Some great acting but not much drama per se in Fassbinder's Petra van Kant

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1972 film, The Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant, feels much like an intense psychodrama - and in fact I was not surprised to see in a note that it was initially a play - as it has a tight cast of characters (6 think, but only three play major roles and one of the three has a silent omnipresence) - but it's amazing how much topical variety and abundance RWF accomplishes in this film. Although there's only one setting - Petra's studio apartment - the decor is so odd and rich that we're constantly getting new and different perspectives on the characters and the (limited) action; especially notable is the wall-sized blowup of a baroque painting that seemingly depicts a male orgy (also notable, the various female nude figurines used as bodies for fashion shoots). The plot such as it is involves the eponymous Petra (Margit Carstensen, in the performance of a lifetime) who is middle-aged, divorced or widowed, desperately trying to look younger (several wigs throughout), trying to break into the fashion industry (with some success, as it happens), seriously alcoholic, who begins a lesbian relationship with a young woman (Karin) of tragic background (parents dead in murder suicide), played well by Hanna Schygulla, and the maidservant, a silent Irm Herman in some kind of love-triangle. From the start, we dislike Petra, in particular as we see her rail at her hapless servant - whom we also does a lot of the technical fashion-display work (painting images, draping clothing) for Petra, while receiving no credit and being verbally abused and humiliated. Over the course of the film, Petra's relationship w/ Karin breaks apart - Karin tosses Petra aside as soon as a better option becomes available; we hate her - but we hate Petra even more. There's a long tradition of "Petras" in opera and drama, middle-aged women involved with a much younger love and tragically aware that time is not in their favor (see for ex. Die Rosenkavalier) - but usually the older woman is the one with whom we sympathize; not here. I was surprised to learn that RWF was inspired by the melodramatic films of Sirk as he composed this (and some other) films; I see the lavish 50s look of Sirk throughout the film for sure, but I don't at all see the melodrama. In fact, there's no drama per se: The characters to not evolve, there is no collision of forces, no dramatic turnaround, just a gradual dissolution into drink and invective and violence, foreshadowed from the outset and leading to the inevitable (though I won't divulge the specifics) conclusion.