A.K.A. The Longing of Veronika Voss
She is big. It's the pictures that got small.
Veronika Voss is about a washed-up actress who is desperately trying to cling to her ever-decreasing relevance, and is slowly being driven insane in the process. It's basically the German Sunset Boulevard (which is to say that it's heavier on experimentation and lighter on humour), with huge emotions and striking visuals to match. In particular, I love those sterile white environments, which coldly and clinically reflect this poor woman's controlled state of mind.
Unlike Sunset Boulevard, though, the movie's not quite as focused, tonally or narratively, as I'd like. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (maybe the most German name I've ever heard) has a lot of interesting ideas, but many of them seem to get slightly lost in the shuffle, especially the ones regarding love and addiction. And while the subplot with the evil doctor is easily the most compelling conflict in the movie, it's so cartoonish and over-the-top that I'm not sure how well it gels with everything else.
Still, it all works on a stylistic level (the use of lighting here is fantastic), and most of it works on an emotional level. Whatever issues I have with this one, there's a sad cruelness to it that's likely to stick with me.
Grade: B
P.S. This is the last place I expected to hear "The Battle of New Orleans". It really works, though, in an unusual, almost nightmarish kinda way.
No comments:
Post a Comment