15 Essential Movies For LGBT* Pride Month

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant chronicles the evolving state of mind of its titular character from entirely within the confines of her apartment, each act signified by the different wig she dons as she falls in and out of love with the women in her life.

Of all the directors of the New German Cinema movement, which began in the late 1960s and included Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog, Fassbinder was the one most concerned with the intimate details of human relationships, his films often exploring the shifting dynamics between people on the edge of society. With The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant he delivered one of his most searing character studies; a theatrical melodrama examining narcissistic love and self-awareness (or lack thereof).

It's a showcase for some of Fassbinder's regular female actors, including Margit Carstenesen, Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann, who occupy the claustrophobic confines of the apartment which Fassbinder shoots with an imaginative array of subtly complex staging and blocking.