Nominees: Alien, Stalker, Ek Din Pratidin, The Barrier, Orchestral Rehearsal, My Brilliant Career, All That Jazz
Oscars pick: Kramer vs. Kramer
Nominees: All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now, Breaking Away, Norma Rae
I had a love/dislike thing going on with a lot of films in 1979. Manhattan, Woody Allen's love letter to his city annoys in spots, almost as much as it delights. Coppola's Apocalypse Now ebbs and flows, there are some amazing scenes but it also rambles, especially in the wispy final reel (and Brando's best work was seen in the documentary Hearts of Darkness). Oscar-winner Kramer vs. Kramer was overall just okay. I guess I wasn't as moved by it as I was supposed to be.
Knowing I wouldn't be going the same route as other writers or critics or Oscar, I searched alternate paths. And found several treasures: Tarkovsky's Stalker, Mrinal Sen's Ek Din Pratidin, and my winner, Ranier Werner Fassbinder's Marriage of Maria Braun.
Thematically, Braun is an economics study of postwar Germany and tells of a woman’s climb from rags to riches. “The Mata Hari of the Economic Miracle.” is how Maria describes herself at one point. And she is indeed sensual; a free-spirited, free thinker who’ll use men in order to get to the point in her life where she and her husband can have the life they (she?) wants.
A nuanced virtuoso performance from Hanna Schygulla helps to make The Marriage of Maria Braun a compelling human drama. It also helps that the script is sharp as a tack. While it was Märthesheimer and Fröhlich's first screenplay, they pen some lines of dialog that are among the best I’ve heard this side of Wilder, Allen or Towne.
Braun marks the final collaboration between Fassbinder and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, and they go out on a high – Impressing, not only with the flashier moments but in those smaller and retrained - like when Maria learns, rather bluntly, that her husband has been killed. Instead of zeroing in on her face, the camera slowly settles on a close up of her hand, dripping with water.
And there’s the audacious ending (sparking much debate), which leads to the sound of a sports announcer proclaiming Germany’s supremacy, while the photo-negative faces of Chancellors (they of the empty promises) flash across the screen… save for Willy Brandt (the only one Fassbinder thought was worth a damn).
For me, it’s quintessential Fassbinder, in its ideas and presentation, in its complexities and irony, and in its portrayal of power - the nature of it, the struggle for it, and the inevitable loss of it.
Honorable Mentions:
Klaus Kinski, Nosferatu the Vampyre * George C. Scott, Hardcore * Peter Sellers, Being There * Robert Duvall, The Great Santini * Jerzy Stuhr, Camera Buff * James Woods, The Onion Field * Roy Scheider, All that Jazz
Supporting Actor: Ian Holm, Alien
Best Actress: Hanna Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun (pictured top)Honorable Mentions:
Judy Davis, My Brilliant Career * Nastassja Kinski, Tess * Sigourney Weaver, Alien * Sreela Majumdar, Parashuram (The Man with the Axe) * Vania Tzvetkova, The Barrier * Sally Field, Norma Rae
Supporting Actress: Eva Mattes, Woyzeck (pictured left)
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