The Young One and Martha

Eroticism is a diabolic pleasure that is related to death and rotting flesh.

- Luis Buñuel

I detest the idea that love between two persons can lead to salvation. All my life I have fought against this oppressive type of relationship. Instead, I believe in searching for a kind of love that somehow involves all of humanity.

- Rainer Werner Fassbinder

The Young One (Luis Buñuel, 1960)

Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)

A theme often implicit in Buñuel becomes overt in Fassbinder, for whom it is the principle consideration of all his major work (as a queer artist with a big public profile and also just as a particular individual person): the power politics of human relationships obey no hard and fast rules, and no matter what your sexuation/gender or race/ethnicity, you will find people for yourself to oppress and you will likewise find people eager to hurt, belittle, and diminish you, sometimes almost as though they are doing these things out of custom and decorum. If you watch Martha with special attention to details of actorly business, it can very quickly begin to seem like Margit Carstensen's Martha is unconsciously courting abuse from Karlheinz Böhm's Helmut, who may actually believe that he is supplying her with the kind of love she requires.      

See you at the top, gumdrop.

- Bernie Hamilton in The Young One