Lola" (1981) Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film adaptation of Theodor Fontane's 1894 novel.
Effi Briest (Hanna Schygulla) is a young woman who marries a middle-aged man (Wolfgang Schenck) hoping to make his way in politics. She is somewhat flighty and nervous, whilst he simply tells her not to be. She then has an affair, and the events play themselves out.
Fassbinder, as per usual, has created a masterful film that it is almost impossible to fault. The bold black and white cinematography looks stunning and enhances the mood of the film. The direction is clever and intriguing without ever being showy or distracting. The acting performances from first to last are perfect, with the silences and telling looks revealing as much of the characters as their words do. If you want to see how films could and should be made, look no further.

The film starts in the last days of World War II, during the rushed marriage ceremony of Maria Braun, after which her husband is sent to battle the advancing Allies. After Maria later hears that he has been killed, she becomes the mistress of an African-American soldier. When Maria’s husband unexpectedly returns alive, she kills the soldier in a scuffle, but her husband takes the blame. Maria becomes the self-centered assistant and lover of a wealthy industrialist and a model of post-war recovery.

Maria y Hermann Braun se casan mientras caen bombas poco antes de que este sea enviado al frente ruso. Al final de la guerra le declaran desaparecido, posiblemente muerto. Un mundo se derrumba. Alemania está viviendo su año cero. Entre las ruinas, donde reina el trueque y la prostitución, Maria se hace amante de un soldado negro americano, Bill, del que queda embarazada y, en contra de toda lógica, sigue esperando el regreso de su marido…

Whity is about an illegitimate mulatto son of a rich white man who acts as butler to his father's dysfunctional family in the American southwest. As time passes he becomes more than just a simple servant, but a confidant subjected to the family's perverse fantasies. The situation soon becomes unbearable and murder seems the only possible escape. The first collaboration between Fassbinder and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus.

Fassbinder's second feature film, Katzelmacher (1969) is a tour de force of stark visual beauty and ambiguous but riveting characters. Fassbinder adapted his own original play, of the same title, which he had also starred in on stage.

In The Niklashausen Journey, Fassbinder co-writes and co-directs with Michael Fengler an avant-garde – and stridently anachronistic – film about Hans Boehm, an historical shepherd who in 1476 claimed that the Virgin Mary called him to foment a holy war against the "decadent" church and upper classes. Despite a temporary success, his followers were eventually massacred and he was burned at the stake.

The lackluster and plodding Bolweiser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town's siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when she beds nearly every available guy.

Martha features a brilliantly stylized performance from star Margit Carstensen and the virtuosic camerawork of Fassbinder's frequent collaborator, Michael Ballhaus. This riveting tale of a sado-masochistic marriage is astonishing in its balance of psychological horror and pitch-black comedy. The questions it asks about its deliriously complex characters prove as fascinating as the ones it ultimately compels us to ask about ourselves.

Margot, who lives in a comfortable middle class apartment, fears that she is losing her mind after having had her second child. Her husband Kurt, who is busy studying for an exam, does not understand her situation. Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law Lore are openly hostile to her. She resorts to valium and drink, and looks for sympathy, but to no avail …..