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 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 them to determine who will get the upper hand over the other. Martha holds her own in this genuinely sado-masochistic relationship, until a tragic accident paralyzes her. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: 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.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
The ornate sets and colorful camerawork only belie the disturbed nature of this truly sick film.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Easily the most twisted film of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's career, Martha (a favorite of his frequent cinematographer Michael Ballhaus) catalogs the tyrannical hold a bourgeois husband has over his wife.

Read all 7 critic reviews

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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.