The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Fassbinder's visual and verbal extravaganza about a successful but lonely fashion designer who falls in love with a beautiful younger woman.

Despite its brilliant all-female cast, this is an intensely autobiographical film in which Fassbinder portrays himself through Petra (Carstensen), a successful but lonely fashion designer who falls in love with a beautiful younger woman (Schygulla) very different from herself.

A visual and verbal extravaganza and a profound disquisition on loneliness, love, the compulsion to work, and the impossibility of truly honest relationships.