"Effi Briest"
1974
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Fassbinder's masterpiece is the German Madame Bovary. Hanna Schygulla plays the inexperienced, beautiful and naive woman who marries a much older Prussian diplomat, falls prey to a charming, shrewd womanizer, and suffers the consequences of an unforgiving society. Beautifully shot in black and white with elegant framing, the film is both a very accurate adaptation of the novel by Theodor Fontane, and a critical re-analysis. With Wolfgang Schenck and Ulli Lommel. German with English subtitles.  140 minutes.