Editing Rainer Werner Fassbinder (section)

====''Martha'' (1974)====
Fassbinder's main characters tend to be naifs, either men or women, who are rudely, sometimes murderously, disabused of their romantic illusions. Shot on 16mm film and made for television, ''[[Martha (1974 film)|Martha]]'' (1974) is a melodrama about cruelty in a traditional marriage.

The plot focuses on the title character, a spinster librarian. Soon after the death of her father while on vacation in [[Rome]], Martha meets a wealthy civil engineer, who sweeps her off her feet. They encounter each other again at a wedding in her hometown of [[Konstanz (district)|Constance]] and soon marry. However, their married life becomes an exercise for her husband to express his sadism and for Martha to endure her masochism. Her husband shows his desire for her violently, leaving marks on her body. He obsessively controls her life, her diet, her taste in music and her interests, until she is confined to their house. Martha's initially positive wish to be liked by her oppressive and abusive husband pushes her to such an extreme that she becomes deranged, leading to her own permanent physical paralysis.