Fraulein was also made for television, but this didn;t stop Haneke shooting it in black & white and 35 mm film. Scriptwriter Bernd Schroeder was inspired by a true story about Johanna, the owner of a cinema in a small town in the Ruhr Valley. During and soon after the war, she brings up her two children alone; her husband, an architect, has been taken prisoner by the Russians. In his absence Johanna has a relationship with the French labourer and fairground wrestler André. Ten years after the war, her husband returns as a broken man. She still has to look after herself, but now has a sombre and frustrated husband to care for. Her desire drives her to France, in search of André.îFraulein displays great feeling for melodrama. The comparison with Fassbinder is obvious, but Haneke wanted to challenge the mythical image of strong and lonely women which is sketched in the former’s work.
