This film has become widely known in Germany and around the world. In Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s extensive film biography, she may not be the best. However, it is most indicative of him and essential in a certain sense. The drama “The Marriage of Maria Brown” can be interpreted from various historical, psychoanalytic, and philosophical positions, giving room for all kinds of associations. However, Fassbinder is uncomfortable with the years of anticipation of the gathering twilight and the twelve-year cycle of darkness that stretched over Germany. To a large extent, he is also sarcastic about the era of the so-called “economic miracle,” an obsessive race for prosperity. The policy of Erhard and Adenauer was aimed at the energetic withdrawal of the country from the post-war crisis; the desperate match of the German national football team, and the ridiculous death of Maria Braun, who tried to light a cigarette from a gas burner.
Maria is a bright symbol of changes in the history of Germany; she is the principal conductor of significant changes in domestic and foreign policy. The first such symbol is recognized when choosing between black and brown (Malte, 2018). Maria rejects the second color because it symbolizes Nazi brown shirts and reminds her of her last name, which is notorious. Rejection of anything that is somehow characteristic of the Nazi past. In the second part of the film, Maria finds a merchant lover and participates in economic processes as a businesswoman. It is noteworthy that she uses her knowledge of the English language, which symbolizes the connection of Germany with English-speaking countries (Great Britain and the USA). These details are the symbolic side of the success of modern Germany.
Reference
Malte, H. (2018). Migration and refugees in German cinema: Transnational entanglements. Studies in European Cinema, 15(2-3), 110-124.