BRD Trilogy: Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Disc 1: The Marriage of Maria Braun (Criterion) (1979) Rating: Starring: Hanna Schygulla Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder Category: Drama, Foreign Studio: Criterion Subtitles: English Length: 120 mins     New digital transfer with restored image and sound. By age of thirty four, German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder had already directed twenty-two feature films. In 1978, he embarked upon a project to trace the history of postwar Germany in a series of films told through the eyes of three remarkable women. Fassbinder's three films The Marriage Of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss and Lola-the BRD (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) Trilogy-would garner him the international acclaim for which he had always yearned and place his name foremost in the canon of New German Cinema. The Criterion Collection is proud to present these films for the first time ever on home video. Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla) uses her beauty and ambition to prosper during Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s. Fassbinder's biggest international box-office success, The Marriage of Maria Braun is a heartbreaking study of a woman picking herself up from the ruins of her own life, as well as a metaphorical attack on a society determined to forget its past.