| Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| Written by | Rainer Werner Fassbinder Kurt Raab Heinrich Zille |
| Starring | Brigitte Mira Ingrid Caven Karlheinz Böhm Margit Carstensen Armin Meier Irm Hermann |
| Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus |
| Edited by | Thea Eymesz |
| Music by | Peer Raben |
| Distributed by | Tango Film |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | West Germany |
| Language | German |
Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven (German:Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel) is a 1975 Germanfilm written and directed byRainer Werner Fassbinder. It starsBrigitte Mira,Ingrid Caven,Karlheinz Böhm andMargit Carstensen. The film was shot over 20 days between February and March 1975 inFrankfurt am Main.[1] The film drew on bothSirk-stylemelodramas and Weimar era workers' films to tell a political coming of age story.[2]
Emma Küsters, aworking-class woman, lives inFrankfurt with her son and daughter-in-law. While doing cottage industry work assembling electric plugs, Frau Küsters learns that her husband Hermann (atire-factory worker for twenty years) has killed his supervisor or his supervisor's son and then committed suicide. It later becomes apparent that Mr. Küsters had become temporarily insane after hearinglayoff announcements.
A group of reporters take advantage of the grieving Mother Küsters to sensationalize the deaths. Finding no solace from her son Ernst, daughter-in-law Helene, who promptly go on holiday, or daughter, Küsters turns to Karl and Marianne Thälmann, two members of what turns out to be theGerman Communist Party (DKP). They introduce themselves at Hermann's funeral, and invite her to their home, which Marianne had inherited.
The Communists see Küsters's husband as a 'revolutionary' and a misguided victim ofcapitalism, but she is initially unpersuaded; her husband saw communists as troublemakers. Her daughter Corinna advises her mother to have nothing to do with them, and points out the differing conditions enjoyed by the authorities and the people in theEast. An article on the tragedy by Niemeyer, a photojournalist who had earlier shown a particular interest in the family, appears in a magazine. Emma finds the article objectionable, but her daughter, who has embarked on an affair with Niemeyer, defends him on 'earning a living' grounds. At the factory, Emma Küsters finds that the company pension scheme will not apply in her case; theworkers' council and the company board are at one on the issue. Her daughter leaves, and Ernst and Helene, newly returned from holiday, announce they are to set up home on their own. Helene, expecting a child, does not get along with her sister-in-law.
Emma Küsters now joins the Communist Party, having found Karl's newspaper article more sympathetic, but after Küsters speaks at her first DKP political gathering she meets a young male paper seller who claims toreally have her interests at heart in clearing her husband's name. He gives her his contact details. She quickly grows impatient with the communists' passive tactics; they have to campaign in the forthcoming elections, Karl explains. She connects with a small group ofanarchists, who, though even smaller in number than the communists, claim to have more spirit.
There are two endings to the film:
Fassbinder's film criticizes the bloodthirst of the 1970s Germanmedia in a similar manner toThe Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (directed byVolker Schlöndorff andMargarethe von Trotta). However, Fassbinder's film goes further by criticizing the overwhelming selfishness present in contemporary society. Nearly everyone who Mother Küsters encounters is self-serving and unconcerned with comforting her. Fassbinder also clearly criticizes the smallGerman Communist Party's moderation and "armchair activism".