Inspired by both his own experiences as a gay man and Joseph L Mankiewicz's All about Eve, this is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's tribute to the Hollywood "woman's picture". Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen) plays the fashion designer who embarks on a stormy lesbian affair with her model Hanna Schygulla. Fassbinder shows the classic relationship issues of dominance, submission and jealousy are just as prevalent in homosexual affairs as straight ones. The production is heavily stylised, but such is the elegance of the gliding camerawork and the symbolic kitsch of the furnishings that the action never feels stagey. Expertly played, this is soap par excellence.

Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marlene (her secretary, maid, and co-designer). Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in.