Oddly enough, after watching The Marriage of Maria Braun(1979), my roommate rents The Merchant of Four Seasons(1972). I noticed similar actors immediately and the same German minimalist qualities. Low and behold, Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed both films.

As I've only watched a few German films and Specifically West German, I found these films to run off Fassbinder's vigorous camera movements. The jerky movements keep the audience captivated and led to believe there is more intensity to each scene. Fassbinder’s films were very similar and the use of women was interesting. It was relevant in The Merchant of Four Seasons had a distasting approach towards women and typical overly worked drunken male lead. The characters fight then love, and fight again. It was an interesting movie to watch at most and had some comical aspects that a late generation might only find funny in the film.

As for The Marriage of Maria Braun, this film kept its edgy sexual fundamentals of a lead female character (Hanna Schygulla) who also stars in The Merchant of Four Seasons. However, as thrilling as Schygulla’s character can be, the film moves slow, and I mean slow. There’s appropriate time and place for moving the story and Fassbinder’s slow minimal storyline nearly kills. His fast zooming shots are the only speed in his film and since they are used so much, it seems like parody of what he’s trying to explain. It often made everyone being zoomed in on look far too intrigued by the situation. If you can find me a better Fassbinder film, let me know. I had a tough time with these two, and could only dedicate myself to one more film by him.

The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971)
D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
S: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
* 1/2 Stars

The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
S: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
* 1/2 Stars