Zza zamkniętych drzwi. Spektakl kobiecości Petry von Kant

Chludzińska analyses the film Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972), pointing out that usually one notes the fact when the director returns to the topics from previous productions that still torments him. Meanwhile – according to the author – Bitter Tears... is notable as an expressive essence of Fassbinder’s obsessions, as well as a subversive approach to the theatre in style of Bertolt Brecht. In the film, the director completely radicalized space, reducing it to a small room. By confining the protagonists to a very limited space, he enables the gradual thickening of the atmosphere and heightening of the tension. On the one hand, it intensifies the viewer’s attention, directing it even to the smallest details of the interior, but also to the dress and appearances of the characters, on the other hand, it moves the emphasis on to the dialogue. Limiting and closing up applies not only to space, but also to other aspects of the storyline. Equally, it addresses the issue of gender (being coerced into the correct enacting of the feminine), enters the realm of the disease (feeling of being weak and overpowered), or toxic and possessive love (relationship of subordination). All these levels (figures) of closing are all the more visible for the isolated space in which the action of the film takes place.