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
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Wüllersdorf
- (as Karl-Heinz Böhm)
- Frau Pasche
- (as Anndorthe Braker)
- Apotheker Gieshübler
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
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)...
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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.
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.
Did you know
- TriviaThe 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.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Century of Cinema: Die Nacht der Regisseure (1995)
- SoundtracksHavanaise in E major, Op. 83
Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns
- How long is Effi Briest?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- DEM 750,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $8,144
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $11,623
- Feb 16, 2003
- Gross worldwide
- $8,158
- Runtime2 hours 15 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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