"Yella," from German writer/director Christian Petzold, is one of the most unusual and unique films I've ever seen. It has an aesthetic that really is one of a kind. Even the title is strange. The whole look and feel were so new, that it was revitalizing, like a new cinematic approach was being born. The story also
had some fascinating and innovative dimensions that knocked my socks off. But unfortunately the story also had some hackneyed qualities, especially the ridiculously cliche ending. It's amazing to me that a ferociously innovative story would end on such a clumsily cliche note. I also felt bored through quite a number of passages. Tighter editing would have helped. It was sad to me that a film with some truly masterpiece moments also was bogged down with some long-winded and repetitious sequences. But how often do you see a film that even has one masterpiece moment? "Yella" had about 10. "Yella" also has the spine-tingling actress Nina Hoss. Wow, where did this woman come from? She's almost as spectacular as Asia Argento, that other European lioness of film acting today. While ultimately I would put Argento ahead of Hoss, there's something Hoss has that Argento lacks. That's an intellectual consciousness. Argento is pure instinct. Hoss is instinct harnessed by mind. She knows what she's doing in a way that gave me shivers. Hoss most definitely is an actress to watch, and Petzold is a major filmmaker bursting forth with cinematic ideas. I'm thrilled that I got the opportunity to see one of his films, and I wait with bated breath to see what he does next. The storyline is difficult to talk about without giving away the twist ending, which I'm loath to do in a review. I'll just say that the film is a meditation on the struggles of the East Germans to join the capitalist order. That's at least what I believe it is mostly concerned with. I'm not absolutely sure the characters are from the east, because the film doesn't make it absolutely clear. But I'm pretty sure they are. At the center of the film is a woman named Yella. I've never heard of that name before. Is it a common German name? It sounded almost Gypsy to me. Or a Russian nickname. In any case, this woman named Yella (played by Hoss) is struggling to establish herself as an accountant, and jobs appear to be very hard to come by. Her job search has an almost Alice in Wonderland quality to it. She's lost in a world beyond the looking glass, so foreign are the ways of business to her. But the film has no comic dimension. Her struggles are depicted brutally. It's a painful film, especially given Hoss's remarkable ability to make you identify with her character. When she experiences heartbreak, it's truly excruciating to watch. And she gets it in spades.
May 22, 2008
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