During one scene a perpetual calendar is visible. It's a 26^th.

– Why do they call you The Gorilla? – Because I'm big and strong… and everyone has to have a name.

Someone complains about costs or prices*

– We'll go to an island and live from fishing and hunting. And the sun will shine and it will never rain. And we'll eat lobster and drink wine. – … – Why not? – Because it's too expensive. – Why too expensive? – It's just too expensive.

 

* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.

A freebie for someone's birthday, with bonus points for high fashion. Petra von Kant is a fashion designer who, during a particularly icy birthday party, tells the world that her new lover is a woman. Then, one day, said lover returns home to her husband.

– You have a good figure. You could use it to your advantage. Get in touch with me some time. – I'd love to.

With its exuberant costumes and set design, a Greek chorus of mannequins, and Sirk-ish larger- than-life melodrama, Fassbinder's Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant delves deep into the absurdities of love and fancy.

November 3 redux

“I'm calm. I'm completely calm. You can leave me alone now”

– Margot

Veronika Voss, once one of Ufa's greats and rumoured lover of Goebbels, has a chance meeting with #sports journalist Robert Krohn. Despite not recognising her at first glance, the faded star and her world turn out to be irresistible to him.

“What do you want from Voss? She's no good at soccer.”

– Grete

Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss [litt. The yearning of Veronika Voss] is #Fassbinder's tribute to both Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. (1950) and real-world actress Sybille Schmitz whose career, like Voss', suffered greatly due to her #morphine dependence after the Entnazifizierung.