markboulos

When I saw this at the National Film Theatre on the South Bank, I was a bit nervous, because I knew nothing of the film and had invited three friends (all of us filmmakers). Afterwards they all thanked me for bringing them--we had laughed through the entire movie, with the whole audience. The film is largely composed of seemingly unrelated comedy sketches. The comedy is very simple, often physical, sometimes surrealist. Every joke is funny. The film is a poignant comment on the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, but made before the New Intifada, so there is not the gravity of Suleiman's celebrated 'Divine Intervention.' Please see this film, it's absolutely wonderful.

This film is an elegantly constructed classical tragedy that explores the erotics of cruelty and the manipulation of sexual power. Deeply perverse, its portrayal of the complexity of sexual desire is an inversion of all Hollywood romantic tropes, which are thus exposed as comparatively frivolous and dishonest. It is a lesbian love story set in the fashion industry. Though some may find it slow paced, the rest of us will appreciate the meticulously choreography, the stunning cinematography, and the precision with which the actresses mimic the mimicking of womanhood.

While "The Bitter Tears" is heart-wrenching, devastating tragedy, a greater intellectual high is hard to find in movies or elsewhere. Among the very best films of Fassbinder's career, this movie demonstrates (yet again) that Fassbinder is one of the truly great artists of our time.