Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven

A great movie about cynicism, gullibility and the exploitability of loss. As usual Fassbinder uses the minimalism, stylishness and stageyness of a soap-opera to convey something deep and complex more tangibly. Here and there he exaggerates and makes it too contrived for its own good, but not so much as to ruin this excellent movie.

Both endings have value - I prefer the American version.

Arguably somewhat minor Fassbinder perhaps, but whatever it's flaws there's still a lot to admire here. Although he would go on to explore similar themes with more complexity in The Third Generation, as something of a contrarian leftist myself I can't help but appreciate his attacks on political hypocrisy, as much as he's generally not the most nuanced or subtle polemicist. Never the greatest with endings, two alternate versions are included here, and neither of them feel completely satisfying.

good movie

Goddamn, Rainer... thanks a lot.

About a 72 for the American ending, far too saccharine for my liking. Acting a bit wooden in general.