Martha (1974 film)
Encyclopedia
Martha is a 1974 drama film made for German television which was directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
. It features Margit Carstensen
in the title role with Karlheinz Böhm
as her abusive husband. It is one of the earliest of Fassbinder's films to be influenced by the American work of Douglas Sirk
. The plot was loosely based on a short story ("For the Rest of Her Life") by Cornell Woolrich
.
Back in her hometown, Constance
, Martha is ill received by her mother who blames her for her father’s death. Martha’s mother, an alcoholic, takes openly to drinking, tranquilizers and drawing mustaches on old photographs of her deceased husband. Martha turns down an offer of marriage from her boss at the library, who immediately proposes to her colleague Ilse. During the wedding celebration, Martha is formally introduced to Helmut Salomon, a wealthy civil engineer, who was the man she crossed glances leaving the German embassy. On their first conversation Helmut insults her by detailing her physical failings, and Martha meekly accepts these and responds by kissing him.
Helmut takes her to an amusement park and insists that they take a ride together on the roller coaster, despite Martha being terrified of the idea. After the ride, she vomits and he proposes marriage. Martha, her face streaked with tears and vomit, thanks him and gleefully accepts. Martha's mother, in a hysterical reaction to the news that her daughter intends to marry, swallows an overdose of pills and collapses to the floor. Helmut takes the opportunity to have Martha’s mother institutionalized.
The couple goes on honeymoon to the Italian coast. Helmut in addition to starting to control Martha’s diet refuses to allow her to apply suntan oil, deliberately ensuing that she gets sunburned. Once they are in their hotel room he has sex with the painfully sunburned Martha who screams. On they return to Constance, Helmut proves to be both sadistic and domineering. His sadism takes the form of bites on her neck and shoulders and his becoming aroused whenever she is in emotional or physical pain. Martha reaches out tentatively for guidance from her friend Marianne, but is unable to explain Helmut’s behavior. Marianne in any case is not much of a help.
Helmut insists that they move out of Martha’s childhood home so that they can start anew. Without consulting her, he arranges for her to leave her job; he works at changing her musical tastes; he insists on her reading and memorizing an engineering text related to his work; he tries controlling her contact with the outside world; finally he has the telephone disconnected and does not allow her to leave the house anymore. Martha submits to her husband will with increasing reluctance. His violent sexuality is not stopped by her hysterical acts of resistance. When she tries to please him with some spontaneous gesture of giving, such as his favorite dinner or a new hairdo, she is ridiculed for her foolishness. Helmut frustrates Martha’s hopes at every turn. She wishes to start a family but her husband refuses to have children that can be deranged like Martha’s mother. After much begging Helmut allows her to have a pet cat, but shortly afterwards she finds the cat dead.
One day, Martha finds Helmut waiting at home for her and he announces that he has a present for her in the bedroom. She interprets this as his intending to kill her. She races out and runs away, ultimately ending up looking for help with Mr. Kaiser a friend and colleague who she had trained at the library. He agrees to take her for a ride. She has become so paranoid, now, that she imagines that the car behind them is Helmut in pursuit. She grabs the wheel of the vehicle that she and Kaiser are in, causing the car to crash. Martha wakes up in the hospital and soon learns that Kaiser died in the accident and that she herself will be paralyzed for life in her lower body. She is told not to worry, however. Helmut is not the kind of man to abandon her in need. Helmut takes Martha out the hospital in her wheel chair.
. It was produced by WDR at a cost of approximately 500.000 DM. Fassbinder had more than his usual budget for the making of Martha and this allowed him to film the Italian scenes and to incorporate an elaborate camera style with some creative visual effects like the circular pan, when Martha and Helmut first cross paths in Rome
. Originally made for German television Martha was shot in 16 mm and broadcast on ARD television on May 28 1974. The film was restored and has its theatrical premiere in 35 mm at the Venice Film Festival
in September 1994 and was released in Germany on 18 November 1994.
in the U.S.A. on 13 April 2004 in German
with English
subtitles. The extras include the documentary Fassbinder in Hollywood. A Region 2 release followed in 2007 as part of a boxset.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
. It features Margit Carstensen
Margit Carstensen
Margit Carstensen is a German theatre and film actress, best known outside Germany for roles in the works of film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.-Theater career:...
in the title role with Karlheinz Böhm
Karlheinz Böhm
Karlheinz Böhm is an Austrian actor. The son of conductor Karl Böhm, he is best known internationally for his role as Mark, the psychopathic protagonist of Peeping Tom, directed by Michael Powell...
as her abusive husband. It is one of the earliest of Fassbinder's films to be influenced by the American work of Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.-Life and work:...
. The plot was loosely based on a short story ("For the Rest of Her Life") by Cornell Woolrich
Cornell Woolrich
Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley....
.
Plot
Martha Heyer, a virginal 31 years old librarian, is on vacation in Rome with her domineering unloving father. He is a fastidious man who refuses to be touched. At their first stop while touring the city, the Spanish Steps, the father suffers a heart attack dying in Martha’s arms. Martha soon discovers that her purse, containing all of her money, has been stolen in the confusion. She reaches for help at the German embassy and phones her mother giving her the bad news. Leaving the embassy, Martha crosses the path of a gentleman, who catches her eye – and she his. They are mutually mesmerized but keep going their own ways.Back in her hometown, Constance
Constance
Constance is a female given name that derives from Latin and means "constant." Variations of the name include Connie, Constancia, Constanze, Constanza, Stanzy, and Konstanze.Constance may refer to:-People:*Constance Bennett , American actress...
, Martha is ill received by her mother who blames her for her father’s death. Martha’s mother, an alcoholic, takes openly to drinking, tranquilizers and drawing mustaches on old photographs of her deceased husband. Martha turns down an offer of marriage from her boss at the library, who immediately proposes to her colleague Ilse. During the wedding celebration, Martha is formally introduced to Helmut Salomon, a wealthy civil engineer, who was the man she crossed glances leaving the German embassy. On their first conversation Helmut insults her by detailing her physical failings, and Martha meekly accepts these and responds by kissing him.
Helmut takes her to an amusement park and insists that they take a ride together on the roller coaster, despite Martha being terrified of the idea. After the ride, she vomits and he proposes marriage. Martha, her face streaked with tears and vomit, thanks him and gleefully accepts. Martha's mother, in a hysterical reaction to the news that her daughter intends to marry, swallows an overdose of pills and collapses to the floor. Helmut takes the opportunity to have Martha’s mother institutionalized.
The couple goes on honeymoon to the Italian coast. Helmut in addition to starting to control Martha’s diet refuses to allow her to apply suntan oil, deliberately ensuing that she gets sunburned. Once they are in their hotel room he has sex with the painfully sunburned Martha who screams. On they return to Constance, Helmut proves to be both sadistic and domineering. His sadism takes the form of bites on her neck and shoulders and his becoming aroused whenever she is in emotional or physical pain. Martha reaches out tentatively for guidance from her friend Marianne, but is unable to explain Helmut’s behavior. Marianne in any case is not much of a help.
Helmut insists that they move out of Martha’s childhood home so that they can start anew. Without consulting her, he arranges for her to leave her job; he works at changing her musical tastes; he insists on her reading and memorizing an engineering text related to his work; he tries controlling her contact with the outside world; finally he has the telephone disconnected and does not allow her to leave the house anymore. Martha submits to her husband will with increasing reluctance. His violent sexuality is not stopped by her hysterical acts of resistance. When she tries to please him with some spontaneous gesture of giving, such as his favorite dinner or a new hairdo, she is ridiculed for her foolishness. Helmut frustrates Martha’s hopes at every turn. She wishes to start a family but her husband refuses to have children that can be deranged like Martha’s mother. After much begging Helmut allows her to have a pet cat, but shortly afterwards she finds the cat dead.
One day, Martha finds Helmut waiting at home for her and he announces that he has a present for her in the bedroom. She interprets this as his intending to kill her. She races out and runs away, ultimately ending up looking for help with Mr. Kaiser a friend and colleague who she had trained at the library. He agrees to take her for a ride. She has become so paranoid, now, that she imagines that the car behind them is Helmut in pursuit. She grabs the wheel of the vehicle that she and Kaiser are in, causing the car to crash. Martha wakes up in the hospital and soon learns that Kaiser died in the accident and that she herself will be paralyzed for life in her lower body. She is told not to worry, however. Helmut is not the kind of man to abandon her in need. Helmut takes Martha out the hospital in her wheel chair.
Cast
- Margit CarstensenMargit CarstensenMargit Carstensen is a German theatre and film actress, best known outside Germany for roles in the works of film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.-Theater career:...
- Martha - Karlheinz BöhmKarlheinz BöhmKarlheinz Böhm is an Austrian actor. The son of conductor Karl Böhm, he is best known internationally for his role as Mark, the psychopathic protagonist of Peeping Tom, directed by Michael Powell...
- Helmut Salomon - Gisela Fackelde – Martha’s mother
- Peter Chatel – Mr. Kaiser
- Adrian HovenAdrian HovenAdrian Hoven was an Austrian actor, producer and film director. He appeared in 100 films between 1947 and 1981.He was born in Wöllersdorf, Austria as Wilhelm Arpad Hofkirchner and died in Tegernsee, Germany....
- Martha’s father - Barbara ValentinBarbara ValentinBarbara Valentin was an Austrian actress. She worked in film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder.-Biography:...
- Marianne - Ingrid CavenIngrid CavenIngrid Caven is a German film actress and singer. Her younger sister Trudeliese Schmidt was an opera singer and also an actress.Caven has appeared in over 50 films since her film debut in 1969 in the short film...
- Ilse
Production
Martha was filmed in 1973 immediately prior to the shooting of Fear Eats the Soul but broadcast after the latter's theatrical release. It was shot in the summer of 1973, during the last three months of a year long break while filming Effi BriestEffi Briest (1974 film)
Effi Briest is a 1974 film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, adapted from German author Theodor Fontane's 1894 novel of the same name. The film won the 1974 Interfilm Award at the 24th Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Bear...
. It was produced by WDR at a cost of approximately 500.000 DM. Fassbinder had more than his usual budget for the making of Martha and this allowed him to film the Italian scenes and to incorporate an elaborate camera style with some creative visual effects like the circular pan, when Martha and Helmut first cross paths in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Originally made for German television Martha was shot in 16 mm and broadcast on ARD television on May 28 1974. The film was restored and has its theatrical premiere in 35 mm at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
in September 1994 and was released in Germany on 18 November 1994.
DVD release
The film was released on Region 1 DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in the U.S.A. on 13 April 2004 in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
subtitles. The extras include the documentary Fassbinder in Hollywood. A Region 2 release followed in 2007 as part of a boxset.