The great German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder is both bold and clear in his analogy of continuity: not that much has changed.

| Jul 5, 2024

It’s a political, thoughtful, somewhat cold, though oddly affecting, look at contemporary Germany.

| Aug 19, 2022

With a low budget but artistic visions, Fassbinder's decidedly commercial entry into New German Cinema helped further his successes with foreign audiences.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 30, 2020

Fassbinder hasn't really caught on as a mainstream director with Americans yet -- this picture should change that.

| May 23, 2020

It's the film's feminist edge that remains powerful, and it's easy to see why it became Fassbinder's biggest box office success.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 22, 2019

Had Robert Altman not already employed the title 3 Women for his 1977 gem, that would have handily served as a header for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's acclaimed BRD Trilogy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 10, 2019

Bravura masterwork, tender and lovely, about destruction and loss... a melodrama every bit as good as anything Douglas Sirk ever committed to film, and watching it, the loss of Fassbinder is ever more painful to contemplate.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Jul 27, 2019

Schygulla gives a magnificent performance as a vulnerable young woman who becomes a self-confident, independent and competent survivor yet still comes to a bad end, largely because of the basic corruption of her world

| May 16, 2019

Fassbinder's talents for creating his own style of fully realized melodrama shines through here, but not as brightly as Schygulla.

| Aug 28, 2018

A feature of desire and futility, of resourcefulness and inevitability, and of honestly assessing a plethora of contradictions on a human and societal level.

| Jun 22, 2018

... a mirror of a country throughout a complex era. [Full review in Spanish]

| Feb 8, 2018

Shows no advance in Fassbinder's complacently vicious art.

| May 5, 2017

This movie -- emotionally absorbing, visually breathtaking and intellectually demanding -- is a masterpiece.

| Aug 3, 2015

The stark atmosphere, icy performances, and poignant revelations make it one of the most important films to emerge from Germany in the 1970s, and one of Fassbinder's best.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 18, 2006

The film's epic structure and period detail has always pleased critics, but Fassbinder avoids the usual trappings of the genre and manages a raw intimacy throughout.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 30, 2005

Fassbinder himself was cruel and distant to those around him, particularly those who loved him, and in Maria Braun, he created an indelible monster who is perversely fascinating.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2004

Enormous if sobering fun -- and one of the notable accomplishments of modern German cinema.

| Jul 5, 2004

This is what happens when theme is emphasized over story--a series of inorganic plot developments constructed to suit Fassbinder's indictment of postwar Germany.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Feb 17, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 8, 2004