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Poster for Effi Briest

Effi Briest

1974 · 2h 21m · Not Rated Drama, History
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

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Overview

When 17-year-old Effi Briest marries the elderly Baron von Instetten, she moves to a small, isolated Baltic town and a house that she fears is haunted. Starved for companionship, Effi begins a friendship with Major Crampas, a charismatic womanizer.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
73%
Tomatometer
Fresh

It's visually beguiling -- its cameramen having found shades of gray between black and white I'm not sure I've seen before -- and it is performed by the Fassbinder stock company with the precision and style one seldom finds outside the legitimate theater.

Vincent Canby, New York Times
Fresh

The slow, deliberate pace is sometimes taxing, but this story of a 16-year-old girl locked in the boredom of a loveless marriage is perfectly suited to Fassbinder's stifling mise-en-scene.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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