Lead actress Hannah Schygulla creates nothing less than a masterpiece in her performance of Maria Braun, a self-made woman who builds a new life out of the rubble of World War II, riding the wave of Germany’s post-war economic growth. Fassbinder was driven to make seen what others refused to look at, and his country’s soul in the post-war period was ripe for the picking. The eager forgetfulness of the immediate past sets the stage for the MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (1978), which was followed in Fassbinder’s post-war “BRD Trilogy” by the films LOLA and VERONIKA VOSS, which also featured female heroines.

This series celebrates the prolific master of New German Cinema and his razor-sharp gaze at culture and society across genre and style. Presented in conjunction with the restoration of his series of TV films, EIGHT HOURS DON’T MAKE A DAY.