Mutter Kusters Fahrt Zum Himmel
Germany
, 105 min
Shown in 1976
CREDITS
- dir
-
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- scr
-
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- cast
-
Brigitte Mira, Margit Carstensen, Ingrid Caven, Karl-Heinz Bohm
- prod co
-
Tango Films
- source
-
New Yorker Films
OTHER
The prolific wunderkind of German cinema has made another compelling, provocative drama in the tradition of his earlier Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and Fox and His Friends. Rooted in a solid script and the leading actress’s performance (rivaling her triumph in Ali), this film finds its villains in yellow journalists and mindless leftists who ruin an innocent person’s life. Mother Kusters hears on the radio that a worker has shot a foreman and killed himself. That worker was her husband, and the press descend upon her mercilessly. Leftists then see her as an ideal tool for their exploitation, and she becomes embroiled in a world which she neither understands nor controls. This touching, fast-paced, hard-hitting film is, simply, superb.
FACTOID #7
Governor Pat Brown welcomed the crowd at Opening Night of the Festival October 30, 1963. Other attendees included George Peppard, Willie Mays and the governor’s wife Bernice; it also happened to be the couple’s 33rd wedding anniversary.
