Losing one’s mind at work and beating a one-percenter to death amidst rumors of impending layoffs is pretty grim even for Fassbinder. Although it fits in nicely with his disillusionment trajectory. And it does get right to the heart of the people and how they’re treated. What they’re capable of. In Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) it serves as the inciting incident in this tradwife domestic melodrama that’s eventually overshadowed by its media-political ultimately anarchist satire. Overall the film’s got its share of problems and never quite seems to work because its ideas get in the way of its emotion or accessible meaning. In other words it’s a mess.
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven violates a cardinal rule of screenwriting, which is in order to have an audience care or invest in a protagonist, said protagonist must actively pursue a goal or overcome an obstacle-conflict. Not that there’s such a thing as rules. But clearly in this case this is possibly an example of why the work suffers. FRAU KÜSTERS (Brigitte Mira) getting exploited by the media then German Communist Party then anarchist group after her husband’s murder-suicide at his work are what drive the plot and all indicative of her not taking action but the action happening to her. And what’s the point of it all? In other words it’s a mess.
Okay there is the ways this aftermath affects her kids that’s pretty good. For one just because anytime Fassbinder has a middle-aged or older parent with adult kids they’re always pieces of shit and that in itself is always funny the way he does it. So after Hermann Küsters’ death HELENE (Irm Hermann slay) has her whiny whipped husband (Frau Küsters’ son) move out because as Helene says, she's disgraced because the paper printed her picture in conjunction with her factory murderer late father in law.
But the real treat is the same inciting incident that causes one child to leave brings one back into Frau Küsters’ home. CORINNA COREN (Ingrid Caven) is really the only thing this movie’s got going for it if you ask me. As soon as Corinna hears of this scandalous incident and arrives, the journalist who’s made his way into Frau Küsters home to get the scoop all to himself (Gottfried John) points his camera at Corinna and she’s instantly this thirsty wanton slut opportunist who shamelessly exploits this window to advance her career for everything it’s worth. Why do I love this kind of soulless bloodsucker in Fassbinder?
Corinna is presciently timelessly then and now relevant as a depiction of a one-track mind narcissistic ambitious talentless sociopath desperate for the limelight. Is it too harsh to call her a slut? Well if the way her tit is always falling out tells you anything then no. The bit about how right in front of her mom when Corinna tells the interviewer that her late father never let her go to college and her mom interjects “you never wanted to go to college,” is perfect. Crafting your own narrative is nothing new for show people. And although the timing is cringe that’s what makes it so funny. Right after her father has died she decides is the perfect moment to launch her pr moves. Okay yes I feel sad and empathy for the Corinna character more than anyone else in the film though. She’s a bit one-dimensional but aren’t we all?
When Corinna gets her first show performing at a third-rate cabaret and she invites her mother and brother you have to see it coming way too soon that it’s gonna be way awkward sad humiliating. And it is. Billed as the Daughter of the Factory Murderer in front of an audience that includes her family is the final nail in the coffin of this sad story. Or it should have been. The whole final act with the communists and anarchists goes nowhere. And every time I rewatch Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven I’m never able to process or adapt to the ending. The footage is missing. Spoiler alert. And you get a series of text exposition and some stills as a conclusion. It’s so weird. If it was supposed to be one of those distancing Brechtian effect devices and the point was supposed to be a fuck you to us the audience then it worked.
Okay there is the ways this aftermath affects her kids that’s pretty good. For one just because anytime Fassbinder has a middle-aged or older parent with adult kids they’re always pieces of shit and that in itself is always funny the way he does it. So after Hermann Küsters’ death HELENE (Irm Hermann slay) has her whiny whipped husband (Frau Küsters’ son) move out because as Helene says, she's disgraced because the paper printed her picture in conjunction with her factory murderer late father in law.
But the real treat is the same inciting incident that causes one child to leave brings one back into Frau Küsters’ home. CORINNA COREN (Ingrid Caven) is really the only thing this movie’s got going for it if you ask me. As soon as Corinna hears of this scandalous incident and arrives, the journalist who’s made his way into Frau Küsters home to get the scoop all to himself (Gottfried John) points his camera at Corinna and she’s instantly this thirsty wanton slut opportunist who shamelessly exploits this window to advance her career for everything it’s worth. Why do I love this kind of soulless bloodsucker in Fassbinder?
Corinna is presciently timelessly then and now relevant as a depiction of a one-track mind narcissistic ambitious talentless sociopath desperate for the limelight. Is it too harsh to call her a slut? Well if the way her tit is always falling out tells you anything then no. The bit about how right in front of her mom when Corinna tells the interviewer that her late father never let her go to college and her mom interjects “you never wanted to go to college,” is perfect. Crafting your own narrative is nothing new for show people. And although the timing is cringe that’s what makes it so funny. Right after her father has died she decides is the perfect moment to launch her pr moves. Okay yes I feel sad and empathy for the Corinna character more than anyone else in the film though. She’s a bit one-dimensional but aren’t we all?
When Corinna gets her first show performing at a third-rate cabaret and she invites her mother and brother you have to see it coming way too soon that it’s gonna be way awkward sad humiliating. And it is. Billed as the Daughter of the Factory Murderer in front of an audience that includes her family is the final nail in the coffin of this sad story. Or it should have been. The whole final act with the communists and anarchists goes nowhere. And every time I rewatch Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven I’m never able to process or adapt to the ending. The footage is missing. Spoiler alert. And you get a series of text exposition and some stills as a conclusion. It’s so weird. If it was supposed to be one of those distancing Brechtian effect devices and the point was supposed to be a fuck you to us the audience then it worked.
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