TONIGHT’S FilmClub screening at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg is Veronika Voss, directed Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Although it is not the most famous (that honour goes to The Marriage of Maria Braun), many people think Veronika Voss is the high point of Fassbinder’s BRD trilogy, a set of three films examining life in West Germany’s postwar boom.

Fassbinder, the enfant terrible of new German Cinema, has tended to divide opinion with many finding him somewhat strident in his criticism of emerging German prosperity. But this is not really accurate since the criticisms he does indeed make are always fused with a deep humanism that owes much of its force to his ability to use a striking combination of music and image to generate empathy in the audience.

The eponymous character in this movie is modelled after Sybille Schmitz, a celebrated European actress from the silent era who was, for a while, co-opted into Goebbels’ Nazi propaganda machine. Now, of course, she finds herself compromised and, what is worse, her talents are fading.

The story is told through the eyes of a sport journalist who accidently meets and soon becomes increasingly fascinated by her.

And, true to Fassbinder’s mastery of his cinematic resources, the film culminates with an absolutely remarkable – and remarkably moving – scene in which, as her final farewell, Veronika sings Memories Are Made of This, the 1950s hit song that proved even more popular in Germany than it was in the United States.

The screening takes place at 7 pm. As usual, entry is R35 per person and The Tatham Coffee shop will be offering a soup and bread supper from 6 pm onwards (at a very reasonable R30 per person). Safe parking is available in the government parking lot next to the gallery.