Effi Briest – 1974
aka Fontane – Effi Briest
Director
Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writers
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Theodor Fontane – novel

Cast
Hanna Schygulla
Wolfgang Schenck
Ulli Lomme

Review by Zetes

Brash and exciting,

I did not find Fassbinder’s filmmaking static and boring. I found it brash and exciting. His style is superb. HOWEVER, I have to say that I found the story, with which I am unfamiliar, incredibly bland.

How many 19th and early 20th Century novels have this exact same plot? It’s the simplistic “fallen wife” scenario without a spark of invention, it seems to me. In that way, I could not stand this film and was trying hard not to pass out.

However, Fassbinder’s miraculous filmmaking, cinematography, mise-en-scene, direction, music, even the acting, kept me at least interested. I give it a 6/10.