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Effi Briest

Original title: Fontane Effi Briest
  • 1974
  • Not Rated
  • 2h 15m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
2.9K
YOUR RATING
Effi Briest (1974)
DramaHistory

17-year-old Effi Briest is forced into a loveless marriage with the elderly Baron von Instetten. Living as the aristocrat's trophy wife, Effi endures her provincial existence unhappily. Beca... Read all17-year-old Effi Briest is forced into a loveless marriage with the elderly Baron von Instetten. Living as the aristocrat's trophy wife, Effi endures her provincial existence unhappily. Because of her husband's constant traveling.17-year-old Effi Briest is forced into a loveless marriage with the elderly Baron von Instetten. Living as the aristocrat's trophy wife, Effi endures her provincial existence unhappily. Because of her husband's constant traveling.

  • Director
    • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
  • Writers
    • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Theodor Fontane
  • Stars
    • Hanna Schygulla
    • Wolfgang Schenck
    • Ulli Lommel
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.9/10
    2.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Writers
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
      • Theodor Fontane
    • Stars
      • Hanna Schygulla
      • Wolfgang Schenck
      • Ulli Lommel
    • 16User reviews
    • 27Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 1 nomination total

    Photos80

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    Top cast19

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    Hanna Schygulla
    Hanna Schygulla
    • Effi Briest
    Wolfgang Schenck
    Wolfgang Schenck
    • Instetten
    Ulli Lommel
    Ulli Lommel
    • Major Crampas
    Karlheinz Böhm
    Karlheinz Böhm
    • Wüllersdorf
    • (as Karl-Heinz Böhm)
    Lilo Pempeit
    • Frau Briest
    Herbert Steinmetz
    • Herr Briest
    Ursula Strätz
    • Roswitha
    Irm Hermann
    Irm Hermann
    • Johanna
    Karl Scheydt
    Karl Scheydt
    • Kruse
    Barbara Lass
    Barbara Lass
    • Polnische Köchin
    Rudolf Lenz
    Rudolf Lenz
    • Geheimrat Rummschüttel
    Andrea Schober
    Andrea Schober
    • Annie von Instetten
    Eva Mattes
    Eva Mattes
    • Hulda
    Theo Tecklenburg
    • Pastor Niemeyer
    An Dorthe Braker
    • Frau Pasche
    • (as Anndorthe Braker)
    Peter Gauhe
    Peter Gauhe
    • Vetter Dagobert
    Barbara Valentin
    Barbara Valentin
    • Marietta Tripelli
    Hark Bohm
    Hark Bohm
    • Apotheker Gieshübler
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    • Writers
      • Rainer Werner Fassbinder
      • Theodor Fontane
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews16

    6.92.8K
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    Featured reviews

    ans-2

    deep movie

    a highly philosophical, political, deep, beautiful masterpiece of Fontane, reiterated by Fassbinder. I believe that Fassbinder chose this book because it's reflects his own story of "Angst", in his case, the guilt that if we know the mistakes of our society but still hesitate to rebel.this movie, as most Fassbinder titles is no superficial hollywood entertainment, it made me think.
    8lasttimeisaw

    EFFI BRIEST is definitely worth one's time even if evanescent frustration might bob up intermittently due to its unconventional narratology

    Theatrical rigidity becomes part and parcel of R.W. Fassbinder's fetchingly monochromatic period drama, an adaptation of Theodor Fontane's novel, EFFI BRIEST, predominantly accompanied by its own author's ur-texts in voiceover, narration or title cards, stars Hanna Schygulla as our titular heroine, a Prussian young girl consents to the marriage proposal of Baron Geert von Instetten (Schenck), a former suitor of her mother Louise (Pempeit), out of a desire for prestige, although she is only 18, and her husband is over twice of her age.

    Fassbinder stridently retains its source novel's poetic realism through the film's gorgeous costumes, furnitures and a repressive air of solemnity, a matter-of-factness in probing into Effi and Geert's turbulent and unbalanced marriage, wherein a trophy wife's seemingly perfect life is under constant gaslighting and doctrinaire manipulation from her haughty husband, and Fassbinder counterintuitively keeps a perverse remove from key incidents, totally relies on wording to elucidate thoughts and relentless long takes to consistently test audience's patience, it is a bold move, but on the strength of the picture's uncannily stylish compositions (mirrors and doors are key partitions to transmit the despondent feeling of alienation, detachment, even cruelty)...

    continue reading my review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks
    6zetes

    I feel exactly the opposite way of this film's first commentator below

    I did not find Fassbinder's filmmaking static and boring. I found it brash and exciting. His style is superb. HOWEVER, I have to say that I found the story, with which I am unfamiliar, incredibly bland. How many 19th and early 20th Century novels have this exact same plot? It's the simplistic "fallen wife" scenario without a spark of invention, it seems to me. In that way, I could not stand this film and was trying hard not to pass out. However, Fassbinder's miraculous filmmaking, cinematography, mise-en-scene, direction, music, even the acting, kept me at least interested. I give it a 6/10.
    10hasosch

    The Calculus of Fear

    One the tablets used by Fassbinder in this movie (the same method he shall use 6 years later in "Berlin Alexanerplatz") shows the text: "He put her under pressure wherever he could. So-to-say a calculus of fear" (Fontane). As any other calculi, also the calculus of fear consists of theorems. Speaking about the relationship between Von Instetten and Effi, we have: 1. Never treat her without menacing, but do not show the menace open, so that you can deny it after. 2. Isolate her from society, best make her a child as soon as possible so that she does not get bored. 3. Never praise her for what she is doing, unless in the presence of foreigners. 4. Praise her in front of her parents with whom you should establish a good friendship. If she is complaining later about her marriage, the guilt will be given to her.

    As the sub-title of the movie says (the longest ever used in a movie): The movie is about those people who are capable to see the unjustness of social rules but don't help changing them, and by doing so, confirm them. "Effi Briest" is therefore a typical Fassbinder movie which he liked to call "melodramas" and thus also a predecessor of his later "women-movies" about Maria Braun, Lola, Lili Marleen and Veronika Voss.

    That this film is an outstanding masterpiece has nowadays been recognized by all leading film experts around the world. Although Fassbinder let himself sometimes inspire by works of literature, Fontane's "Effi Briest" is one of his only three explicit literature adaptations, besides "Berlin Alexanderplatz" and "Querelle". One could perhaps go as far and say: While in "Effi Briest", society is criticized at the hand of one single, individual fate, in "Berlin Alexanderplatz" a society as a whole is put in the pillory, and in "Querelle" a possible alternative world after all the disgust is shown. Fassbinder made this long way in societal criticism in only eight years, during which he approached the society of the time in which he lived, by systematically coming closer to reach the 50ies of the 20th century (Lola). His movies can be seen as chronicles of different means of suppression by using calculi which turn out to be independent of time.
    7gavin6942

    Fassbinder!

    In the nineteenth century, seventeen year old Effi Briest is married to the older Baron von Instetten and moves into a house, that she believes has a ghost, in a small isolated Baltic town.

    Similarities between "Effi Briest" and 20th-century Germany were easily found, helping to explain the popularity of the book and its subsequent film adaptions there. During the 1970s, West Germany was being racked by civil unrest as people sought to effect change, among these movements was the women's civil rights movement, which became a major influence for the film, as it compared the repressive nature in society between 19th century Prussia and 1970s West Germany.

    Fassbinder is one of the giants of new German cinema (by "new" I mean post-WWII), and here he demonstrates his prowess. Epic in length, using black and white to its fullest extent... this is one of those films that made him great, even if it may not be the most-remembered of Fassbinder films.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The complete title of the film is one of the longest titles (if not the longest) in film history: "Fontane Effi Briest oder viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und ihren Bedürfnissen und trotzdem das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen"
    • Quotes

      Effi Briest: One's associations are connected not only with one's personal experiences, but also with what one has heard or happens to know.

    • Connections
      Featured in Century of Cinema: Die Nacht der Regisseure (1995)
    • Soundtracks
      Havanaise in E major, Op. 83
      Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns

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    FAQ18

    • How long is Effi Briest?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 16, 1977 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • West Germany
    • Language
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Fontane Effi Briest
    • Filming locations
      • Neustadt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
    • Production company
      • Tango Film
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • DEM 750,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $8,144
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $11,623
      • Feb 16, 2003
    • Gross worldwide
      • $8,158
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 15 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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