The two German-language films in this edition of “Movies You Might Have Missed” each feature an ex-con and a prostitute trying to escape to a better life while also touching on universal existential themes. The stories are very different, but both movies are outstanding.
The Austrian film, Revanche (2008) may not be full of as much action as one might expect from the name, which is French for “revenge,” but it will keep you glued to the screen. The movie is a meditation on themes often seen in film noir movies of loss, connections among humans, revenge, and redemption. Ex-con Alex, played by Johannes Krisch, comes up with a plan so he and his prostitute girlfriend Tamara, played by Irina Potapenko, may escape to better lives. But some bad luck leaves Alex and a police officer fighting their own demons as they struggle to continue living in the face of tragedy.
Revanche shows the existential struggles of every-day life — chores like chopping wood and going to the grocery story — while raising questions about who we can blame for our life’s misfortunes. The Austrian film, directed by Götz Spielmann, is in German with subtitles and was nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. DVDTown has a longer review.
I recently watched Werner Herzog’s Stroszek (1977), about an ex-con, a prostitute, and an elderly man who leave their troubles in Germany to make a new life in Wisconsin. Well, that is the nutshell description but it does not capture this poetic existential tale of human existence. Even Herzog notes in the commentary that he does not fully understand the symbolism of a scene with a dancing chicken, but he claims it may be the best segment he has ever filmed. And that is from the guy who filmed the ending of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) with the monkeys.
Will you be blown away by Stroszek? Maybe not, but what I loved about the movie was that the next day after watching the movie, I could not stop thinking about it. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an amazing 100% rating from critics (and 92% audience rating). If you want to read more about the film, including some of the background behind the film and Bruno S. (who played Stroszek), check out Roger Ebert’s review. The official trailer tells too much of the story in a 1970s kind of way, so instead I am including a fan’s montage of scenes from the movie with Radiohead’s “No Suprises.”
{Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they did not receive the recognition they deserved when released.}
(Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)
(2010) — released on DVD this month — are different but haunting in a similar way. So that after watching it, I felt like I had not breathed for the entire 88 minutes running time. Yael Hersonski’s documentary examines an unfinished Nazi propaganda film taken of the Warsaw Ghetto in May 1942, a few months before the people there started being sent to the Treblinka extermination camp. Although that uncompleted propaganda film, called “Das Ghetto,” was found soon after the end of World War II, another film of outtakes found in 1998 revealed how much of the propaganda film was staged. The Nazis made the Jewish people in the film participate in staged scenes to highlight a contrast between the poor and those who appeared to be more affluent.