Martha

Martha (1973)

  • 86% of critics liked it
    (7 reviews)

  • 83% of users liked it
    (428 ratings)

Martha is a wealthy and totally self-involved woman -- so much so that on a trip during which her father dies, she does indeed cry, but only because she lost her purse. She marries a stranger who claims not to be at all attracted to her, and their wedding is only the beginning of a battle between… More

Unrated, 1 hr. 35 min.
Directed By
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Written By
Cornell Woolrich
Genres
Drama, Television, Art House & International, Mystery & Suspense
In Theaters
May 28, 1974 Wide
On DVD
Mar 30, 2004

Critic Reviews

  • Stephen Holden, New York Times

    You don't have to agree with its premise -- that middle-class marriage equals sadomasochism -- to respond to the bravura comic glee with which the director lays it out.

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    A horrific black comedy -- a devastating view of bourgeois marriage rendered in a delirious baroque style.

  • Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

    An array of domestic terrors

  • Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

    Acerbic black satire of a bourgeois marriage.

  • Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

    Fassbinder offers up an extremely bleak work here, even for him, but ultimately the film works mainly as the diatribe against marriage that it is.

Read all 7 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Stefanie C


    Wicked! Fassbinder is one of the few directors that can create high comedy instead of melodrama out of a borgeois, sado-masochistic relationship.

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