Michael Ballhaus on The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
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Legendary German-born cinematographer Michael Ballhaus (Broadcast News, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas) broke through in film working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. After shooting Whity and Beware of a Holy Whore for the filmmaker, Ballhaus was enlisted to visualize The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, which would prove to be Fassbinder’s most stylish movie yet. In this excerpt from an interview on our new release of the film, Ballhaus talks about the influence of Douglas Sirk on its compositions and his occasionally combative on-set relationship with Fassbinder.
