Martha

One of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's best films. It's something of a dark comedy wrapped in the guise of a socio-political melodrama. This was the era in which Fassbinder's admiration for the social melodrama's of Douglas Sirk was most pronounced. It is about bourgeouis, marital opression. Martha, a young librarian, marries soon after the death of her father. The man she marries insists that she need not work if his income will sustain them. He is the kind of man who won't allow her to wear sunscreen, and after she become embarrassingly sunburned, gets turned on and begins to make violent love to her. He is the kind of man who, when he leaves for a few days on business, prefers she not leave the house, and instead leaves with her a book on civil engineering for her to read so that they can talk about his job. He is the kind of man who gets angry her musical preferences or when she makes a meal he doesn't like, though later patronizingly appologizes by pointing out that she "means well". His abuse is never overt, but clear. He is a sadist and she is a masochist. His abuse of her is as funny as it is psychologically hurtful, and Fassbinder balances his social commentary and his filmmaking gusto with assurance.