From Behind the Closed Door: The Performance of Femininity by Petra von Kant
Abstract
Chludzińska analyses the film Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972), pointing out that usually one notes the fact when the director returns to the topics from previous productions that still torments him. Meanwhile - according to the author - Bitter Tears... is notable as an expressive essence of Fassbinder’s obsessions, as well as a subversive approach to the theatre in style of Bertolt Brecht. In the film, the director completely radicalized space, reducing it to a small room. By confining the protagonists to a very limited space, he enables the gradual thickening of the atmosphere and heightening of the tension. On the one hand, it intensifies the viewer’s attention, directing it even to the smallest details of the interior, but also to the dress and appearances of the characters, on the other hand, it moves the emphasis on to the dialogue. Limiting and closing up applies not only to space, but also to other aspects of the storyline. Equally, it addresses the issue of gender (being coerced into the correct enacting of the feminine), enters the realm of the disease (feeling of being weak and overpowered), or toxic and possessive love (relationship of subordination). All these levels (figures) of closing are all the more visible for the isolated space in which the action of the film takes place.
Keywords:
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Petra von Kant, gender, German cinemaReferences
Butler Judith, Akty performatywne a konstrukcja płci kulturowej. Szkic z zakresu fenomenologii i teorii feminizmu, tłum. M. Łata, w: Lektury inności. Antologia, red. M. Dąbrowski, Warszawa 2007, s. 25.
Google Scholar
Butler Judith, Gender is burning. Dylematy przywłaszczenia i subwersji, tłum. I. Kurz, „Panoptikum” 2004, nr 3, s. 147.
Google Scholar
Butler Judith, Zapisy na ciele, wywrotowe odgrywanie, tłum. K. Kłosińska, w: Antologia, red. A. Burzyńska, M.P. Markowski, s. 27.
Google Scholar
Fassbinder Rainer Werner, Wydobyć sens rzeczywistości: Odrzucam tautologię, rozm. J. Grant, tłum. H. Malarowska, „Film na Świecie” 1983 nr 1, s. 63
Google Scholar
Gwóźdź Andrzej, Kino "żałosnych ludzi". Pierwsze filmy Rainera Wernera Fassbindera, w: Filmorób, czyli kino nieustające Rainera Wernera Fassbindera, pod red. A. Gwoździa, Kraków 2005, s. 20-30.
Google Scholar
Mulvey Laura , Przyjemność wzrokowa a kino narracyjne, tłum.J. Mach, w: Panorama współczesnej myśli filmowej, red. A. Helman, Kraków 1992, s. 100.
Google Scholar
Pitrus Andrzej, Chińska ruletka: Antyprzestrzeń komunikacji, w: Filmorób, czyli kino nieustające Rainera Wernera Fassbindera, red. A. Gwóźdż, Kraków 2005, s.80.
Google Scholar
Schygulla Hanna, Jak się wszystko zaczęło, tłum. M. Behlert, w: Filmorób, czyli kino nieustające Rainera Wernera Fassbindera, pod red. A. Gwoździa, Kraków 2005, s. 13.
Google Scholar
Uszyński Jerzy, Fassbinder w okolicach Brechta, w: Filmorób, czyli kino nieustające Rainera Wernera Fassbindera, pod red. A. Gwoździa, Kraków 2005, s. 52-53.
Google Scholar
Woolf Virginia, O chorowaniu, tłum. M. Heydel, Wołowiec 2010, s. 28-29, 31.
Google Scholar
Authors
Joanna Chludzińskakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Doktorantka na Wydziale Zarządzania i Komunikacji Społecznej UJ, absolwentka krakowskiego filmoznawstwa i polonistyki; współzałożycielka i redaktorka studenckiego czasopisma o kinie „16mm”.
Statistics
Abstract views: 0PDF downloads: 0
License
Copyright (c) 2012 Joanna Chludzińska
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
