that are archetypical of the animated crescendo (Palmer par. 7). All these cinematographic orientations are a show that the producers and their teams chose to deploy the classical elements of German aesthetic merit, and doing so, they managed to fill the bill for cinematic modernism that continues to transform the film industry.
These rare product qualities make “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” stand out even in the midst of modern-type films whose productions are well supplied by digital enablement. In retrospect, the “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” heralds a new period of Fifth Generation and a new trend in contemporary German performing art industry.
The film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, nonetheless, remains a great feature in the transformation of contemporary filmmaking. Many futurists contend that Fassbinder work offers a robust element of reference in modern-day cinematographic pedagogy, especially considering its plot, artistic cinematic style, as well as character building and development.
Conclusion
Evidently, what Fassbinder achieves in this film projects cinematography in the depths of futuristic filmmaking worldview. Within this film, tragedy and comedy are both present, and their symbiosis herein offers one of the most profoundly overwhelming achievements in film making history.
The playwright’s preoccupation with pre-democratic behavioral in the modern day society makes the film both insidious and seductive. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” is probably enriched with aesthetic sensitivity that makes it hard to ignore. Fassbinder work is about the intellectual power of humanity enriched with cinematic visuals detailed on the film’s aesthetic merit.
Work Cited
Palmer, Landon. Film Making Tips from Rainer Werner Fassbinder. 2015. Web.
Paul, Pamela. The starter marriage and the future of matrimony. New York: Villard Books, 2002. Print.