After the death of her abusive father, lonely librarian Martha finds herself caught up in a strange, sadomasochistic relationship with a monstrous husband whom she begins to suspect may be trying to murder her.
Direction
Fassbinder's framing turns every room into a prison.
Acting
Carstensen's dissolution is genuinely hard to watch—in the best way.
Cinematography
Michael Ballhaus makes sunlight feel malignant.
Director
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Margit Carstensen
Martha
Karlheinz Böhm
Helmut
Barbara Valentin
Marianne
Peter Chatel
Kaiser
Gisela Fackeldey
Mother Heyer
Adrian Hoven
Father Heyer
Ortrud Beginnen
Erna
Wolfgang Schenck
Meister
Günter Lamprecht
Dr. Salomon
El Hedi ben Salem
Hotel Guest
Rudolf Lenz
Porter
Kurt Raab
Secretary
Elma Karlowa
Waitress
Heide Simon
Nurse
Lilo Pempeit
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Fassbinder shot this in 24 days for West German television, which somehow makes its formal precision even more deranged.
Karlheinz Böhm's casting as Helmut carries extra weight—he'd just played the sympathetic protagonist in Peeping Tom, making his pivot to predator deeply disorienting for 1974 audiences.
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