Martha is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel

Martha (1974)116 minDrama, ThrillerRating 59/100

One of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s first forays into the classic melodrama style of his hero Douglas Sirk is a brilliantly perverse, operatically stylized portrait of a woman (Margit Carstensen) caught in a strange, sadomasochistic relationship with a monstrous husband (Karlheinz Böhm), whom she begins to suspect may be trying to murder her. Loosely based on a story by pulp-fiction master Cornell Woolrich, MARTHA finds Fassbinder tearing the institution of marriage to shreds with savage, subversive glee.

Cast: Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Böhm, Barbara Valentin, Peter Chatel, Gisela Fackeldey, Adrian Hoven, Ortrud Beginnen

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder