Review of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Seen in 2017.
35-year-old fashion designer falls for indifferent younger woman and reaches some insight into her own domineering manner.
The basic story, to the extent that it is superficially credible, is almost completely disinteresting. The thick layer of Brecht does nothing to help it, except that the very last shot is fun. It’s an abrupt feel-good remake of Persona (1966) where the silent fashion co-designer Marlene, who always wears the same black dress, suddenly packs a gun to go with the baby doll under her arm. An explosion of bullshit psychoanalytical symbols, worth a laugh and quite inapplicable to human experience.