Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 17, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Arrow's The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection: Volume 3.

Arrow has been curating interesting collections of Rainer Werner Fassbinder films courtesy of both The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection: Volume 1 and The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection: Volume 2, and now with this latest third volume. The first two editions offered some of Fassbinder's better known efforts like The Marriage of Maria Braun and The Merchant of Four Seasons, and while this third collection offers titles that will no doubt be known by Fassbinder aficionados, it might present more "cult"-ish productions.

If you've ever watched a cable news channel where some victim of a recent tragedy is interviewed, and you can't help but think the whole thing is being done merely for exploitational purposes, there are elements of Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven that should certainly strike a rather resonant chord with you. Emma Küsters (Brigitte Mira) is a working class housewife in Frankfurt who is horrified to discover her husband, a longtime factory worker, has killed people at his workplace and then taken his own life. Suddenly Emma finds herself at the center of a scandal that she doesn't want any part of, a situation that is exacerbated when she becomes a pawn of sorts for a scheming couple who belong to the Communist party, and who see her husband's act as what might be called an individual act of socioeconomic revolution. This is Fassbinder at his most darkly provocative, and it's salient to note that this film was met with approbation by both perceived conservatives and liberals in Germany, something that might actually make it even more appealing for those who feel they have "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right" and are "stuck in the middle". The supplements include an alternate American ending, which completely upends the story and requires a "reinterpretation" of the film's very title.

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Arrow's insert booklet groups the films together in its informational verbiage about the restorations, as follows:

All films are presented in their original aspect ratios of 1.37:1* with mono sound. The restorations for The American Soldier, Gods of the Plague, Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven and Satan's Brew were produced and provided by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation from original 35mm camera negatives scanned on an Arriscan film scanner at Arri Media GmbH in Munich. The Niklahausen Journey, Rio das Mortes and Fear of Fear were originally made for television, with restorations produced and provided by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation from original 16mm camera negatives, and are presented in standard definition.

*See individual reviews, since not all aspect ratios are actually 1.37:1.

This is another really nice looking transfer in the third volume of Fassbinder offerings. Detail levels are generally excellent, and some of the close-ups in particular really offer great precision in everything from facial features to textures on clothing. The palette is overall quite robust and pleasing, but it just struck my eyes as being a tad on the yellow side at times, something that can give a bit of a jaundiced undertone. A few (relatively short) scenes in dim or nearly no light have some more pronounced grain and not much shadow detail. Otherwise, though, grain is really nicely resolved and the entire presentation has a very pleasingly healthy appearance.

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven features an LPCM Mono track in the original German. While there is scoring (by Peer Raben) and a perhaps unexpectedly fulsome amount of ambient environmental effects, this is another "talk fest", and as such the mono track provides more than capable support for an effective but frankly unambitious sound design. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven and Fear of Fear together on one disc, with the following supplements:

• Commentary by critic Olaf Möller on Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven


• Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven Alternate Ending (HD; 11:04) is from the U.S. version.


• Renate Leiffer: Working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Part One (HD; 31:38) focuses on Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven. Subtitled in English.


• Renate Leiffer: Working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Part Two (HD; 24:17) focuses on Fear of Fear. Subtitled in English.
• Slow Days: Asta Scheib on Fear of Fear (HD; 22:16) is subtitled in English.


• Play It Again, Rainer! Fassbinder's Musical Obsessions (HD; 20:57) is an interesting visual essay by Margaret Deriaz.


• Image Gallery

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fassbinder can admittedly probably be more than a little off putting for some when he's on his own particular soapbox, but Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven is rather sly in its deconstruction of political skirmishes, using Emma as a stand in for everyday people who often feel like their pawns in their own life story. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very enjoyable.