Starring: Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla, Irm Hermann, Eva Mattes, Gisela Fackeldey, Katrin Schaake

The 1970s began with what may be the most intoxicatingly stylized love story of the decade—if love, in this case, means obsession, control, and couture. Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a fever dream of desire, built on the sharp lines of emotional cruelty and the lush textures of a single, decadent room.

A successful fashion designer, Petra (Margit Carstensen), spirals into heartache when she falls hard for the enigmatic Karin (Hanna Schygulla), a young aspiring model. Their entanglement unfolds like a warped runway show—full of longing, power plays, and razor-sharp dialogue. A queer cinema classic draped in fur, chiffon, and despair, Petra von Kant remains a devastating portrait of love as performance. Let’s be clear—no one suffers in style quite like Petra.